Wednesday, September 8, 2010

A Jewish Prayer-Poem that stares our frailty in the face // From Speaking of Faith

Full Article Here // Excerpt Below

by Krista Tippett, host of Speaking of Faith

At the beginning of my conversation with Rabbi Sharon Brous and again at the end, we discuss a seminal prayer-poem of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Unetaneh Tokef. It is a recital of commonplace mortal perils of the year to come:

How many shall pass away and how many shall be born,
Who shall live and who shall die…
Who shall be at peace and who shall be pursued,
Who shall be exalted and who shall be brought low…

Our culture — human nature magnified — denies frailty and finitude with a million devices. This religious ritual, more realistically, stares them in the face and asks us to make sense of our lives in and because of them.

Keep Reading...

No comments:

Post a Comment