Erev Yom Kippur--Like clay in the hands of the potter. . .

Like the clay in the hands of the potter,
who by his will makes it wider and by his will makes it shorter,
so are we in Your hands, former of kindness. . .


So we say in one of the most poignant prayers of the night of Yom Kippur.  At first glance, the theme of this piyut is a continuation of Rosh Hashanah's theme of God's kingship--- God is in complete control.

However, the phrase "Like the clay in the hands of the potter" wasn't original to this poem.  It's based on Chapter 18 of the book of Yirmiyahu, where God tells Yirmiyahu to go down to the house of the potter, and has him watch as the potter makes clay pots.  Sometimes they break, and the potter just refashions them.

God tells Yirmiyahu that God is like the potter and we are like the clay.   How so?   Sometimes we are wicked and mired in sin, and God judges us with an unfavorable decree.  Nevertheless, if we just return to God, He will refashion the unfavorable decree and turn it into a good one.

The message is that even if it looks like hope is lost, like we cannot do teshuva, God is ready to accept our teshuva and will "refashion" the decree and His relationship with us for the good.

The prophet goes on to describe how people will sometimes take the wrong approach and say "noash"-- we have given up hope, and we will just do what we want.    This, Yirmiyahu tells us, is the wrong approach because the door to teshuva is always open.

So our famous poem turns out to be less about God's kingship and much more about how we should not give up or despair, but instead realize that even now, even if we've ignored the past year, ignored Rosh Hashanah and the days before Yom Kippur, even now we can do a complete turn around.  If we reshape ourselves with teshuva, God will reshape the decree and His relationship with us.

A most appropriate poem for the beginning of Yom Kippur.

Gmar Chatima Tova.