Honest Unetanneh Tokef
By our choices it is written and by our actions or inaction it is sealed:
who shall we kill by fire and who shall we kill by drought,
who shall die from our bombs and bullets and who shall die from our friends and neighbors bombs and bullets,
who shall suffer diseases we could prevent and who shall suffer diseases we could treat,
who shall hunger and starve in distant lands and who shall hunger and starve in our communities,
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who shall die by their own hand because of hatred and who shall die by their own hand because of hopelessness,
who shall die by pollution and who shall die by climate change,
who shall die alone and who shall die a number.
Turning from our deadly path, reflecting on our failures, and repairing the world in any way we can helps, but we have so far to go.
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[Note: I always loved the idea of God rising during the Days of Awe from the Throne of Justice to the Throne of Mercy, but I have also always been uncomfortable with the idea of destiny, a book in which our *deserved* fates are written by God and *sealed*.
That discomfort, in the last few years in particular, has become outright rejection; I will not participate in the Unetanneh Tokef portion of the service (except to rise because the ark is open). This is the what I think about instead.]
Jonathan Dresner