רִבּוֹן כָּל הָעוֹלָמִים Master of all worlds. This passage expresses the paradox of the human condition in the presence of God. We know how small we are and how brief our lives.

הֶֽבֶל Fleeting breath. The Hebrew word hevel – the key word of the opening chapters of Ecclesiastes, from which this line is taken – has been translated as “vain, meaningless, empty, futile.” However, it literally means “a short breath.” It conveys a sense of the brevity and insubstantiality of life as a physical phenomenon. All that lives soon dies, and is as if it had never been.

אֲבָל*Yet.*Though we may be insignificant as individuals, we are part of something momentous, for “we are Your people, the children of Your covenant,” descendants of those You singled out to be witnesses to the world of Your existence and majesty. יַעֲקֹב בִּנְךָ בְכוֹרֶֽךָ Jacob your firstborn son. Though Jacob was not the biological firstborn of Isaac and Rebecca, God subsequently declared, “My child, My firstborn, Israel” (Ex. 4:22).

אַתָּה הוּא It was You who existed. This prayer, with its emphasis on the changelessness of God, may have been incorporated at a time of persecution, expressing the refusal of Jews to abandon their faith. God does not alter or revoke His covenant; therefore, we may not renounce our religion or identity: “I, God, do not change; so you, children of Jacob, are not destroyed” (Mal. 3:6).