Among the numerous prayers recited in synagogues on the High Holidays, few have the impact of “U’netaneh Tokef” (“Let us now relate the power…of this day’s holiness”). The chazan and the congregation alternately chant the refrain that “on Rosh Hashanah our yearly fortune is inscribed, and sealed on Yom Kippur.” In the prayer we ask Hashem rhetorically among other things: “Who shall live and who shall die, who in his time and who in untimely fashion?”
The origins of this prayer are well known. Supposedly, Rabbi Amnon of Mainz was brutally assaulted by the Bishop of Mainz for failing to appear in a timely fashion for a disputation between the Bishop and the Rabbi and for failing to convert to Christianity as the Bishop, his former friend, commanded. Rabbi Amnon died as a Jew while publicly reciting U’netaneh Tokef on Yom Kippur. Tradition has it that Rabbi Amnon appeared in a dream some time later to R’ Klonimos ben Meshullam of Mainz to whom he dictated the words of the prayer in detail. The latter circulated the prayer throughout the Ashkenazic Jewish world and it became an integral part of the High Holiday prayers. Today, some scholars question whether the story of Rabbi Amnon’s martyrdom is factual, and simply attribute the prayer to R’ Klonimos. But whatever the source of the prayer, it has become an integral element in the striving for repentance essential to this time of year.
Each year as I participate in this communal recitation, I think about those who may have passed on during the year and of what fate might await me in the year to come. But I often think of changes that have taken place in the world over the past year and about ways in which this lofty prayer might be modified to better address man’s concerns going forward.
Part of the problem I have in understanding the thrust of U’netaneh Tokef relates to the concept contained in Parshat Nitzavim (29:28) and included in the end of the Viduy to the effect that “the hidden are for Hashem, our God, but the revealed are for us and our children forever, to carry out all the words of the Torah.” This verse is generally interpreted to categorically refer to hidden “sins” and revealed “sins,” though the reference is merely implied from Moshe’s warnings to Israel that precede this verse (29:15-27). This verse clearly requires that we Jews in our time must do all we can to fulfill all the mitzvot and avoid all the sins we possibly can, that being those commandments and proscriptions that have been immutably passed down from Moshe at Sinai. That hasn’t changed from generation to generation. However, as the years have advanced, many of God’s secrets, the secrets of the natural world, for example, have been revealed to man in increasingly rapid fashion. Talking of the world today with its digital advances, advanced medical treatments and devices, and genomic discoveries as “unchanged” or “unchanging” from the world of the past would be met with loud denials by any thinking person. We have tools today to restart stopped hearts, artificial hearts, kidney and liver transplants and many other unimaginable creations available to save lives. While even a hundred years ago and, certainly regularly centuries ago, people faced countrywide crop failures throughout European Jewish communities, no wheat, rye or grain of any kind over vast stretches of England, France, Germany, Italy, Austria and Russia. Today, generally, such extensive, prolonged famines are happily a thing of the past. In America today we are blessed with agricultural wealth never even dreamed of by our ancestors. Even though I know this to be true, I will still repeat the part of U’netaneh Tokef that asks: “Who [will die] from famine?” Even though I know obesity is honestly a much more likely cause of my demise and those of my fellow congregants, I’ll forgo the urge to add that phrase under my breath. I’ll continue to stick to the original text until my rabbi instructs me otherwise despite my sensibilities that the Jews of today may need to add some new or additional questions of God.
An extremely capable colleague of mine, by the way, interprets U’netaneh Tokef quite differently and does not feel compelled in any way to change anything in the recitation of the prayer. My colleague believes, in fact, that the whole point of the prayer is that, despite all the changes in our lives and revelations uncovered by mankind, we are still at the mercy of Hashem at this time of year. He feels quite certain that all the so-called advances of mankind do not change this basic premise that we are ultimately faced with the challenge of doing teshuvah to attempt to attain God’s forgiveness.
Finally, as I contemplate the upcoming holidays, I am struck by the whole question of the desirability of possessing prophetic powers. Often in life or literature, when people dream of obtaining the power to know the future, they imagine what wonders they will be able to achieve if even for a moment they could know with certainty what the future will bring. Tales of successful Wall Street windfalls and racetrack triumphs fill the speculative fiction. But of course, the power to see the future is a two-edged sword. Everyone wants to foresee the good that will happen to them, their friends and their loved ones. Few, if any, wish to know the sad news that awaits them; those details can be left to the future, thank you! In light of the foregoing, the next time you recite U’netaneh Tokef please reflect on the opportunity you have to ask God to grant you and yours the best year possible. Have a happy and healthy new year and an easy fast!
By Joseph Rotenberg
