Naming God: Avinu Malkeinu-Our Father, Our King

by Lawrence A. Hoffman (Editor)

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683362173
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	07/13/2015
Series:	Prayers of Awe , #6
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD, has served for more than three decades as professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He is a world-renowned liturgist and holder of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. His work combines research in Jewish ritual, worship and spirituality with a passion for the spiritual renewal of contemporary Judaism.

His many books, written and edited, include seven volumes in the Prayers of Awe series: Who by Fire, Who by Water—Un'taneh Tokef; All These Vows—Kol Nidre; We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism—Ashamnu and Al Chet; May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism—Yizkor; All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days; Naming God: Avinu Malkeinu—Our Father, Our King; and Encountering God: El Rachum V'chanun—God Merciful and Gracious. Hoffman also edited the ten-volume series My People’s Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and coedited My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award (all Jewish Lights).

Rabbi Hoffman cofounded and developed Synagogue 2/3000, a transdenominational project to envision and implement the ideal synagogue of the spirit for the twenty-first century. In that capacity, he wrote Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life (Jewish Lights).

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

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.

Liberal Judaism Today - By Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein President of Liberal Judaism

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, a recognized scholar in the field of Jewish liturgy, is the editor of a ten-volume series on weekday and Shabbat liturgy. Shifting his attention to the High Holy Days, he also edited the Prayers of Awe series on the central prayers of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In the sixth book of this series, Rabbi Hoffman focuses on Avinu Malkeinu (Our Father, Our King), one of Judaism's most beloved prayers.

Following two introductory chapters—one of which traces the history of the prayer's development and the second of which considers its literary and linguistic aspects—Naming Godoffers a series of essays by scholars, rabbis, educators, and Jewish communal leaders from across the denominations. These essays are divided into seven categories that address, respectively, the liturgy itself, the prayer’s music history, parallel motifs in other texts, feminist critique, considerations in a liberal Jewish context, and broader interpretations of the prayer. Two appendixes provide a collection of different versions of the prayer from across history and alternative versions with a liberal perspective.

Highlights of the book include a chapter by Dr. Erica Brown, who grapples with the prayer’s thirty-third line: "Our father, our king, remember that we are but dust," which might suggest our worthlessness. However, through a close reading of other biblical texts, Brown suggests that the reminder that we are dust is in essence a reminder of the love that God expressed in fashioning the first human being. It is with this love that we are sustained in our relationship with the Creator to this day.

In another chapter, Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson considers the chutzpah (impudence) that we express when we name God through Avinu Malkeinu. While one might understand naming something to be an expression of one’s power over the named, Rabbi Artson writes: "Names reveal who we are but also what we hope to become, and they do so in terms of relationship between namer and named….It [naming] is an invitation to connect, an expression of relationship, a discovery of common ground."

These words by Rabbi Artson speak to the core of whatNaming Godseeks to achieve. It provides a reader not only with a stronger connection to the nuanced language of Avinu Malkeinu, but also with a deeper understanding of the messages and meaning of the High Holy Days as a whole. Rabbi Hoffman has crafted a guidebook for the Days of Awe that provides a wealth of voices to lead us on a spiritual journey.

Jewish Book Council - Jonathan Fass

Naming plays a crucial role in Judaism. Our tradition provides 72 names for HaShem, a phrase that literally means "The Name," and the actual name of God is regarded as so sacred that it is not to be read aloud from the pages of the Torah. But one divine name in particular is the flame that illuminates Naming God:Avinu Malkeinu—Our Father, Our King, edited by Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman (Jewish Lights).

"Avinu Malkeinu—Our Father, Our King" is the refrain of a prayer that is one of the crown jewels of the High Holy Days liturgy, and the book is a part of the Prayers of Awe series from Jewish Lights, which focuses on prayers “that present modern worshippers with significant difficulties.” The difficulty here is that phrase “Our Father, Our King” can be off-putting to egalitarian Jewish ears and rather too anthropomorphic for the most pious Jews.

“I wondered at the outset if Avinu Malkeinu should even make it into this series,” Hoffman writes. “But further consideration suggest that Avinu Malkeinu was part of a larger issue of naming God.”

In commentaries by some 40 contributors, the ancient origins and long history of the prayer, one of the oldest in Jewish liturgy, are fully explored and explained. Even the stirring music that accompanies the prayer is scrutinized—and credited for its enduring appeal. “By now, the music … so overwhelms the lyrics that most people remain relatively unconcerned with what it means,” Hoffman writes. But it is the meaning of the words in the prayer, both literal and figurative, that inspires the lively and often highly provocative conversation that fills the pages of Naming God, a conversation about what Rabbi Paul Freedman calls “God-language.”

