U’Netaneh Tokef (ונתנה תקף)

U’Netaneh Tokef is one of the most famous, awe-inspiring pieces of High Holy Days liturgy. It reminds us of the fragility of life and how we never know when our time might be up.

We shall ascribe holiness to this day, for it is awesome and terrible. Your kingship is exalted upon it. Your throne is established in mercy. You are enthroned upon it in truth.

In truth, you are the judge, the exhorter, the all-knowing, the witness, he who inscribes and seals, remembering all that is forgotten. You open the book of remembrance which proclaims itself, and the seal of each person is there.

A still small voice is heard. The angels are dismayed, they are seized by fear and trembling as they proclaim: Behold the Day of Judgment! For all the hosts of heaven are brought for judgment. They shall not be guiltless in your eyes, and all creatures shall parade before you as a troop. As a shepherd herds his flock, causing his sheep to pass beneath his staff, so do you cause to pass, count, and record, visiting the souls of all living, decreeing the length of their days, inscribing their judgment.

On Rosh Hashanah it is written; on Yom Kippur it is sealed.

How many shall pass away and how many shall be born, who shall live and who shall die, who in the fullness of years and who before, who shall perish by water and who by fire, who by sword and who by beast, who by famine and who by thirst, who by earthquake and who by plague, who by strangulation and who by stoning, who shall have rest and who shall wander, who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued, who shall be at rest and who shall be tormented, who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low, who shall become rich and who shall be impoverished.

But teshuvah [repentance], and tefilah [prayer], and tzedakah [charity] avert the severe decree.

For your praise is in accordance with your name. You are difficult to anger and easy to appease, for you do not desire the death of the condemned, but that we turn from our path and live. Until the day of our death, you wait for us. Should we turn, you will receive us at once. In truth, you are our Creator, and you understand our inclination, for we are but flesh and blood.

Our origin is dust, our end is dust. We earn our bread by exertion and are like a broken shard, like dry grass, a withered flower, like a passing shadow and a vanishing cloud, like the breeze that blows away and dust that scatters, like the dream that flies away. But you are King, God who lives for all eternity! There is no limit to your years, no end to the length of your days, no measure to the hosts of your glory, no understanding the meaning of your name. Your name is fitting unto you and you are fitting unto it, and our name has been called by your name. Act for the sake of your name and sanctify your name through those who sanctify your name.

Traditional Orthodox Machzorim (High Holy Days prayerbooks) use the very old-fashioned translation “lapidation” for the word “stoning.” The only reason I know what that word means is because of the connection to “lapidary,” a popular type of Medieval book describing the believed medical and mystical properties of gems.

The last paragraph reminds me very much of the lyrics of “All Things Must Pass.” Ultimately, we’re nothing more dust that scatters in the wind, the dream that flies away, sunrise that fades away in the morning, a cloudburst that doesn’t last all day.

An apocryphal story persists that it was written in 11th century Germany by Rabbi Amnon of Mainz, who refused his friend the archbishop’s request to convert to Christianity and subsequently had all his limbs cut off. Rabbi Amnon was carried into the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, as he was dying, and recited U’Netaneh Tokef with his final breath. Three days later, he appeared to Rabbi Kalonymus ben Meshullam in a dream and imparted the words of the haunting prayer.

Contemporary scholarship, however, reveals it probably was written several centuries earlier in Israel, and that there’s no other record of Rabbi Amnon. Wouldn’t such a great scholar be written about in more than a single legend?

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Some modern non-Orthodox rabbis have gotten creative with the “Who shall live and who shall die?” section, adding new categories related to current events.