A prayer offered without kavanah (intent) is like a body without a soul.
When the rabbis
taught us that lesson, they were encouraging us that, when we recite our
personal and public prayers, rather than merely reciting the words, we should
garb them with our own personal meanings and thoughts. Just as our clothing
choices help us stand apart, so do our contemplation and intent transform even
standardized prayers into deeply personal, unique offerings.
“Avinu Malkeinu. Our Father, our King.” Who
is unfamiliar with this powerful refrain, chanted and pleaded and cried over
and over during the High Holiday season? Who isn’t moved by our supplication to
G-d, both in His identity as our Father and in His role as our King? So well
known are the lines of Avinu Malkeinu that
Barbara Streisand recorded a version of it on one of her albums (to a tune by
German composer Max Janowski), and performed it live at President Shimon Peres’s
90th birthday. Peres was so moved by that rendition, that it was
reprised by David D’Or at Peres’s funeral.
Avinu Malkeinu. Since the outbreak of
the war, this plaintive prayer has been recited twice daily in many shuls
around Israel and, perhaps, beyond. I suspect that many have found that the
verses resonate with them in novel, deep, and powerfully-relevant ways – ways
which may never have occurred to us during their previous seasonal recitations.
Here are some
of the meanings which have adorned the words of my own Avinu Malkeinu over the last number of months.
*
* *
Avinu Malkeinu, foil the plans of
our enemies.
The
Palestinians were working on the October 7th plan for years or,
possibly, decades. Some reports say that they had planned coordinated
attacks from the north and the west as well.
Was that You Who
got in the way of those plans, O G-d? Are there tunnels from Lebanon leading
into Israel awaiting the orders to attack? Probably. Are there tunnels from the
Arab villages in Judea and Samaria that lead to our precious Jewish
communities? Again, probably. Despite the unspeakable devastation of October 7th,
You foiled their grander plans for our sudden and complete defeat. Our Father,
our King, please continue to have our backs. Frustrate the plots of our foes
and allow us to live in peace in Your land.
*
* *
Avinu Malkeinu, shut the
mouths of those who instigate and work against us.
The world is
convulsing in a meticulously choreographed uproar: “From the river to
the sea!” “Colonialists!” “Genocide!”
Within days of
October 7th, much of the world had united in unmasking
their vile, naked hatred of the Jewish people, brazenly calling
for our elimination in tones not heard in generations. The voices seemed
to come from nowhere. What spontaneously emerges from the depths can just
as quickly be banished there. So please, our merciful Father, our merciful
King, abruptly silence their hatred, seal their mouths, and
allow the voice of a civilized world to lead the conversation once again.
*
* *
Avinu Malkeinu, send complete
recovery to those of our nation who are ill.
There is no
need to recount here the myriad ways we have suffered as Jews, as Israelis, as
citizens of the world – so many broken bodies, so many shattered souls. Avinu Malkeinu, heal the bodies and
minds of our citizens and soldiers who have been brutalized and traumatized.
Only You can
provide the salves which will heal both our visible and invisible wounds and
make us whole once more.
*
* *
Avinu Malkeinu, remember us
for redemption and salvation.
Enable our
swift, total victory. May the caches of our enemies’ weapons be
confiscated and destroyed. May their infrastructure crumble and crush them
alive. May their leadership be decimated, without any hope of replacement. May
their constituents find no hope in the old ways and turn toward peace.
*
* *
Avinu Malkeinu, remember us
for livelihood and sustenance.
A nation where
hundreds of thousands of its able-bodied work force are doing battle is a
nation whose livelihood and economy are on the line. Our reservists have left
their jobs, some of which may never return. Our businesses (parnassa) have lost key members and
customers. The economies (kalkala) of
the southern towns, some of which are not safe to return to, are in dire
jeopardy.
*
* *
Avinu Malkeinu, cause
redemption to bloom speedily.
Who could have
dared dream, at the conclusion of World War II, that from the decimation of
European Jewry anything could possibly take root and grow? Who could have
dreamt of a future – any future – that involved
anything but basic survival?
Yet from the
ashes of the Holocaust sprouted a dream beyond any poet’s wildest fantasy – a new
beginning for the Jewish people – the hope borne in the souls of our people for
2,000 years of exile.
If you travel
to Re’im, the site of the Nova Festival massacre, you will visit a poignant
landscape, a field composed of photos of the dead and the kidnapped. The photos
are mounted on tall stakes in the bare earth below. At the base of each stake,
in the otherwise barren patch of land, someone planted seeds. At each one, a
patch of grass has taken root. The killing field has sprung new life. The
photos of innocent lives destroyed have become a source of vitality, beauty and,
somehow, a glimmer of hope.
Please cause
Your redemption to bloom from this very tragedy, and let us see the splendor
yet to come.
*
* *
Avinu Malkeinu, have mercy
on us, our children and young ones.
No age group,
no gender, no nationality was spared on that infamous day. We all need a
curative dose of Your infinite kindness.
*
* *
Avinu Malkeinu, save us in
the merit of those who were slaughtered for the unity of Your name.
There was no
reason for the slaughter other than the fact that we are Jews. How many died
with Your name on their lips? How many cried out Shema Yisrael? How many recognized in their final moments that they
would be the latest link in a historical chain of bloodlust called
antisemitism?
Lest we think
that the nightmare may be over, let us remember that Hamas has vowed to repeat
October 7th over and over again.
*
* *
Avinu Malkeinu, protect
those who put themselves through fire and water to sanctify Your name.
Just as in
English usage, fire can mean not only flames but also being under fire from
guns, the Hebrew word eish has the same dual connotation. When our soldiers fought to
recapture Kfar Aza and the other Southern towns in the early days of the war,
they discovered not only the fires of battle but, quite literally, had to deal
with the water. Explosions had ruptured water mains and house plumbing, and
water was everywhere. Often the removal of the bodies of those murdered
involved tedious extraction from ravines of mud that had formed.
Our soldiers
went through fire and water to do their holy missions. Please cleanse their
minds and souls of all the lingering reminders of that horror.
*
* *
Avinu. Our Father. Malkeinu.
Our King. It’s a prayer that belongs to the season of repentance. And here we
are, back in that very season a year later. Perhaps we never left it.
Our prayers. Non-stop.
Our tears. Non-stop.
Perhaps this Rosh Hashana we can borrow a word
from Pesach, the season of redemption,
and form a new plea this year: Avinu
Malkeinu, dayeinu.
Our Father, our King. It’s enough.
Jeremy Staiman and his wife Chana made Aliya from Baltimore, MD in 2010
to Ramat Beit Shemesh. A graphic designer by trade, Jeremy is a music lover and
produces music on a regular basis – one album every 40 years. He likes to spend
time with his kids and grandkids slightly more often than that. Reprinted with
permission from the Times of Israel.
