God & Israel: 12 Keys for Forgiveness
The High Holidays are a perfect time to think about our relationship with God, and one of the central poems in the Yom Kippur davening, Ki Anu Amecha, does just that. In twelve sections it states varyingly: “Forgive us…for we are Your… and You are our…” What? What is God to us, and what are we to Him? Join Mrs. Sarah Rudolph as she explores, through metaphor as well as more directly, the different ways the poet suggests Israel should relate to the divine and how any of that should be a basis for which we might ask forgiveness.
God & Israel: 12 Keys for Forgiveness: God & Israel: 12 Keys for Forgiveness Event
In this session, we will introduce the inspiration and context of this beautiful poem that introduces the communal Confession in Ashkenazi services on Yom Kippur. The poem offers twelve different metaphors/descriptions of the relationship between God and Israel, and we will spend the bulk of the session on one that might seem the most familiar: parent and child. What does it mean to think of God as our Father and ourselves as His children? What are we really saying when we appeal to Him in these terms on Yom Kippur?
Sarah Rudolph is Director of TorahTutors.org. She is a freelance Jewish educator, writer, and editor and has been sharing her passion for Jewish texts of all kinds for over 15 years, with students of all ages. Sarah’s essays have been published in a variety of internet and print media, including Times of Israel, Kveller, Jewish Action, OU Life, The Lehrhaus, TorahMusings, and more. She is Editor-At-Large, Deracheha: womenandmitzvot.org. Sarah lives in Cleveland with her husband and four children, but is privileged to learn online with students all over the world.