Avinu Malkeinu אבינו מלכנו

The Talmud tells: in a drought Rabbi Eliezer prayed twenty-four blessings—and was not answered. Rabbi Akiva stepped forward and said: "Our Father, our King! we have no king but You; our Father, our King, for Your own sake have mercy on us"—and the rain came. A heavenly voice explained: not because this one is greater, but because he forbears.

From those five lines grew a long ladder of petitions—forty-four in the Ashkenazi rite—sung on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the fasts. Each begins with the same two words that hold together the unthinkable: the Judge of all the world—and a Father.