Avinu Malkeinu

What it is

Avinu Malkeinu is a litany, a long stretch of short petitions that address God as father and as king. The two titles come from separate verses of the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 63:16 and Isaiah 33:22. Joseph H. Hertz, who died in 1946 after serving as a Chief Rabbi, called it the Jewish year's oldest and most moving litany. It is recited during the synagogue service, usually at Shacharit in the morning or Mincha in the afternoon. Communities keep different numbers of lines: twenty-seven in the Yemenite tradition, twenty-nine among Sephardim, thirty-eight in the Western Ashkenazic rite, and as many as fifty-three in the version used at Salonika.

Origins and history

The Talmud, in tractate Ta'anit, tells of Rabbi Akiva, who died in 135 CE, praying for a drought to end with two verses that both began 'Our Father, Our King'. The account suggests the rain came. Notes on the Talmud printed around 1515 give five such verses. At first there was probably no set number, no fixed order and no settled text. One early form followed the alphabet, which gives twenty-two lines. Amram Gaon's ninth-century prayer book has twenty-five, while Mahzor Vitry, from the early twelfth century, has more than forty and says that lines were added for particular occasions and then kept.

How it is kept

The prayer leader recites a line, and the congregation answers it. In the Western Ashkenazic rite every line works this way, and on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur the melody shifts from one line to the next. Most Eastern Ashkenazic communities answer only verses fifteen to twenty-three, sometimes nineteen to twenty-three. In that rite the reader speaks the last line aloud, often softly, since it is a request. The Western rite keeps that line silent, because its words, that we have no good actions, are thought unfit to say in public. Eastern Ashkenazic practice opens the Ark for the prayer and closes it afterwards; the Western rite opens it on the morning of Rosh Hashanah and through Yom Kippur, but not on the days between; Sephardi congregations leave it closed.

Music and recordings

Outside the synagogue the prayer has been set and recorded many times. The band Mogwai took its melody for an instrumental titled My Father My King, and the band Phish plays a version called Avenu Malkenu in 5/4 time. Barbra Streisand has sung it. The Australian-Israeli singer Lior has performed it in concert and recorded it at the Sydney Opera House in 2013, while the duo Shlomit and RebbeSoul made an acoustic recording and the Hasidic singer Shulem Lemmer covered it in 2019. In 2018 the composer Henry Panion wove its theme into a work for solo violin and orchestra, first played at the 16th Street Baptist Church.

Today and change

Several Jewish movements have reworded the opening. UK Liberal Judaism's High Holy Day prayer book, Machzor Ruach Chadashah, translates the phrase as 'Our Creator, Our Sovereign' and adds a newer prayer that uses the feminine noun Shekhinah. The Reform prayer book Mishkan HaNefesh, published in 2015 as a companion to Mishkan T'filah, addresses God as 'Loving Father' and 'Compassionate Mother'. Traditional Orthodox Judaism rejects such changes, holding that Hebrew wording carries exact meaning: Shekhinah describes a loving, ever-present relationship rather than God, and a Hebrew term for sovereign can suggest severe judgement. In July 2020, as coronavirus spread in Israel, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, David Lau, and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky called for the prayer to be said twice daily.

How Avinu Malkeinu is kept

The leader reads a line and the congregation answers it. In the Western Ashkenazic rite every line is said that way, and on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur the tune changes as the lines go on; in most Eastern Ashkenazic communities only verses 15 to 23 are answered. Eastern Ashkenazic practice has the Ark opened for the prayer and shut at its end, while the Western rite opens it on the morning of Rosh Hashanah and all through Yom Kippur, but not on the days between. Sephardi congregations leave the Ark closed.

When and where

It is said on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and on the days between them, and on fast days in most Eastern Ashkenazi communities. Ashkenazim leave it out on Shabbat, except at Ne'ila. It is left out on Tisha B'Av, on the afternoon of the Fast of Esther when that fast is not moved, and on a Friday afternoon that is the 10th of Tevet.

Avinu Malkeinu belongs to synagogue worship, so it is kept wherever Jewish communities pray, in many countries and in many rites. Sephardi and Western Ashkenazi congregations use it only on the High Holy Days. Most Eastern Ashkenazi communities also say it on fast days. Yemenite, Syrian, Salonikan and Italian traditions each have their own wording and length.

What Avinu Malkeinu means

Two images stand at the centre of the prayer: God as a father who is close, and God as a king who decides the year ahead. In the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, five lines speak of a heavenly book and ask God to inscribe the worshipper in it. At Ne'ila the same lines ask God to seal what has been written, since tradition holds that the year's decrees are written at Rosh Hashanah and sealed at Yom Kippur. The slow, repeating melody gives the words their tone of pleading.

Days Avinu Malkeinu is marked

Questions people ask about Avinu Malkeinu

See also

Yom KippurThe holiest day in Judaism, dedicated to fasting, prayer and atonementRosh HashanahThe Jewish New Year marked by shofar horn blasts, prayer and sweet foodsHoly SaturdayThe closing day of Holy Week, a Saturday of waiting, fasting and vigil before EasterKol NidreAn Aramaic declaration of vow annulment that opens the Yom Kippur evening service in Jewish synagogues.

Good reading and sources

• Avinu Malkeinu on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-14.