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An illuminating in-depth exploration of the complexities—and perhaps audacity—of naming the unnameable.
One of the oldest and most beloved prayers—known even to Jews who rarely attend synagogue—is Avinu Malkeinu ("Our Father, Our King"), a liturgical staple for the entire High Holy Day period. "Our Father, Our King" has resonance also for Christians, whose Lord's Prayer begins "Our Father."
Despite its popularity, Avinu Malkeinu causes great debate because of the difficulties in thinking of God as father and king. Americans no longer relate positively to images of royalty; victims of parental abuse note the problem of assuming a benevolent father; and feminists have long objected to masculine language for God.
Through a series of lively introductions and commentaries, almost forty contributors—men and women, scholars and rabbis, artists and thinkers from all Jewish denominations and from around the world—wrestle with this linguistic and spiritual conundrum, asking, “How do we name God altogether, without recourse to imagery that defies belief?”
Contributors:
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson • Rabbi Anthony Bayfield • Rabbi Will Berkowitz • Dr. Annette Boeckler • Dr. Marc Brettler • Dr. Erica Brown • Rabbi Angela Buchdahl • Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove • Rabbi Joshua Davidson • Rabbi Lawrence Englander • Lisa Exler • Rabbi Paul Freedman • Rabbi Elyse Frishman • Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand • Rabbi Edwin Goldberg • Rabbi Andrew Goldstein • Dr. Joel M. Hoffman • Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman • Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur • Rabbi Elie Kaunfer • Rabbi Karen Kedar • Rabbi Reuven Kimelman • Rabbi Daniel Landes • Liz Lerman • Rabbi Asher Lopatin • Catherine Madsen • Rabbi Jonathan Magonet • Rabbi Dalia Marx • Chazzan Danny Maseng • Ruth Messinger • Rabbi Charles H. Middleburgh • Rabbi Jay Henry Moses • Rabbi Jack Riemer • Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin • Rabbis Dennis and Sandy Sasso • Rabbi Marc Saperstein • Rabbi Jonathan P. Slater • Rabbi David Stern • Rabbi David Teutsch • Dr. Ellen Umansky • Edward van Voooen • Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig • Dr. Ron Wolfson • Rabbi Daniel Zemel • Dr. Wendy Zierler
Preparing for the comingHigh Holy Days,I opened myMachzor RuachChadashah,saw it was
publishedin 2003, andwas amazedto realise andthat this yearwill be the13th year of itsuse. How timeflies and where have the years vanishedsince, as a newly ordained rabbi, I joinedthe committee to edit its predecessorGate of Repentance, which was originallypublished in 1973?
The first Liberal Jewish Prayer BookVolume II (for High Holy Days) waspublished by our founding Rabbi Dr IsraelMattuck in 1923—and was used for 51years. I wonder how long our currentmachzor will last? Will it need revisingonce our new siddur appears, wheneverthat will be? Intriguing how a year endingin three seems to mark the publishing ofour High Holy Days prayer books.
I have been honoured each year, alongwith Rabbi Dr Charles H Middleburgh, mycoeditor of Machzor Ruach Chadashah,to submit an essay to Rabbi Laurence AHoffman's volumes on aspects of HighHoly Days liturgy.
As well as good for our ego, for amongthe other contributors are names farmore well-known internationally thanours, we would like to think that it hasbeen an opportunity to make known toa wide readership the creativity of theBritish Liberal Jewish liturgy. This year'svolume, the sixth, has over 40 essays, allon just one prayer—Avinu Malkeinu.
You might be thinking: how could somuch be written on just one prayer? Mostof the essays seek to solve the problem ofthe opening words; how could a modernnon-Orthodox Jew appeal to "Our Father,Our King"?
Charles and I explain how weconsidered various alternatives to thatliteral translation. We rejected theeasy way out of just transliterating theHebrew, as some have done, making theopening verse "Avinu Malkeinu, we havesinned before you."
An easy change was from 'King’ to'Sovereign’. After all, as we write, welive “in a country whose head of state isour Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth II”.An alternative for ‘Father’ was not quiteas easy. We chose ‘Creator’, based onthe fact that both parents have a part increating us, but we have to admit that itdoes not quite convey the aspect of Godas the close and caring parent.
I wonder how Liberal Jews will feelthese High Holy Days, after 13 years ofuse? Did we get it right, or do they missthe literal translation? Do they preferthe alternative formula we have added“Shechina Mekor Chayyeynu—DivinePresence, Source of our lives”?
Several essays in Hoffman’s bookcome to the conclusion that moreimportant than the actual words is themelody to which they are sung. Think ofKol Nidrey ... the traditional words areunacceptable to a Liberal Jew with itsclaim that just by reciting the formula ourpromises in the year past are cancelled.We happily use an alternative—which Isuspect few read through—but changethe music and so many would object.
