Dear Members and Friends,
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Tonight, Yom Kippur begins. I will attend the Kol Nidre service at Oak Park Temple this evening. The Congregation for Humanistic Judaism (CHJ) will hold a service for their congregation members in our sanctuary at 7:30 this evening. Anyone who would like to attend this service by livestream may do so by registering on the CHJ website, to receive the link to livestream the service.
Words Rev. Terasa Cooley shared this past Sunday keep ringing in my ears: “Conflict is natural in our lives, but how we approach it makes all the difference. We don’t need to settle for conflict mediation or resolution because, engaged openly and in healthy ways, conflict can be transformed into vibrant community.” She quoted John Lederach: “At core, conflict is life-giving opportunity to reduce violence and increase justice… Conflict opens a … holy path toward revelation and reconciliation.”
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg in On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World writes, “[P]rofound healing can happen. Individual lives and relationships can be transformed. Communities and cultures can move toward care, accountability, restoration. Institutions can do the work needed to protect the people they serve. Nations can face the truth of what they have done—even if the work is imperfect, messy, or haphazard—and can make the choice to write a new story for tomorrow. Repair is possible. Atonement is not out of reach. What is needed—and this is, of course, a great deal—is the willingness to do the work. What is needed is the bravery to begin.”
Both Lederach and Ruttenberg aptly express the wisdom of the Jewish Holy Days that calls us to do the hard work of repairing relationships.
This week has been highly spiritually challenging for me. I believe so strongly in the wisdom of the Jewish High Holy Days while the leadership of Israel, the state that was created for Jewish people, has not demonstrated an awareness of the ramifications of using indiscriminate military power to serve their retaliatory aims.
I wrote my last message to you on the way to and at LaGuardia airport, from which I sent it. I shared of my unsettledness about the violence in the Middle East. Over the last few days, I’ve had more time for prayer, reflection, and study. One thing that doesn’t get talked about much is the power dynamics that exist here, especially between Israel and Gaza. The Jewish people have been persecuted relentlessly throughout history, and there’s no question that there are terrorist organizations that would annihilate Israel if they could. Ever since the state of Israel was created, the government has accrued tremendous military power thanks to the United States and Europe. With this military power, the people of Gaza have been subjugated to second class citizenship with far less freedom than others—and ever since October 7th–has endured more than one in every 50 Palestinians killed. If peace is truly a goal, why the destruction of communities that will live with these losses? Why has a two-state solution been so elusive and now seemingly ever more unlikely?
In a recently published essay, Wendell Berry says prophetically, “We of the United States of America have now grown accustomed to the killing of children.” We have become a society of people who cannot prevent some of our own children from being killed in their classrooms—and who do not much mind the killing of other people’s children by weapons of war.
He says, “We all agree that we are living in an exceedingly troubled time, and it finally occurs to me that we ought to think of child killing not as a part or a symptom but instead as the center, the nucleus, the very eye of our trouble: the plainest measure of our betrayal of what we used to call our humanity.” Berry’s article “Against Killing Children,” focuses on this country and assault weapons, but I find it as meaningful to apply to the missiles currently being launched by Israel in the Middle East.
Berry ends his prophetic sharing with a simple question: “Can we not speak at least an audible no to the meaningless suffering and death of these most precious and helpless ones given in trust into our care?” And I would add, aren’t the children throughout the world ultimately entrusted to us as a global community as well? Can we not speak at least an audible no to the mounting suffering and death of over 40,000 civilians in Gaza?
As we enter what many call Columbus Day Weekend and what we refer to as Indigenous Day weekend, Yom Kippur asks us to reflect on where we have caused harm. It behooves us to consider this first as individuals and secondly as a community and nation.
If you are unable to attend a Yom Kippur service, I encourage you to light candles and reflect on where you and your nation are called to turn away from hurtful actions and towards life-giving behaviors for the sake of our shared future.
I share with you readings shared in past Kol Nidre services.
Love, Peace, and Grace,
Alan
Yom Kippur: the Jewish people’s Festival of the Soul and Kol Nidrei its sacred portal—a night of deep emotions, a night, as the Psalmist wrote, to “rejoice with trembling.”
We rejoice at the sound of Kol Nidrei—rhythmic words of release from vows, oaths, and promises to God we fail to keep.
We tremble at the melody, music of spiritual amazement…
We rejoice that we stand together, strengthened by community, into shore of shared weakness and humility.
We tremble—for tonight we confess our flaws, admit our imperfections, and acknowledge a Power far beyond our understanding.
We rejoice that we commit ourselves to great endeavors because we feel so deeply and think so nobly.
We tremble—for we find that our ideals are far greater than our ability; our promises surpass our might.
We rejoice in the freedom that is Kol Nidrei’s true gift: the freedom to begin a new year without fear of failure, to aspire to be God’s image in the world.
We tremble because we are mortal; we rejoice in our gratitude for life.
We rejoice with trembling, and enter Kol Nidrei to face our humanity.
From Rabbi Danya Ruttenburg, On Repentance and Repair
“If we are to make space for a way to address harm that does not cause more harm, we must take the repentance process seriously. We must be willing to facilitate hard inner work, connection, listening, and understanding. We must help people stay embedded in community, whenever possible, and get supports of accountability with and from people who see them, care about them, and want what’s best for them. We must listen to victims and survivors, to understand that there might not be a one-size-fits-all package, that one approach may not work in all cases, for all power dynamics, for all perpetrators. What is now, is not what must be. We can find ways of addressing harm and seeking justice that are themselves just.”
Adapted from The Gates of Repentance
“Awake, you sleepers, from your sleep!
Rouse yourselves you slumberers, out of your slumber!
Examine your deeds, and
turn to Source of Love with a repentant heart.
Remember your Creator, and don’t be like those who
are caught up in the daily round,
losing sight of eternal truth.
Don’t waste your year in vain pursuits
that neither profit nor save.
Look closely at yourselves.
Abandon your evil ways and thoughts,
and return to the Spirit of Life, so
that the Spirit of Life shall bathe you in compassion!”
From Rabbi Jack Reimer
Now is the time for turning.
The leaves are beginning to turn
from green to red and orange.
The birds are beginning to turn
to storing their food for the winter.
For leaves, birds, and animals
turning comes instinctively.
But for us turning does not come so easily.
It takes an act of will for us to make a turn.
It means breaking with old habits.
It means admitting that we have been wrong;
and this is never easy.
It means losing face;
it means starting all over again;
and this is always painful.
It means saying: I am sorry.
It means recognizing that we have the ability to change.
These things are hard to do.
But unless we turn,
we will be trapped forever in yesterday’s ways.
God, help us to turn, from callousness to sensitivity,
from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose,
from envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline,
from fear to faith.
Turn us around O God, and bring us back toward You.
Revive our lives, as at the beginning, and turn us toward each other,
for in isolation there is no life.
