Unetanneh Tokef
piyyut, part of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, and in some customs also the Yom Kippur liturgy
Untanneh Tokef (Hebrew: וּנְתַנֶּה תּוֹקֶף, 'let us speak of the awesomeness [of the day]'), also spelled Unthanneh Toqeph, Un'taneh Tokef, or Unsanneh Tokef, is a piyyut that has been a part of the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy in some traditions of Rabbinic Judaism for centuries. It introduces the Kedushah of the Mussaf services of the High Holy Days. In many communities, it is chanted while the Torah ark is open and the congregants are standing. It is the "central poem of the High Holy Day [of the Day of Atonement]", argued Herman Wouk. The ArtScroll machzor calls it "one of the most stirring compositions in the entire liturgy of the Days of Awe".
Origin
Traditional account
The following story is recorded in the 13th-century halakhic work Or Zarua, which attributes it to Ephraim of Bonn (a compiler of Jewish martyrologies, died ca. 1200):I found in a manuscript written by Rabbi Ephraim of Bonn that Rabbi Amnon of Mainz wrote Untanneh Tokef about the terrible event which befell him, and these are his words: "It happened to Rabbi Amnon of Mainz, who was the greatest of his generation, and rich, and pedigreed, and handsome, that the bishop and his officials began to ask him to convert to their faith, but he refused to listen to them. Thus they spoke to him day after day, but he did not listen to them, so the bishop became angry with him. When they arrested him, he said 'I wish to consult and to think upon this matter for three days.' Though he said this only to delay them, he was immediately consumed by guilt, for he had implied that he doubted the word of God and could be convinced to apostatize. He went home, but he could not eat nor drink, and he sickened.
“Unetanneh Tokef” enters the record as piyyut, part of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy, and in some customs also the Yom Kippur liturgy. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Unetanneh, Tokef and piyyut can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q426711. The Library of Congress control number is n83126482. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1200.
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