Ve'al Kulam

Two careful rules for one phrase

In the Ten Days, the Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, from around 1900) says to say le-chayim with a short e, not la-chayim, so it cannot be heard as "not life." It also says that earlier lines should say only "for life." "For a good life" is said for the first time here, because a person who asks should start small and then add. The Tur (a code of Jewish law from the 1300s) traces both rules to Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (the leading rabbi of Germany in the 1200s).

Nobody agrees what "selah" means

Selah comes up twice in this paragraph. It is a word from Tehillim that commentators disagree about. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) says most explain it as "forever," and that this is how our prayers use it. Ibn Ezra (a Spanish commentator who died in the 1160s) says "forever" is not right: it means "so it is," or "this is true." Radak's own idea is that it comes from a word for lifting, a mark where the singers raised their voices.

An older copy is shorter

Machzor Vitry (a prayer book from France, put together around 1100) goes straight from "all the living will thank You, selah" to the closing blessing. Everything between them in our siddur is missing, from "and will praise and bless Your great Name" to "the God who is good." Its third verb is "be praised," where Sefard says "be lifted up." This is one printed edition, but it shows that today's paragraph is longer than the version in that book.

Built from verses

Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers from Spain, about 1340) traces the phrases to verses. "Your great Name" echoes Yechezkel 36:23, "I will make My great name holy." "In truth" echoes Yirmiyahu 10:10, "Hashem is the true God." "The Good is Your Name" echoes Eichah 3:25, "Hashem is good to those who hope in Him." And "it is fitting," he says, is the Sages' own wording, built on Yirmiyahu 10:7: "it is fitting for You." Like the Modim blessing before it, most of this paragraph is built from pieces of Tanach.

Goodness and the Name, side by side

When Moshe asked to see God's glory, God answered: "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will call out the name Hashem before you." The Ramban (Nachmanides, Spain, 1200s) says that in that call Moshe would learn God's graciousness and mercy, which people receive "by My name and by My goodness." The blessing's last line, "The Good is Your Name," also puts goodness and the Name side by side. That link is our own observation. Abudarham ties the line to a different verse, Eichah 3:25.

Thank first, then ask

Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk (a Chassidic master in Poland, who died in 1866) writes in his book Tiferet Shlomo that before you ask for what you need, you first have to thank for what you already got. Only then can you ask for kindness in the future. He sees this order in the prayers of the Ten Days of Repentance, from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. First you thank for the year that passed, in "for all of them." Then, in the next line, you ask to be written "for a good life." Now read those two lines again.

צריך מקודם לתת הודאה לשעבר ואח"כ יכול למשוך חסדים להבא

What life is for

Rabbi Meir ibn Gabbai (a Kabbalist born in Spain in 1480, who died around 1540) wrote a book on Kabbalah called Avodat HaKodesh. On the line "And all the living will thank You, selah," he says it teaches that the purpose of life is for us to thank and praise God's great Name without a break. For him, thanking is what being alive is for.

וכל החיים יודוך סלה להורות כי תכלית החיים הם כדי שנודה ונשבח לשם הגדול באין הפסק

Your thanks can wake up everything

The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, the Rebbe of Ger in Poland, who died in 1905) quotes "And all the living will thank You" in a teaching for Chanukah. Right after it, he passes on something he heard from his grandfather. A Jew who puts all of his life-energy into praising and thanking God's Name can wake up every living thing to thank God. Now read "all the living" again.

איש ישראל כפי מה שמכניס כל החיות להלל ולהודות לשמו ית'. כמו כן יכול לעורר כל החיים ממש להודות לה'

Being allowed to thank is a gift

Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk looks at how this blessing ends: "the Good is Your Name, and to You it is fitting to give thanks." He reads the ending as pointing to the thanking itself. That we get to thank at all is also something we were given. He starts from a verse in Tehillim: "Your kindness is better than life; my lips will praise You." Earlier in the same teaching he says God gave people permission to thank Him.

ע"ז גופא ההודאה שאנו זוכים להודות

I forgot Ukhtov in the Ten Days. Do I go back?

If you remember before you say Hashem's Name in the closing line, yes. Say Ukhtov, then start again from Vechol Hachayim (Sefard Yom Kippur machzor, the holiday prayer book). The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) says this works even after "Baruch Atah." Once you say the Name, you do not go back and do not repeat the Amidah (the Rema, in his notes on the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law, 582:5). The machzor says you may add it at Elokai Netzor, the prayer at the end of the Amidah.

Is Ukhtov only for weekdays?

No. It belongs to the whole Ten Days of Repentance, from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur. Siddur Sefard prints it in the Shabbat morning Amidah too, marked "in the Ten Days," and the Sefard Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur machzorim (holiday prayer books) print it. Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) lists it as one of four additions in these days. Siddur Edot HaMizrach, a Sephardic siddur, puts it in a different spot, right after "Vechol hachayim yoducha selah."

On Yom Kippur at Neilah, is this line different?

Yes. Neilah is the closing prayer of Yom Kippur. The Sefard machzor prints "Vachatom lechayim tovim," "seal for a good life," where you normally say Ukhtov, "write." The Mishnah Berurah gives the rule: at Neilah, when you reach Ukhtov, say Vachatom in its place. His reason is that Neilah is when the judgment written on Rosh Hashanah is sealed.

Do I bow during Ve'al Kulam?

No bow is required. In this blessing the Shulchan Aruch sets bows at the start and at the end (113:1). In the opening you rise at Hashem's Name, so you stand through Ve'al Kulam (Mishnah Berurah 113:12). Bow again at "Baruch" in the closing line and rise at the Name (Shulchan Aruch 113:7). Bowing in the middle of a blessing is allowed. The Mishnah Berurah explains that no one will mistake it for changing the Sages' rule, since they set no bow in the middle of any blessing (113:4).