Who by Fire, Who by Water
Hoffman, PhD, Rabbi Lawrence A. / Arian, Merri Lovinger / Bayfield, Tony / Brettler, Marc Zvi / Brous, Sharon / Brown, Erica / Durchslag, Ruth / Feinstein, Edward / Frishman, Elyse D. / Goldstein, Andrew / Hoffman, Joel M. / Horvilleur, Delphine / Kaunfer, Elie / Kedar, Karyn D. / Kushner, Lawrence / Kushner, Noa / Landes, Daniel / Langer, Ruth / Lerman, Liz / Lopatin, Asher / Madsen, Catherine / Magonet, Jonathan / Marx, Dalia / Messinger, Ruth W. / Middleburgh, Charles H. / Nussbaum, Rachel / Panken, Aaron D. / Rose, Or N. / Saperstein, Marc / Sasso, Sandy Eisenberg / Slater, Jonathan P. / Spodek, Brent Chaim / Stern, David / Teutsch, David A. / Tucker, Gordon / Umansky, Ellen M. / Weiss, Avraham / Wenig, Margaret Moers / Wolfson, Ron / Zemel, Daniel G. / Zierler, Wendy
A peculiar aspect of High Holy Day liturgy is the medieval poetry that expands the number of prayerbook pages with lessons and imagery that most modern worshipers find baffling. At the top of this list is Un'taneh Tokef, a warning that at every New Year, God establishes, in advance, "who will live and who will die ... who by fire and who by water"not to mention by such deaths as "strangulation and warfare." To be sure, "repentance, prayer and ...
