Exploring Key Moments of the Rosh Hashanah Mahzor

(3) Our Father, our King! we have sinned before You.

(4) Our Father our King! we have no King except You.

(5) Our Father, our King! deal with us [kindly] for the sake of Your Name.

(6) Our Father, our King! renew for us a good year

(7) Our Father, our King! annul all harsh decrees concerning us.

(8) Our Father, our King! annul the designs of those who hate us.

(9) Our Father, our King! thwart the plans of our enemies.

(10) Our Father, our King! rid us of every oppressor and adversary.

(11) Our Father, our King! close the mouths of our adversaries and our accusers.

(12) Our Father, our King! remove pestilence, sword, famine, captivity, destruction and [the burden of] iniquity from the members of Your covenant.

(13) Our Father, our King! withhold the plague from Your inheritance.

(14) Our Father, our King! forgive and pardon all our iniquities.

(15) Our Father, our King! blot out and remove our transgressions and sins from before Your eyes.

(16) Our Father, our King! erase in Your abundant mercy all records of our liabilities.

(17) Our Father, Our King! bring us back in wholehearted repentance before You.

(18) Our Father, our King! send complete healing to the sick among Your people.

(19) Our Father, our King! tear up the evil [parts] of our sentence.

(20) Our Father, our King! remember us favorably before You.

(21) Our Father, our King! inscribe us in the Book of Good Life.

(22) Our Father, our King! inscribe us in the Book of Redemption and Deliverance.

(23) Our Father, our King! inscribe us in the Book of Maintenance and Sustenance.

(24) Our Father, our King! inscribe us in the Book of Merits.

(25) Our Father, our King! inscribe us in the Book of Pardon and Forgiveness.

(26) Our Father, our King! cause deliverance to spring forth for us soon.

(27) Our Father, our King! raise up the might of Yisrael Your people.

(28) Our Father, our King! raise up the might of Your anointed.

(29) Our Father, our King! fill our hands with Your blessings.

(30) Our Father, our King! fill our storehouses with abundance.

(31) Our Father, our King! hear our voice, spare us and have compassion upon us.

(32) Our Father, our King! accept our prayer with compassion and favor.

(33) Our Father, our King! open the gates of heaven to our prayer.

(34) Our Father, our King! remember, that we are dust.

(35) Our Father, our King! please do not turn us away empty-handed from You.

(36) Our Father, our King! let this hour be an hour of compassion and a time of favor before You.

(37) Our Father, our King! have compassion upon us, and upon our children and infants.

(38) Our Father, our King! do it for the sake of those who were slain for Your Holy Name.

(39) Our Father, our King! do it for the sake of those who were slaughtered for [proclaiming] Your Unity.

(40) Our Father, our King! do it for the sake of those who went through fire and water for the sanctification of Your Name.

(41) Our Father, our King! avenge the spilled blood of Your servants.

(42) Our Father, our King! do it for Your sake if not for ours.

(43) Our Father, our King! do it for Your sake and deliver us.

(44) Our Father, our King! do it for the sake of Your great mercy.

(45) Our Father, our King! do it for the sake of Your great, mighty, and awesome Name which is proclaimed upon us.

(46) Our Father, our King! favor us and answer us for we have no accomplishments; deal with us charitably and kindly and deliver us.

Let us describe the great holiness of this day, for it is awesome and frightening. On this day, Your Kingship is uplifted, and Your throne is established with kindness, and You sit upon it in truth. True that You are judge, admonisher, knower and witness; and You inscribe, seal, record and count, and recall all forgotten things. You open the book of records and it reads of itself; and the signature of every human is in it.

A great shofar is sounded, and a silent, gentle voice is heard; and the angels are alarmed, pangs of fear and trembling seize them, and they declare, “behold the Day of Judgment.” The heavenly host is arraigned in judgment, for they are not guiltless in Your eyes in judgment.

All humankind pass before You like young sheep. As a shepherd inspects his flock, making his sheep pass under his rod, so do You cause to pass, count, number, and review the soul of every living being, determining the life-span of every creature; and You record the decree of their judgment.

