Unetaneh Tokef ונתנה תוקף

"Let us tell the mighty holiness of this day": the heavenly court opens the books, and "as a shepherd passes his flock beneath his staff" all who live pass before the Judge—who in their time and who before it, who by water and who by fire. And the way out: "but repentance, prayer and charity avert the evil decree". In Ashkenazi communities it is the summit of the Days of Awe.

A medieval tradition tells of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz, maimed for refusing baptism, who spoke this prayer with his last breath. But the Cairo Genizah yielded copies of Unetaneh Tokef centuries older—from Byzantine-era Land of Israel. The legend remains a legend of martyrdom, and the prayer proved older still than its legend.