The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart for the Jewish High Holiday Season

Introduction

66 ∂ WindoW, bird, sky Introduction This section provides readings for the period of time from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur.* The Daily Psalms offered here, along with the accompanying Directions of the Heart, are intended to support quiet openness and inner reflection. The Daily Psalm, Shir Shel Yom—literally, “poem [or song]oftheday”—borrowsitsnamefromoneoftheearliest elements of the morning service. In the time of the Temple, the Levites assigned each day of the week its own biblical psalm, imparting the weekdays with individual identities in the context of an otherwise uniform service. Similarly, in the sequence provided here, each of the Ten Days of Returning is given a lyric poem with a unique focus. The Direction of the Heart, Kavanat Haleyv, derives its name and function from the rabbinic concept of “directing the heart” in prayer. For the rabbis of the Talmud, kavanah —literally, “direction” or “intention”—was an essential aspect of authentic praying. Although they saw a need for fixed elements in the liturgy, the rabbis considered a full engaging of heart and mind to be equally important. Inpost-talmudictimes,thewordkavanahdevelopedasecond liturgical usage. The kabbalists composed introductory passages to highlight mystical meanings in the prayers, calling theircompositions kavanot (plural of kavanah).The two meanings of kavanah—personal intentionalityand a passage providing a focus for prayer—converge here in the genre of prose meditation: kavanat haleyv, “direction of the heart.” The sequence is preceded byan introductory meditation. *The inclusion of special readings for the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur takes as its precedent the s’liḥot prayers (petitions for forgiveness) that are traditionally recited daily during this period. ...