Rabbi Laura Geller of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills, for example, confesses that “the images in our prayer book actually get in my way,” and she praises feminist thinkers such as Judith Plaskow, Marcia Falk and Rachel Adler for coining gender-neutral divine names that “add to my vocabulary in speaking toward God.” And Rabbi Andrew Goldstein and Rabbi Charles H. Middleburgh explain that the Reform movement in Great Britain has sought to counterbalance the traditional prayer with “imagery that was explicitly feminine,” including “A Woman's Meditation” by poet Ruth Brin, which explains and boldly repudiates the psychology of Avinu Malkeinu.

“When men were children, they thought of God as a father;
When men were slaves, they thought of God as a master;
When men were subjects, they thought of God as a king;
But I am a woman, not a slave, not a subject,
Not a child who longs for God as father or mother.”

Others insist that the phrase is a way of harmonizing the sometimes conflicting ideas about God that can be extracted from our sacred writings. “Whether in parental psychology or Jewish theology, this tension between conditional (justice) love and unconditional (mercy) love is a 'polarity’—a set of interdependent opposites that exist in ongoing constructive tension with each one another,” writes Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand. Or, in the words of Rabbi Asher Lopatin: “We know the same God that permits all the horrors in this world is the same God who makes blessing and goodness possible.”

For some of the rabbis, the whole issue can be sidestepped if we regard the names of God as pious metaphors that “explain unfamiliar phenomena through familiar imagery,” in the words of Rabbi Lawrence Englander, who suggests that Avinu Malkeinu is evidence not of the relatability of God but the profound ineffability of the divine. “Images such as 'father/parent’ and ‘king/sovereign,’ ” he insists, “help us relate to a God who is too complex to be captured in ordinary prosaic language.” Or as Rabbi David A. Teutsch puts it: “Jewish tradition contains countless different names of God because God surpasses our understanding.”

The debate ends with a shrug in the essay by Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig. “Naming God?” she writes. “It’s either a presumptuous endeavor or a marvelous feat of imagination.” Either way, of course, it is an authentically Jewish enterprise, an example of the multiplicity of answers that we come up with when we start asking questions about God.

Jewish Journal - Jonathan Kirsch

Typical of all the volumes in the series My People's Prayer Book, all edited by Rabbi Prof. Hoffman, this is an amazing collection of ideas, explanations, historical background, inspiring thoughts, on a specific part of the Siddur and/or Mahzor. Readers may select specific chapters that interest them, or read cover to cover. However, one absorbs the knowledge in this book, one will come away with renewed understanding and appreciation of the Avinu Malkeinu.

One of the oldest and most beloved prayers—known even to Jews who rarely attend synagogue—isAvinu Malkeinu ("Our Father, Our King"), a liturgical staple for the entire High Holy Day period.

Despite its popularity,Avinu Malkeinucauses 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?"

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman,PhD, has served for more than three decades as professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He is a world-renowned liturgist and holder of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. His work combines research in Jewish ritual, worship and spirituality with a passion for the spiritual renewal of contemporary Judaism.

His many books, written and edited, include the previous five volumes in thePrayers of Awe series:Who by Fire, Who by Water—Un'taneh Tokef;All These Vows—Kol Nidre;We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism—AshamnuandAl Chet;May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism—Yizkor; andAll the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days.

Hoffman also edited the ten-volume seriesMy People's Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and coeditedMy People's Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award (all Jewish Lights).

Jewish Media Review - Dov Peretz Elkins

How do we imagine God? In Jewish liturgy, God is depicted not by physical characteristics, but by qualities of character – although sometimes the phrases used can contradict each other. For example, some people relate to a God who is a loving, forgiving parent. Others see God as a majestic, impartial judge who punishes wrong actions. These two extremes are found together in one of the best-known prayers in the High Holiday liturgy: "Avinu Malkeinu." In “Naming God: Avinu Malkeinu – Our Father, Our King” (Jewish Lights Publishing), Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Ph.D., offers essays written by rabbis and scholars about the history and theology of this popular prayer. This latest work in the “Prayers of Awe” series also explores the reading “Ki Hieni Kachomer” (whose opening line is “For behold, like clay in the hand of a potter”), although most of the essays focus on “Avinu Malkeinu.”
Although “Avinu Malkeinu” may seem an essential part of contemporary services, readers may be surprised to discover that not only is it a relatively late addition to liturgy, but that its length and content differ across the Jewish world. Hoffman does a wonderful job explaining this history in “The History, Meaning, and Varieties of Avinu Malkeinu.” He notes that two of its lines – “Our father, our king, we have no king but You. Our father, our king, have mercy on us” – are found in earliest versions of the Talmud in a story about two rabbis (Eliezer and Akiva) who are praying for rain. It's only in Medieval times that a third line was added to the talmudic tale, the one whose theme is teshuvah (repentance): “Our father, our king, we have sinned before you.” Although the prayer spread, not every rabbi used it in their High Holiday service. For example, it’s not found in Saadiah Gaon’s machzor (High Holiday prayer book) nor in the one used by Maimonides.
Dr. Joel M. Hoffman offers a translation of the prayer with commentary that includes variations from different traditions. For example, while “Seder Rav Amram” says, “Our father, our king, grant us new decrees,” “Machzor Roma” reads, “Our father, our king, grant us good new tidings.” Different versions of another line include “write us in the book of redemption and salvation” (Machzor Vitry) and “write us in the book of salvation and comfort” (Machzor Roma). While many of these differences are just variations on a theme, there are also differences in length. To make it easier to understand the prayer’s development, the first appendix offers seven different versions.
Many of the essays focus on the difficulty some people feel when calling God either a king or a father. In his essay “Who’s Your Daddy,” Chazzan Danny Maseng notes that he was raised by parents who hated any type of anthropomorphism, including Walt Disney’s Donald Duck and Bambi. For them, imposing human characteristics on animals was an anathema, something “to be shunned and reviled.” Yet, Maseng embraces anthropomorphism, considering it “the very best tool with which to grapple with our ever-elusive God precisely because it is so obviously flawed.” This flaw means people won’t mistake the phrase for the real essence of God. For him, the real connection to the Divine comes less from the words than the music: “Music is the language of the heart, the color of the soul. Music, while definitely requiring intelligence to compose, to perform well, and to analyze, is first and foremost emotional and experimental.” Therefore, when Maseng composed his own version of the prayer, he had no difficulty “addressing it directly to a specific person – my father, my king, my daddy.”
“Naming God” contains too many interesting essays to describe all of them in detail, but some stood out:

• Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, D.H.L., does an excellent job analyzing the talmudic origin of the prayer in “Prayer and Character: The Story Behind Avinu Malkeinu.” His look at the different personalities of Rabbis Eliezer and Akiva offers insights into their relationship to each other and to God.
• In “Empowerment, Not Police: What Are We To Do With Problematic Liturgical Passages,” Rabbi Dalia Marx, Ph.D., offers a fascinating exploration of how the ancient rabbis handled biblical text they didn’t like, particularly when reading the Torah out loud in the synagogue. Their methods included replacing a word or phrase with one not in the original text and deliberately skipping a word or phrase when translating. She also looks at how contemporary rabbis approach similar problems.
• Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar explores the meaning and use of metaphors in “Why We Say Things We Don’t Believe.” She writes about different types of metaphors – invisible, hidden and mixed – to teach us how “we do our best with words, and then we crawl into the silence of amazement, uniting speech with contemplation.” In this way, God is both “unknown and so very known.”
• In “I Do Not Know Your Name,” Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, D.Min., uses her personal experience to write a moving essay about how inviting people to name God allows us to “see ourselves reflected in God’s image.” These names vary according to a person’s experiences, but all show their search for a connection to the Divine. She also notes how “no name is better than another, all the names for God are good. They are all partial reflections of the One who has many names and none.”
• Rabbi Asher Lopatin discusses why “Avinu Malkeinu” has not been traditionally said on Shabbat in “Celebrating a Conflicted Relationship with God.” To do so, he offers a look at the difference between “the calming dream of Shabbat, and the searing reality of Avinu Malkeinu.”
• In “Piety and Protest,” Rabbi Dennis C. Sasso, D.Min., discusses how Rabbis Akiva and Eliezer, who lived in the Roman Empire, would have understood the words father and king – particularly in terms of the Roman persecution of the Jews.

“Naming God” is one of the best volumes in the “Prayers of Awe” series. Readers will find themselves stimulated by its challenging and meaningful essays. Reading it is a great way to prepare for the holidays and enhance your spiritual experience.

The Reporter Group - Rabbi Rachel Esserman

Avinu Malkeinu—"Our Father, Our King"—is one of the seminal prayers of the High Holy Days, its final verse sung to a plaintive melody that captures the essence of the Days of Awe (a few years ago the Scottish band Mogwai even produced a rock version).

The history and interpretation of the prayer, whose roots go back to the Talmud and a supplication by Rabbi Akiva using the formula "Avinu Malkeinu", are explored in this, the sixth volume of Jewish Lights' Prayers of Awe series. Under the editorship of American Reform rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, rabbis and scholars from across the religious spectrum look at different aspects, though there is a particular focus on the struggle many Jews may have today with the metaphors of masculinity and royalty. Some see the prayer as "a mantra", whose meaning lies more in the experience of its communal recitation than the actual words.

Among several Progressive contributors from the UK, Rabbi Jonathan Magonet examines the concept of "father" and "king" in the Psalms, while Dr Annette Boeckler does so in the prophets. Questions of practical theology—how the prayer should be translated and edited in contemporary Reform and Liberal machzorim—are tackled by Rabbis Paul Freedman, Andrew Goldstein and Charles Middleburgh.

Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand views it through the prism of parenting and the balance between the principles of mercy and justice; unconditional love without rules leads to spoilt children. For Rabbi Tony Bayfield, the image of parent evokes vulnerability—the worry over a child's welfare.

The Jewish Chronicle - Simon Rocker