El melekh yoshev is one of the principal supplications of the s’liḥot, or penitential, liturgy, which is recited throughout Yom Kippur and daily during the s’liḥot period preceding Rosh Hashana and leading up to Yom Kippur. The text belongs to the oldest portion of s’liḥot liturgy, thought to date to the Babylonian and Talmudic period (and perhaps known then in Palestine as well). It imagines God as the omnipotent King who sits on a “throne fashioned out of mercy”—and who thus, by His very nature and essence, pardons His people according to the “thirteen attributes of God’s mercy.” Those are contained within the text as well. Adler wrote this setting as part of a suite of High Holy Day liturgical pieces, entitled Hinei Yom Hadin (Behold, the Day of Judgment!). In this one, his aim was to mirror the typical undertone of communal prayer recitation in orthodox and traditional synagogues. “I have always been fascinated by the sound of a praying congregation,” noted the composer, “when everyone prays and recites at his own pace, typically in a murmuring ‘singsong’ that can appear to be mumbling. I have tried to simulate that effect at the beginning of this piece, with the chorus intoning the opening words at various speeds before the cantor’s entrance. This is a very dramatic text, drawing an awesome picture of God as He judges each individual, yet always with mercy; therefore, I have tried to create a tension in the music, which is only partially resolved at the end in the prayer.”