Rabbi Arthur Waskow

Mouth to Mouth with God

The Yom Kippur chant "Ki anu amecha, v'attah elohenu," first goes thru an entire litany of complementary but unequal relationships — people/God, serfs/king, pot/potter, vineyard/vintner.

Then it ends with an amazing leap: "Anu ma'amirecha, v'attah ma'amirenu."

"We are Your bespoken, and You are our Bespoken."

Come to think of it, even the capital letters and verbs falsify, since the Hebrew has none.

"We your bespoken; you our bespoken."

Suddenly the relationship is BOTH complementary and equal.

We have to live through times in which we are subordinate to the Unity of All, but finally we and God, our own Anokhi ("I") and the great Anokhi, can look each other straight in the eye, or — even better — speak with each other mouth to mouth.

Keyn yehi ratzon, not only for God & us but for all of us in couples and clusters and communities and societies and the planet.