Saturday, September 11, 2010

The Dreams That Fly Away


All mankind will pass before You

like members of the flock.

Like a shepherd pasturing his flock,

making sheep pass under his staff,

so shall You cause to pass, count, calculate, and consider the soul of all the living;

and You shall apportion the fixed needs of all Your creatures

and inscribe their verdict.

For Your Name signifies Your praise:

hard to anger and easy to appease,

for You do not wish the death of one deserving death,

but that he repent from his way and live.

Until the day of his death You await him;

if he repents You will accept him immediately.

It is true that You are their Creator and

You know their inclination,

for they are flesh and blood.

Our origin is dust and our end is dust.

At the hazard of our life we earn our bread.

We are like a fragile vessel,

like the grass that withers

the flower that fades,

the shadow that passes,

the cloud that vanishes,

the wind that blows,

the dust that floats,

the dreams that fly away

Verily.

The dreams that fly away.

Your kingship is an eternal kingship.

Your dominion is for all generations.

5 comments:

  1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-0o72al-As&feature=player_embedded

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4:10 PM

    For those who do not know, the words are from the liturgy for Rosh Hashanah. Brilliant-but-heart-rending use of them.

    It was supposedly composed and spoken by a medieval era rabbi who was tortured and died right as he finished the prayer. It is called Unetaneh Tokef.

    I sometimes cry when we sing this in synagogue.

    Today, I cried when looking at your post and reading the words along with seeing the pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ...but repentance, prayer, and charity remove the evil of the decree.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And the unaware peacenik prays for peace and deliverance from the 1400
    years of jihad struggle to dominate, and he believes in co-existance with the kill-culture
    that faces mecca five times each day...for they claim their pious imam is a "moderate"!

    Burn The Qur'an? No. Read It.

    reb
    ___ ___

    ReplyDelete