Understanding Avinu Malkeinu: Our Father, our King, Please Forgive the Flagrant Foul!

0:01 Our father, our king Avinu Malkenu, is what we say over and over in this classic, timeless and rather moving and stressful tefillah that we say during the Aseret Yimei Tshuva and on the forthcoming and soon-to-be day of Yom Kippur. Kippur Avinu Malkeinu, this incredible alphabetically organized tefillah that goes back and forth between the chazen and the congregation, everyone exclaiming the line, the stanza, begging for forgiveness, asking for Hashem's kindness. In some research it comes out that I found that Akiva, the holy Rebbe, akiva, yes, that one, the one who died, al-kirat, hashem the Tana, he was the one who instituted it, who was miyasated.

0:49 It's that old, it's that real Avinu Malkeinu. And when you go through the stanzas and it only feels like it's proper to familiarize ourselves with its words, since we will say it so frequently, I couldn't get more than one stanza in before I became derailed with what the words stated Avinu malkeinu, o Father, o King, chatanu lifanecha. I have sinned before you, lashla, in trying to decipher the holy shloh ha-kadosh, what the word lifanecha, chatanu lifanecha means, what do you mean? It's in front of you, says the shloh, because how could we have been so crass, so brazen, so shameless, so cocky, so arrogant?

1:37 That right, smack dab in front of Hashem's face After he said don't touch the cookie, right there in front of his eyes. We went for the cookie. After checking instant replay, it's a flagrant foul. It's obvious the offense to everyone. You have given me everything and while watching me, after you told me not to, I did it A rebellion. We are also going to say in Al-Kheit, when we go back and forth with all these different things, al-kheit Shechaton Ulefanecha.

2:19 And then we put it what it is that we messed up. People normally keep their fingers on the insert at the end of the Al-Kheit Shechatanu Lefanecha. Maybe we should put our finger on the other side Al-Kheit Shechatanu Lefanecha, over and over, right in front of your eyes, hashem, I disobeyed you. It's not supposed to get us down, but it's supposed to show that we lose Godness before we sin and that God-awareness, that there is an ayin ro'eh above us that helps protect us against future sins. And the work we should do the homework it feels like should be to be that much more cognizant that the Almighty is watching, that much more cognizant with our bracha, so that we remind ourselves Hashem is watching.

3:03 That much more cognizant with our bracha, so that we remind ourselves Hashem is watching, and so that, god forbid, the foul won't be so flagrant. We shouldn't even foul. We should make sure to never lose awareness. And, oh Father, oh King, please forgive us if we have erred right in front of your face.