Aleinu: God of All, or God of the Jews?

J. Rosh Hashanah 1:3, Lev. Rab. “Emor” 29, Pesikta DeRav Kahana 23, Midrash Tanchuma “Ha’azinu” 4; j. Avodah Zarah 1:2 (Rav’s school).

For an assessment of all three theories, see my forthcoming The Rhetoric of the Jewish Liturgy: A Historical and Literary Commentary on the Daily Prayer Book, London: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, Liverpool University Press, Chapter 8.

Referring to God as “Master of all (אדון הכל)” in the opening line of the first paragraph anticipates this usage and ties the two paragraphs together.

This line is actually a rephrasing of Jeremiah:

^{ירמיהו יד:כב} הֲיֵ֨שׁ בְּהַבְלֵ֤י הַגּוֹיִם֙ מַגְשִׁמִ֔ים וְאִם־הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם יִתְּנ֣וּ רְבִבִ֑ים הֲלֹ֨א אַתָּה־ה֜וּא יְ-הֹוָ֤ה אֱ-לֹהֵ֙ינוּ֙ וּ֨נְקַוֶּה־ לָּ֔ךְ כִּֽי־אַתָּ֥ה עָשִׂ֖יתָ אֶת־כָּל־אֵֽלֶּה:

^{Jer 14:22} Can any of the false gods of the nations give rain? Can the skies of themselves give showers? Only You can, O LORD our God! So we hope in You, for only You made all these things.

Both paragraphs of Aleinu refer to us/we and God. Paragraph 1 begins with “It is for us to praise the Master of all; paragraph 2 with “therefore we hope for You.”

The link with God’s kingship accounts for the alternative version of לתקן, following its use in Dan. 4:33, to indicate the reestablishment of kingship. Its meaning as “to repair” may hark back to Eccl. 1:15, 7:13. It is a later development adopted by early Ashkenazic liturgy.

See Reuven Kimelman, “U-n’taneh Tokef as a Midrashic Poem,” ed. Debra Blank, The Experience of Jewish Liturgy: Studies Dedicated to Menachem Schmelzer (Brill: Leiden, 2011), pp. 115-146, at p. 138.

אטו האידנא לאו אחד הוא?

These two verses are later accretions from the Malchiyot verses of the Rosh Hashanah Amidah.