(43) On Rosh Hashana their decree is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed, how many will pass away and how many will be created, who will live and who will die; who will come to his timely end, and who to an untimely end; who will perish by fire and who by water; who by the sword and who by beast; who by hunger and who by thirst; who by earthquake and who by the plague; who by strangling and who by stoning; who will be at rest and who will wander about; who will have serenity and who will be confused; who will be tranquil and who will be tormented; who will become poor and who will become wealthy; who will be brought to a low state and who will be uplifted.

But repentance, and prayer and charity annul the evil decree.

(45) For as Your Name, so is Your praise, You are slow to anger and easy to pacify; For You do not desire death [for the sinner] but that they turn from their evil way and live. And even until their dying day, You wait for them — if they repent, You immediately accept them.

(46) True, You are their Creator, and You know their impulse that they are [but] flesh and blood. Humans, their beginning is from dust and ends in dust; risking their lives, they gets their bread, they are like a potsherd that is breakable, like grass that withers, like the flower that fades, like the shadow that passes, like the cloud that vanishes, like the wind that blows, like the dust that flies, and like a fleeting dream. But You are the King, the Almighty, the living and everlasting God.

It is our obligation to praise the Master of all, to ascribe greatness to the Creator of [the world in] the beginning: that God has not made us like the nations of the lands, and has not positioned us like the families of the earth; that God has not assigned our portion like theirs, nor our lot like that of all their multitudes. (For they prostrate themselves to vanity and nothingness, and pray to a god that cannot deliver.) But we bow, prostrate ourselves, and offer thanks before the Supreme King of kings, the Holy Bountiful One, Who spreads the heavens, and establishes the earth, and the seat of God's glory is in the heaven above, and the abode of God's invincible might is in the loftier heights. This is our God, there is nothing else. Our King is true, all else is insignificant, as it is written in God's Torah: “And You shall know this day and take into your heart that the Eternal is God in the heavens above and upon the earth below; there is nothing else.”

(8) We therefore put our hope in You, Adonoy our God, to soon behold the glory of Your might in banishing idolatry from the earth; and the false gods will be utterly exterminated to perfect the world as the kingdom of Shadai. And all mankind will invoke Your Name, to turn back to You, all the wicked of the earth. They will realize, and know, all the inhabitants of the world, that to You every knee must bend, every tongue must swear allegiance to You. Before You, Adonoy, our God, they will bow and prostrate themselves, and to the glory of Your Name give honor. And they will accept upon themselves the yoke of Your kingdom, and You will reign over them, soon, forever and ever. For the kingdom is Yours, and to all eternity You will reign in glory, as it is written in Your Torah: “Adonoy will reign forever and ever.”

You remember the dealings of today’s world, and You consider the behavior of all those who lived in earlier times. In Your Presence are revealed all hidden things and the multitude of secrets from the beginning of creation; for there is no forgetfulness before the throne of Your Glory, and there is nothing hidden from Your eyes.

You remember all that has been done, and even all that which is formed is not concealed from You. All is revealed and known before You Adonoy, our God Who observes and looks until the end of all generations. For You set an appointed time of remembrance, to consider every soul and being; to cause numerous deeds to be remembered and the multitude of creatures without end. From the beginning of creation, You have made this known, and from before time You have revealed it.

This day is the beginning of Your work a memorial of the first day. For it is a statute for Yisrael a [day of] judgment of the God of Ya'akov. And over countries [judgment] is pronounced, which of them is destined for the sword [war] and which for peace, which for famine and which for abundance. And on it, creatures are brought to mind, to be remembered for life or for death.

Who is not considered on this day? For the remembrance of all that is formed comes before You: the dealings of humanity, and the decree of his fate, and the misdeeds of human actions, human thoughts and their schemes, and the motives for the deeds of man. Fortunate is the one who does not forget You, the human who gains strength in You. For those who seek You will never stumble, and never will they be disgraced— all who trust in You. For the remembrance of all their deeds come before You, and You examine the deeds of all of them.

