As some of you know, I started blogging two weeks ago. Scary thought--since truth be told, I have no clue what I am doing! But in my second blog I talked about the need for us to prepare for the High Holy days. We get out of High Holy days what we put into it. So tonight and next week, I will be looking at different High Holy Day prayers and trying to understand what they have to teach us this year. The one that caught my eye tonight was the 13 attributes of Gd. This prayer appears throughout the RH and YK liturgy as long as it is not Shabbat-which means we will hear it during RH this year but not YK. The actual text for this prayer is a direct quote from Ex. 34:6-7. Right before this verse is the awful golden calf incident where the Israelites are almost killed for losing faith in Gd and Moses and for worshipping idols. After the golden calf incident, Moses ascends Mt. Sinai again to get the second Ten Commandments. It is at this moment these verses are placed in the text. It is not clear whether Gd is describing Gd’s self or if Moses is describing Gd. Either way, immediately afterwards, Moses prostrates himself and asks to see Gd. After all the wonder of Gd is described, Moses asks Gd for exactly the same thing the Israelites wanted: a vision of what these attributes mean. The difference being Moses asked for it and therefore the text assumes received a vision that was based on truth. The Israelites created a false idol based on lies.
The placing of this text into the RH and YK services probably happened sometime in the Middle Ages in the Ashkenazic world. The Sepharidic communities do not have this text. In the Ashkenazic mahzor, the High Holy Day prayer book, it is placed in a couple of places, the most memorable is at the beginning of the torah service. At this time we recite these attributes three times. They are called the seder s’lichot, the order of forgiveness. At a time when we are to ask for forgiveness of people in our lives as well as from Gd, we recite this prayer that affirms that forgiveness is attainable. As Gd forgave the Israelites for idol worship, Gd will forgive us for our sins if and only if we truly repent as the Israelites did. Forgiveness can be achieved.
So what exactly is the text. It reads:
יְיָ, יְיָ, אֵל רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן, אֶֽרֶךְ אַפַּֽיִם, וְרַב חֶֽסֶד וְאֶמֶת: נֹצֵר חֶֽסֶד לָאֲלָפִים, נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן וָפֶֽשַׁע וְחַטָּאָה, וְנַקֵּה:
The Lord, the Lord, a God full of compassion and grace, slow to anger and great in mercy and truth; Having mercy on thousands, carrying evil and wrongdoing and sin; he will acquit.
My question to us is: what does this text mean to us today? How do we understand it? Why is it so important that we need to recite it three times?
The placing of this text into the RH and YK services probably happened sometime in the Middle Ages in the Ashkenazic world. The Sepharidic communities do not have this text. In the Ashkenazic mahzor, the High Holy Day prayer book, it is placed in a couple of places, the most memorable is at the beginning of the torah service. At this time we recite these attributes three times. They are called the seder s’lichot, the order of forgiveness. At a time when we are to ask for forgiveness of people in our lives as well as from Gd, we recite this prayer that affirms that forgiveness is attainable. As Gd forgave the Israelites for idol worship, Gd will forgive us for our sins if and only if we truly repent as the Israelites did. Forgiveness can be achieved.
So what exactly is the text. It reads:
יְיָ, יְיָ, אֵל רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן, אֶֽרֶךְ אַפַּֽיִם, וְרַב חֶֽסֶד וְאֶמֶת: נֹצֵר חֶֽסֶד לָאֲלָפִים, נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן וָפֶֽשַׁע וְחַטָּאָה, וְנַקֵּה:
The Lord, the Lord, a God full of compassion and grace, slow to anger and great in mercy and truth; Having mercy on thousands, carrying evil and wrongdoing and sin; he will acquit.
My question to us is: what does this text mean to us today? How do we understand it? Why is it so important that we need to recite it three times?