Avinu Malkeinu

Source language

Hebrew

English words and music

Walter J. Kin

English recording

RIGLI · album release

Album release date

16 October 2025

Avinu Malkeinu is a Hebrew prayer whose opening addresses God as both father and king. Jewish Encyclopedia describes its use during the penitential season and its gradual growth into different liturgical forms.

The Talmudic account of Rabbi Akiva invoking these words during a drought is part of its history, but does not establish him as the sole author of the complete later prayer. There is no single composition date for all its verses.

The recording that opens here is RIGLI’s official album release, published on 16 October 2025. Its distributor-supplied credits name Walter J. Kin as lyricist and composer. The preserved English lyric begins by asking the Father and King to hear the community; those opening lines also appear in the album’s published audio preview.

It asks for safety, healing and peace. This is a contemporary adaptation of the prayer’s petitions, rather than a complete line-by-line translation of one Hebrew liturgical edition.

The double address joins intimacy and authority. A father can be approached with a child’s trust; a king has the power to change a community’s circumstances. In the archived English text, that relationship remains collective: the speakers ask for help together. The prayer is not only about the singer’s private wishes.

The book of life, the lifting of harsh decrees and the hope of redemption connect the English adaptation with the earlier prayer. Kin also gives peace a domestic scale by imagining every home sharing in it. The ending joins peace for Israel with peace in every heart.

This allows a short song to move between a people, a household and an individual without treating those concerns as separate worlds.

Compare the English album recording with the Hebrew RIGLI recording using the player. The Hebrew version presents the prayer in its source language with new music by Walter J. Kin. It is a contemporary setting, not a recovered historical melody.

The two recordings let you compare the sound of the repeated address and the way each musical setting gives the words time and emphasis.

An earlier English upload remains available in the player. Its text-mismatch label marks a discrepancy between its description and manual captions and the preserved Avinu Malkeinu lyric. The official album recording is a separate release.

The Russian article explains the prayer and this adaptation. A Russian vocal performance has not yet been verified for this page. Reading a translation and hearing a sung adaptation are different ways of encountering the work.

English words by Walter J. Kin, preserved in the project’s author archive.

Our father our king please hear our call today
We come with open hearts and walk your way
Be kind to us and hold us in your grace
Reach out and lift us to a safer place

Our father our king please write us in the book of life
Our father our king cut down the noise and strife
Send healing now and let the sorrows cease
Bring every home into a lasting peace

Remember us for good and clear the way
Release the heavy decrees of today
Bring near redemption light that does not fade
Teach us to walk in truth and not be afraid

Make peace for us and all of Israel now
Plant peace in every heart and show us how
Be gracious when we call and hear our song
Hold us together safe and strong

Download the English words

Credits & rights

Performer RIGLI

Music Walter J. Kin (RIGLI)

Lyrics English adaptation: Walter J. Kin

Language English

Publisher Rigli Publishing (Walter J. Kin)

Rights owner Rigli Publishing

Licensing Rigli Publishing

Copyright In album collective work (verify deposit)

Free to sing, free to teach

These songs are free for synagogues, JCCs, museums, schools, yeshivas and families. For everyone else, free to start, and a modest fee later, so the songs travel and take root.

Questions, or a use we have not thought of? Write to doublesign28@gmail.com.

More about the wider Jewish Songs. For All project at havanagila.org.

Jewish Encyclopedia · Abinu Malkenu

Hebrew prayer with an English translation

Listen here

Apple Music · album listing and audio preview

Listen here

The English lyric is preserved in the project’s author archive. Release sources checked 7 September 2026; interpretation refers to that preserved lyric, not a complete transcription of the recording.