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September 12, 2007
Unetaneh Tokef
A post from last year's Yamim Noraim series.
Rosh Hashanah starts this evening, and once again we wrestle with the thorny theology of Unetaneh Tokef. It reverberates in our hearts throughout the 10 days of teshuvah, and we also recite it on Yom Kippur.
Leonard Cohen - scion of rabbis - reworked this prayer as a somber bluesey number, here in a live jazzy interpretation with long sax solos by Solly Rollins:
Paul links to two scholarly articles on the real history of the piyyut as opposed to the legend, and some liguistic investigation which supports a modification of its apparent theology.
Rachel teases out more subtle readings than seemingly linear cause and effect, through poetic interpretation:
Think about how your transformations and changes will happen in the coming year: will they be stormy or tranquil? Raging like fire, or gentle like water on stone? Will your choices make you feel deadened, or enlivened? Will your changes weigh you down, or lift you up? And how could the trio of prayer (the service of the heart), repentance (truly turning yourself toward the Source of All) and righteousness (right action, walking in right paths, acting in ways that align you with the Most High) change the way you experience the coming year?
RELATED: A Jewish woman marks her losses, referring to the lyrics of "Who By Fire?"
Last year, on the day before Rosh HaShanah, my son came home from school in the middle of the afternoon because his classmate, a popular, smart and talented young man, had died. While unclear at first what had transpired, it turned out that he had taken his own life. “Who by his own hand?”In November, I sat with my dear friend Sharon in her apartment. Ravaged by ovarian cancer, her face was sunken in, her mouth and teeth seemingly too large for her tiny face. “Who by very slow decay?”
. . . . On a cold day in January, my nephew Phillip’s body rested against white satin pillows in a coffin on view in Jasper, Ind. Posters containing photographs of Phillip were scattered throughout: Phillip in the swimming pool, pretending to be a shark; Phillip with a broad grin … holding a baby … doing the Macarena at my son’s bar mitzvah. He had been killed in a car accident a few miles from home the Saturday before. Not wearing a seat belt, he was thrown from car, landing in the only stream of water for miles around, face down. “Who by water… Who by accident?”
Judith | 09/12/07 at 12:11 PM | Categories: - Yamim Noraim
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Comments
Thanks for this post, Judith; I'm glad my words about Unetaneh Tokef still resonate for you.
Wishing you a sweet new year!
Rachel | September 12, 2007 04:41 PM
Really nice. What an interpretation of Unetaneh Tokef! Thanks Judith. and Shana Tova.
Rona | September 14, 2007 12:08 AM
