Unetanneh Tokef

Unetaneh tokef (Heb. We want to describe the power of the holiness of the day) are the initial words of a Pijjut, which is read during Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur of Ashkenazi Jews in the synagogue. The prayer comes from Germany and probably dates back to the 10th century. Unetaneh Tokef goes back to the medieval legend of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz. First described it in a copy of the late 13th century, the famous Kabbalistic work Sefer by Rabbi Isaac ben Or Zarua Moses of Vienna ( 1180 - 1250 ) (now in the Rosenthal Library, Amsterdam).

The seal is an integral part of the Ashkenazi Jews and the Jews - Tedesco ( German -speaking Jews in Italy) during the liturgy on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Musical settings

In his 1974 released album New Skin for the Old Ceremony Leonard Cohen says in the song Who by Fire extracts the content of the prayer in its English version.

A previous setting was made by Chasan Isaac Offenbach ( father of Jacques Offenbach).