Piyyut

Arguably, the highlight of the prayer service on Yom Kippur is the Seder Avodah, a type of piyyut (liturgical hymn) that poetically reenacts in every detail the ritual service performed by the high priest on Yom Kippur in the Jerusalem Temple. But why do these poems begin with the creation story?

Yose ben Yose’s 4^th century CE piyyut for the shofarot service, and its creative use of the Song of Songs.

Maʿoz Tzur is an intense anti-Christian text reflecting the mood and experience of Ashkenazi Jews during the Crusades, when dozens of Jewish communities were slaughtered in the name of the cross.

What Kind of King?

On Rosh Hashanah, we pray for the future exclusive divine kingship presented in Aleinu. At the same time, the psalm of the shofar (Ps 47) offers us an alternative approach, to stop waiting for God’s eschatological intervention and start seeing kinship with other religious groups, all of whom are the “Am Elohei Avraham,” the retinue of the God of Abraham.