And No’ach too, You remembered with love, and [therefore] decreed for him a promise of deliverance and compassion, when You brought the flood-waters to destroy all flesh because of the wickedness of their deeds. Therefore, his remembrance came before You, Adonoy, our God, to multiply his seed like the dust of the earth, and his descendants as the sand of the sea; as it is written in Your Torah; “And God remembered No’ach and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the Ark, and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were calmed.” And it is said: “And God heard their groaning cry, and God remembered His covenant with Avraham, with Yitzchak, and with Ya'akov.” And it is said: “I will remember My covenant with Yaakov, and also My covenant with Yitzchak, and also My covenant with Avraham, will I remember; and the land [of Yisrael] I will remember.”

(1) The Eternal took note of Sarah as God had promised, and the Eternal did for Sarah as God had spoken. (2) Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken. (3) Abraham gave his newborn son, whom Sarah had borne him, the name of Isaac. (4) And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him. (5) Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. (6) Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” (7) And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham That Sarah would suckle children! Yet I have borne a son in his old age.”

(8) The child grew up and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. (9) Sarah saw the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing. (10) She said to Abraham, “Cast out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” (11) The matter distressed Abraham greatly, for it concerned a son of his. (12) But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed over the boy or your slave; whatever Sarah tells you, do as she says, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be continued for you. (13) As for the son of the slave-woman, I will make a nation of him, too, for he is your seed.”

(14) Early next morning Abraham took some bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar. He placed them over her shoulder, together with the child, and sent her away. And she wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba. (15) When the water was gone from the skin, she left the child under one of the bushes, (16) and went and sat down at a distance, a bowshot away; for she thought, “Let me not look on as the child dies.” And sitting thus afar, she burst into tears.

(17) God heard the cry of the boy, and an angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heeded the cry of the boy where he is. (18) Come, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” (19) Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water, and let the boy drink. (20) God was with the boy and he grew up; he dwelt in the wilderness and became a bowman. (21) He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

(22) At that time Abimelech and Phicol, chief of his troops, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything that you do. (23) Therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my kith and kin, but will deal with me and with the land in which you have sojourned as loyally as I have dealt with you.” (24) And Abraham said, “I swear it.”

(25) Then Abraham reproached Abimelech for the well of water which the servants of Abimelech had seized. (26) But Abimelech said, “I do not know who did this; you did not tell me, nor have I heard of it until today.” (27) Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a pact. (28) Abraham then set seven ewes of the flock by themselves, (29) and Abimelech said to Abraham, “What mean these seven ewes which you have set apart?” (30) He replied, “You are to accept these seven ewes from me as proof that I dug this well.” (31) Hence that place was called Beer-sheba, for there the two of them swore an oath. (32) When they had concluded the pact at Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, chief of his troops, departed and returned to the land of the Philistines. (33) [Abraham] planted a tamarisk at Beer-sheba, and invoked there the name of the Eternal, the Everlasting God. (34) And Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines a long time.

(1) Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test. God said to him, “Abraham,” and he answered, “Here I am.” (2) And God said, “Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you.”

(3) So early next morning, Abraham saddled his ass and took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and he set out for the place of which God had told him.

(4) On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place from afar. (5) Then Abraham said to his servants, “You stay here with the ass. The boy and I will go up there; we will worship and we will return to you.” (6) Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac. He himself took the firestone and the knife; and the two walked off together.

(7) Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he answered, “Yes, my son.” And he said, “Here are the firestone and the wood; but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” (8) And Abraham said, “God will see to the sheep for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them walked on together.

(9) They arrived at the place of which God had told him. Abraham built an altar there; he laid out the wood; he bound his son Isaac; he laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. (10) And Abraham picked up the knife to slay his son.

(11) Then an angel of the Eternal called to him from heaven: “Abraham! Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.” (12) And he said, “Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your favored one, from Me.”

(13) When Abraham looked up, his eye fell upon a ram, caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son. (14) And Abraham named that site Adonai-yireh, whence the present saying, “On the mount of the LORD there is vision.”