Just before we call to prayer in the evening service, with the Barchu prayer, we recite a short verse. This verse marks the division between Minchah and Maariv. In many synagogues (not ours) it is routine to recite Maariv immediately after Minchah, so something to mark the separation between them was necessary.
The verse chosen by the Rabbis is interesting in its own right. “G-d, being merciful, grants atonement for sin and does not destroy. Time and again, G-d restrains wrath, refuses to let rage be all-consuming. Save us, Lord, Answer us, O King, when we call.”
It is (of all things) with that powerful thought in mind that we are called to prayer.
Let’s think about the dramatic dynamic here. On the one hand, G-d Who is the arbiter of justice (“the judge of the whole world,” Abraham our father calls him) agrees to limit His sense of justice and allow mercy to prevail. Put another way, the Perfect finds a place for the Imperfect (us).
To this, we respond with a call, the call to prayer, recognizing that G-d is the source of all our blessings (As the Barchu commands us: “Praise the Lord, Source of blessing”). Putting that another way, the Imperfect acknowledges/expresses gratitude toward the Perfect.
Seen this way, the relationship between G-d and humanity is like an intimate dance between two partners that never touch each other. In high school math (as we have all mostly forgotten), this is like lines that are “asymptotic”—approaching each other infinitely, but never quite touching.
What a powerful description of the human-divine relationship! And just like that elegant dance, or that sinuous line, that relationship is seductive, infinitely enticing, an unending expression of mutual yearning.