הַמֶּֽלֶךְ *The King.*Without changing the words of the usual Shabbat and festival prayers, the overarching theme of the Days of Awe – God’s kingship – is signaled at this point by the emphasis placed on one word, HaMelekh, “the King.” This is amplified by the custom for the main leader of prayer to take over at this point, singing the word as he ascends the bima, and by the music itself which begins softly in a minor key and rises to triumphant major, a practice dating back to Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg in the thirteenth century.

וּבְמַקְהֲלוֹת And in the assemblies. The word “assemblies” refers to the large congregations present in synagogues on holy days, reminding us of the Temple, full at such times. לְהוֹדוֹת, לְהַלֵּל… *To thank, praise, etc.*The nine infinitives of praise correspond to the nine additional psalms we say on Sabbaths and festivals.

יִשְׁתַּבַּח שִׁמְךָ לָעַד May Your name be praised forever. The concluding blessing over the Verses of Praise which, like the introductory blessing, is said standing. The fifteen terms of glorification equal the number of psalms in the Verses of Praise on Sabbaths and festivals, as well as the number of “Songs of Ascents.”

שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת Psalm 130.One of the supreme cris de coeur in literature, a prayer from the abyss. Judaism is a faith some of whose deepest moments come in the midst of defeat, dejection, and the sense that, were it not for God, we would be utterly alone. Jacob, fleeing and far from home, encounters angels. David wrote some of his most powerful psalms on the brink of despair. Yet it is precisely our ability to speak to God that redeems us from solitude, God’s forgiveness that allows us to live with our failures, God’s love that gives us strength, and God’s radiance that lights the heart of darkness. Rabbi Yitzḥak Hutner (1906–1980), one of the great yeshiva teachers of the twentieth century, wrote to a disciple who was wrestling with disappointment and depression: Certainly you have stumbled and will stumble again, and in many battles you will fall lame. I promise you, though, that after those losing campaigns you will emerge from the war with laurels of victory on your head… The wisest of men said, “A righteous man falls seven times, but rises again” [Proverbs 24:16]. Fools believe the intent of the verse is to teach us something remarkable – that the righteous man falls seven times and, despite this, he rises. But the knowledgable are aware that the essence of the righteous man’s rising again is because of his seven falls. (Paḥad Yitzḥak, Letters, 128) This is a penitential psalm: hence its inclusion here on the Days of Awe and the days between. What troubles the Psalmist is not external enemies but internal guilt. “If You, LORD, should keep account of sins, O LORD, who could stand?” Then the poet states the paradox: what is awesome about God is precisely His forgiveness. He never gives up on us; He refuses to let go. We may lose faith in Him; He never loses faith in us. מִשֹּׁמְרִים לַבֹּֽקֶר More than watchmen wait for the morning(previous page). The Psalmist compares his longing for God’s light in the dark night of the soul to that of the watchmen waiting for the first light of dawn.

HALF KADDISH This, the shortest of the five forms of Kaddish, marks the end of one section of the prayers. More like a semicolon than a period, or a pause between the different movements of a symphony rather than the beginning of a new piece, the Half Kaddish denotes an internal break between two connected sections of prayer. Like all other versions of Kaddish it requires a quorum of ten men, the smallest number that constitutes a community as opposed to a group of individuals.