Rabbi Sacks on the Tefilla of Avinu Malkeinu

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The Avinu Malkeinu prayer, one of the highlights of the Yamim Noraim, is based on a much shorter prayer attributed to Rabbi Akiva. Contained within its two-word introduction – “Our Father, Our King” – is a beautiful and powerful idea, best explained by a story.

Once a great naval ship sailed into port. On the hillside overlooking the sea, a crowd had gathered to watch it enter including a small child who waved to the ship. An adult asked the child to whom he was waving. The child replied, “I’m waving to the captain of the ship.” The man said, “Do you think the captain of such a great ship would notice a small child like you?” “I’m sure of it,” said the child. “Why?” said the adult. “You see,” said the child, “the captain of the ship is my father.”

On the one hand, God is Malkeinu, our King, and we are his servants. But on the other, He is Avinu, our Father, and we are His children. We experience God both in awe and in love. In awe because He is our Sovereign, the Supreme power of the universe, but also in love because He brought us into being and is a parent to us. Between a servant and a king, there can be estrangement; a king can send a servant into exile. But between a father or mother and a child, there can be no estrangement; however far removed they are from one another, the bond between parent and child still holds.

The beauty of Rabbi Akiva’s prayer is the way he orders the words Avinu Malkeinu. God is our King and a king rules by justice. But before God is a King, He is a parent. A parent loves, and that love overrides strict justice. A parent forgives. In the words, “Our Father, our King,” Rabbi Akiva was saying, “Yes, You are our King, but remember that You are also our parent therefore that we have sinned, forgive us.”

If our words are honest and penetrate to our heart, they penetrate to God’s heart also, and God forgives because a parent can’t forsake his or her child. Whatever wrong they may have done, God’s love for us is like that, but deeper. “Though my father and mother might abandoned me,” says David in Psalm 27, “God will bring me close.” Avinu Malkeinu, our Father, our King.



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