This is what it says in “Avinu Malkenu,” that lovely song with the haunting, heartbreaking melody we all love to sing so much on Rosh Hashanah. Avinu malkenu, chanenu v’anenu—Our Father, our King, be gracious to us, be gratuitously loving, and answer us even though we don’t deserve it—ki ain banu ma’asim—because we have no good deeds to invoke in our own defense.
