Like the Hallelujah psalm which praises the name of God, Cohen’s Who By Fire retells, recounts, counting by count, the new year prayer, Unetanah Tokef — who will be inscribed. This is the meaning, the point, the blessing of the New Year greeting, L’shanah tovah, may you be inscribed — and, of course, what is at stake is fate, one’s own fate, one’s own destiny. In this case that is what is to be, what is ordained for each one of us.
The judgment of the high holy days, the judgment of the new year, is the judgment of the Lord, as all are brought before the lord, so we hear the words, so Cohen heard them as well. I repeat this here, but only to get to Cohen’s verse, as a prayer to grace the holiest days of the year (which already tells us that it will be a very long prayer...).
What is decided is fate and because this is a prayer what is also emphasized is hope, the chance of mercy.
As the end of the prayer makes plain, and the logic of the high holy days sets Yom Kippur, the day of atonement to answer the conclusion of this Rosh Hashannah New Year, prayer: “But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severe decree.”
The judgment of the high holy days, the judgment of the new year, is the judgment of the Lord, as all are brought before the lord, so we hear the words, so Cohen heard them as well. I repeat this here, but only to get to Cohen’s verse, as a prayer to grace the holiest days of the year (which already tells us that it will be a very long prayer...).
What is decided is fate and because this is a prayer what is also emphasized is hope, the chance of mercy.
As the end of the prayer makes plain, and the logic of the high holy days sets Yom Kippur, the day of atonement to answer the conclusion of this Rosh Hashannah New Year, prayer: “But repentance, prayer and righteousness avert the severe decree.”
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