Judaism for the Thinking Person
Oct 2, 2026 · 21 min · 8 segments
Jews pray the Aleinu prayer three times a day to end every service, which is weird because it was composed just for Rosh Hashanah. How did this tradition develop? And should we, like some Jewish…
Nadav CaineHost
The first section of the Aleinu prayer is thanks for having it set Israel apart for the service of God, and the second section, omitted by those who follow the Sephardic rite, expresses a hope for the coming of the Messianic age, when the world will be perfected under the kingdom of the Almighty.
It connects to the Ve'atahu song that Neil's melody lifts me up with, which is also very rarely a prayer in the future tense.
It connects to the special liturgy, very ancient, on High Holy Days, as of Uvechin, which calls to hasten the day when all humankind will be united into a single band to do God's will, and to restore Israel to its homeland, and banish iniquity and wickedness from the earth.
We hope in you, Adonai our God, that we may speedily behold the glory of our might.
You will remove the abominations of the earth, and the idols will be utterly cut off when the world may be perfected under your kingship, the theme of malchuyot.
And the children of all flesh will call upon your name, and all the wicked of the earth will turn to you, and on that day, God's name will be one.
And then come the remembering the deeds of the nations in Zichronot, and including our deeds.
And then Shofarot is the sound that calls for the coming of the Messianic Age, where God will be King over the earth.
Historians point out that the language matches that of piyyutim in the fifth to century CE, but it's still, as the Machsor Lev Shalem notes in the margin, one of our very oldest prayers.
And it was composed specifically for the Musaf of Rosh Hashanah, only later added to Yom Kippur.
The first section of the Aleinu prayer is thanks for having it set Israel apart for the service of God, and the second section, omitted by those who follow the Sephardic rite, expresses a hope for the coming of the Messianic age, when the world will be perfected under the kingdom of the Almighty.
It connects to the Ve'atahu song that Neil's melody lifts me up with, which is also very rarely a prayer in the future tense.
It connects to the special liturgy, very ancient, on High Holy Days, as of Uvechin, which calls to hasten the day when all humankind will be united into a single band to do God's will, and to restore Israel to its homeland, and banish iniquity and wickedness from the earth.
We hope in you, Adonai our God, that we may speedily behold the glory of our might.
You will remove the abominations of the earth, and the idols will be utterly cut off when the world may be perfected under your kingship, the theme of malchuyot.
And the children of all flesh will call upon your name, and all the wicked of the earth will turn to you, and on that day, God's name will be one.
And then come the remembering the deeds of the nations in Zichronot, and including our deeds.
And then Shofarot is the sound that calls for the coming of the Messianic Age, where God will be King over the earth.
Historians point out that the language matches that of piyyutim in the fifth to century CE, but it's still, as the Machsor Lev Shalem notes in the margin, one of our very oldest prayers.
And it was composed specifically for the Musaf of Rosh Hashanah, only later added to Yom Kippur.
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