ברש השנה B'Rosh Hashanah

This section of the וּנְתַנֶּה תֹּקֶף (Un'taneh Tokef), a centuries-old poem and the central text read on Yom Kippur, is unflinchingly direct with reminding the readers what will happen in the coming year. And in all but four cases, my translation here is also incredibly direct. In two cases I chose to modernize a word for the sake of maintaining the universal applicability of the prayer: translating חֶרֶב (cherev), "sword," as "weapon" and סְּקִילָה (s'kilah), "stoning," as "execution." The others require a bit more explanation.

One of the remaining cases is the translation the word מַעֲבִירִין (ma'avirin) in the second to last line. This is a conjugation of the verb עָבַר (avar), meaning "to pass" (as in pass through a threshold, pass over an ocean, pass time, a sensation passing, and so on). This is actually the second usage of this word in this prayer, the first being in line 5, to refer to death as עַבְרוּן (av'run), "passing away." Since the word מֵת (met), "to die," is used just three lines later, I doubt this word is used as a way to avoid using the word "death." Instead, perhaps it is to connect with this word's later usage, in the climax of the prayer, where it is used to indicate a sensation passing away. Although I would have loved to have translated both the same way, I opted for "lessen" or "take away" for the sake of nicer English.

The other is the word רֹעַ (roa) in the last line, which means "severity," "badness," or "evilness." The reason I translate this word as "bitterness" is not because of some scholarly reason, like the fact that it looks like it could be related to the root מ־ר־ר (m r r), meaning "bitter," but because of my personal connection to this prayer. My mother was diagnosed with cancer a few days before Rosh Hashanah and died just hours after Yom Kippur. The "decree" that year was so clear, I expected this prayer to be impossible to face. However, when our Rabbi, Joshua Waxman, explained that some read this word as "bitterness" – implying that the crux of this prayer is that although bad things will happen, its effect on us is malleable – this prayer became a source of comfort. Thus, I translate this word as "bitterness" because that's what it means to me. You may change it if you want, the option is there.