Here is one way to juxta-position what is the combination of judgment, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the canny confidence with which Jewish tradition meets the new year. The relation is not one thing next to the other as much one on top of the other. It is a palimpsest. On this day, the world came into being; on this day, He [sic] makes stand in judgment all the creatures of the universe. The additional Musaf portion of the morning prayer of the High Holiday Machzor is organized into three thematic sections. Malchuyot, Zichronot, Shofarot are strings of verses drawn from Scripture The group of verses form into a tripartite image of a bright and absolute world. The glory of divine kingship, the complete clarity of God’s attention or remembrance, and trumpet calls that manifest the divine presence are transformed by liturgy into mercy. In this way, the verses are superimposed over the melancholic impression of the flock assembled before the divine judge in the well-known piyyut, the Netana Tokef. Assembled by the liturgist, the verses temper the fleeting balance between life and death that creatures encounter in the actual world. Also in the form of a palimpsest are the shofar blasts that punctuate the day — the clarion sound of God’s presence in the world as imagined and the sound of brute suffering of the animal we are in this space of appearance in a ritual circle.