As you prepare for the High HolyDays, please think about what is mostimportant for YOU: the intellectual thoughts, the traditional words, thecreative themes, the music? Whichprayer works best for you, which troublesyou the most?
The Hebrew word “machzor” conveysthe idea of a book that keeps cominground and round, just like the festivals.I hope that Machzor Ruach Chadashahand the services you attend help you findmeaning in these High Holy Days and Iwish you a good, healthy and successfulNew Year.
• Naming God: Avinu Malkeinu—OurFather, Our King, by Rabbi Lawrence A.Hoffman is available now from JewishLights Publishing.
Introduction: Why This Book: And Why It Is the Way It Is
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
Part I: Two Overviews
The History, Meaning, and Varieties of Avinu Malkeinu
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
"Our Father and King": The Many Ways That Liturgy Means
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
Part II: The Liturgy
Editor's Introduction to Avinu Malkeinu
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
Translator's Introduction to Avinu Malkeinu
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman
Avinu Malkeinu: A New and Annotated Translation
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman
Translator's Introduction to Ki Hinei Kachomer
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman
Ki Hinei Kachomer: A New and Annotated Translation
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman
Part III: Avinu Malkeinu: The Music
The Music of Avinu Malkeinu
Gordon Dale, MA
Who’s Your Daddy?
Chazzan Danny Maseng
Part IV: Precursors, Foundations, and Parallels
Biblical Precursors: Father, King, Potter
Dr. Marc Zvi Brettler
Father or King: A View from the Psalms
Rabbi Jonathan Magonet, PhD
Why "Our Father"?
Dr. Annette M. Boeckler
Prayer and Character: The Story behind Avinu Malkeinu
Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, DHL
Divine Epithets and Human Ambivalence
Rabbi Reuven Kimelman, PhD
Our Father, Our King: Old and New Parables
Dr. Wendy Zierler
Empowerment, Not Police: What Are We to Do with Problematic Liturgical Passages?
Rabbi Dalia Marx, PhD
Why We Say Things We Don’t Believe
Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar
Part V: How Prayer Book Editors Deal with Naming God
A British Father and a British King?
Rabbi Paul Freedman
Avinu Malkeinu and the New Reform Machzor (Mishkan HaNefesh)
Rabbi Edwin Goldberg, DHL
What Is God’s Name?
Rabbi David A. Teutsch, PhD
Changing God’s Names: The Liturgy of Liberal Judaism in Great Britain
Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, PhD, and Rabbi Charles H. Middleburgh, PhD
Part VI: Masculine Imagery; Feminist Critique
So Near and Oh So Far
Rabbi Laura Geller
Our Rock, Our Hard Place
Catherine Madsen
What’s in a Word? Or, How We Read and Hear Our Prayers
Ruth Messinger
Rescuing the Father-God from Delray Beach
Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin, DMin
I Do Not Know Your Name
Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, DMin
Part VII: What’s in a Name?
Abracadabra: The Magic of Naming
Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, DHL
My Name Is Vulnerability
Rabbi Tony Bayfield, CBE, DD
We Are But Dust
Dr. Erica Brown
Two Pockets
Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson
Re-imaging God
Rabbi Lawrence A. Englander, CM, DHL, DD
"Would You Still Love Me If...?"
Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand
Celebrating a Conflicted Relationship with God
Rabbi Asher Lopatin
God the Cashier: A Parable of the Dubner Maggid’s
Rabbi Jack Riemer
Piety and Protest
Rabbi Dennis C. Sasso, DMin
The Most Difficult Name for God, “You” —Or, How Is Prayer Possible?
Rabbi Jonathan P. Slater, DMin
Machzor and Malkhut: The Challenge of Naming a King
Rabbi David Stern
“We Guess; We Clothe Thee, Unseen King”
Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig, DD
From Direct Experience to a World of Words: The God We Struggle to Know
Rabbi Daniel G. Zemel
Appendix A: Avinu Malkeinu through Time
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD
Ashkenazi-Polish Rite
(Minhag Polin)
Our First Extant Prayer Book, Babylonia, circa 860 CE
(Seder Rav Amram)
France, Eleventh to Twelfth Centuries
(Machzor Vitry)
Italy, Thirteenth to Sixteenth Centuries
(Machzor Roma)
Ashkenazi-German Rite
(Minhag Rinus)
England, Turn of the Twentieth Century
(Minhag Sepharad)
Yemenite Tikhlal
(the Baladi Rite)
Chabad
(Minhag Lubavitch, Minhag Ari as adapted by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad)
Appendix B: Alternatives to Avinu Malkeinu
Rabbi Dalia Marx, PhD
From Israel: Kavanat Halev, Reform, 1989
From the UK: Forms of Prayer (Draft Edition), Reform, 2014
From North America: Mahzor Lev Shalem, Conservative, 2010
From North America: Mishkan HaNefesh, Reform, 2015
From North America: Kehilla Community Machzor, Renewal, 2014
Notes
Glossary