U-n’Taneh Tokef - Inner Transformations

If you want me to see, to feel,
then let me hear your voice
trying to understand
what a single word means.

-Anything on Earth, Poems by Ken Weisner

In 2008, noted author and emeritus professor Rabbi Dr. Neil Gillman wrote an essay for the High Holiday edition of the Cantors Assembly's Journal of Synagogue Music  called “Reading Liturgy Through the Spectacles of Theology: The Case of U-n’Taneh Tokef”.  This is the first year where I will be chanting more than just the barest minimum of this piyyut, or liturgical poem.  Most congregations I have worked in, so far, omit much of it because of the direct way it talks about how death could take anyone at any moment and how we are sheep passing under the staff of an unseen shepherd.  An excerpt reads:

           “How many will pass away away from this world,

            how many will be born into it;

            who will live and who will die;

            who will reach the ripeness of age,

            who will be taken before their time;

            who by fire and who by water;

            who by war and who by beast;

            who by famine and who by drought;

            who by earthquake and who by plague;

            who by strangling and who by stoning;

            who will rest and who will wander;

            who will be tranquil and who will be troubled;

            who will be calm and who tormented;

            who will live in poverty and who in prosperity;

            who will be degraded and who exalted —     “

                        trans.  Mishkan Hanefesh Machzor of the Days of Awe

Gillman reflects on how the entirety of this text takes the image of God and ”...plays with it, stretches it, and expands it, and undermines it, and supports it, and turns it on its head; and at the same time the text does it, we do it too, internally.”

He provides a provocative  analysis of the text, of the various faces of God, the drama and then the eventual return to “emet”, the poetic truth of how we are all formed from dust.    He also says that, unlike Kol Nidre where the melody is more important than the text, here it is the text.

The true liturgical power of this poem is not merely the text, however.  It is the text in transmission.  There is a great wisdom in the tradition of Jewish prayer texts being sung.    The Sages recognized that by elevating words, they could be remembered even by those who were not literate.  When sung,  prayers command more attention.  They allow us to be in community in a way much more profound than simply being in proximity.  They can be taught more easily.  In other words, they can be internalized.

As much as the text brings by itself,  the transformation, the turning, can only take place if there is a way to bring it into ourselves.  In order for the community to transform it,  as a cantor,  I have to be there, just ahead of them,  with my truth.  I inhabit the metaphors:  the Court,  the Book of Life,  the uniqueness of our human imprints.  The words of the original poet come through me in order to be taken in and transformed by others.  Together we remember that we have the opportunity to make changes.  We become one with the metaphors in our minds and our bodies.  Through our urging,  the Book of Life is open to take our names.

Jessica Leash is the organizer and cantor of Silicon Valley Jewish Meetup, a brand new community serving the San Francisco South Bay.  She will be ordained by Aleph Alliance for Jewish Renewal Ordination program in January of 2018.  This year, she is serving as the High Holiday cantor at Congregation Shir Ami in Castro Valley, CA.  To reach her, please email: cantor@ha-emek.org

If you would like to support her cantorial ordination fund, please visit her GoFundMe campaign at: https://www.gofundme.com/jessicas-cantorial-ordination