Our Father, Our King

I was exchanging New Year’s blessings with Mitch, one of my close childhood friends. He often sends me links to performances of “Avinu Malkeinu” (Our Father, Our King), including one by the jam band Phish.

Mitch loves Avinu Malkeinu, and he’s in good company. During the ten days from Rosh HaShanah to Yom Kippur, we say it repeatedly in our morning and afternoon prayer services.

The Talmud teaches the background to this prayer. During a drought Rabbi Eliezer led the 24 blessing prayer enacted for droughts, but he was not answered. Rabbi Akiva went down after him and prayed, “Our Father, Our King we have no King but you. Our Father, Our King, for your sake have compassion on us.” The rains then fell.

Rabbi Eliezer used the established drought prayer. Rabbi Akiva focused on the relationship itself.

As we learned last week in “One World, Under G-d”, emotions are the primary vehicle of connection to G-d. Our Father is the love of a child for a parent, Our King the reverence of a servant before a king, the two foundational human emotions.

Rosh HaShanah is the day we focus on G-d as King. We are now approaching Yom Kippur, which is a day of love, because G-d helps us overcome our spiritual deficiencies as a parent helps a child. We have to do our part to receive the full extent of that help.

Rabbi Akiva’s prayer began with two relationships, Father and King. Thinking about or saying those names is where our part begins.