The final specimen (<H>tefilah lekadma (Tav Pe Lamed He, Lamed Qof Dalet Mem Final_Nun</H>) is still more pathetic in its tearful contrition. The last lines even rise to unusual beauty when they point down a shining vista of happy, serene days. At morn we order our prayers, and wait to offer them to Thee. Not sacrificial rams we bring to Thee, but hearts contrite and tender. O that the tribute of our lips might plead our cause, When suppliants we stand before Thy threshold, watching and waiting. The early dawn awakens us, and our faces are suffused with shame. Our hearts beat fast, we whisper softly, hoarse and weary with calling on Thee. We are cast down, affrighted, -- Thy judgment comes. To Thy teaching we turned deaf ears, And unto evil were seduced. Rebellious were we, when Thou camest to guide us aright, And now we stand abashed with lowered eyes. Our ruin Thou didst long past see -- Is Thy fiery wrath still unappeased? We sinned in days agone, we suffer now, our wounds are open, Thy oath is quite accomplished, the curse fulfilled. Though long we tarried, we seek Thee now, timid, anxious, --we, poor in deeds. Before we perish, once more unto Thy children join Thyself. A heavenly sign foretells Thy blessing shall descend on us. Brute force is shattered, and with night all round about, Thy affianced spouse, loving, yearning, Calls on Thy faithfulness; she pleads with her eyes, and asks, is still she Thine, Is hers Thy love for aye? The uniformity and monotony of this poetry, it must be admitted, weary the reader. The author never goes beyond a narrow circle of ideas, and general ideas at that. It is impossible to make out whether the allusions are to contemporaneous events, the persecutions connected with the First Crusade, for instance, or whether they refer to the ancient, traditional wrongs and sufferings. Nowhere is Rashi's poetry relieved by a touch of personal bias. It cannot be denied, however, that the poems testify to a fund of sincerity and enthusiasm, and that is noteworthy in a period of literary decadence, when it often happens that sincerity of sentiment fails by a good deal to find sincere expression for itself. Esthetic inadequacy should by no means be taken as synonymous with insincerity. Rashi proves, that without being an artist one can be swayed by emotion and sway the emotions of others, particularly when the dominant feeling is sadness. "The prevailing characteristic of Rashi's prayers," says Zunz, the first historian of synagogue poetry as well as the first biographer of Rashi, "is profound sadness; all of them are filled with bitter plaints." Finally, if the <I>Selihot</I> by Rashi fall far short of our idea and our ideal of poetry, they at least possess the interest attaching to all that relates to their illustrious author. BOOK III THE INFLUENCE OF RASHI