I Am My Brother's Keeper



Yom Kippur. This is the time that we not only take personal responsibility for our wrongdoings, but also the ways in which we have missed the mark as community members in society as a whole. Over and over again in the service, we will make a group confession. "We have sinned..." And we have - individually, as a member of society, and also we take that on behalf of others who cannot say these words for a variety of reasons. We are all connected. We are all responsible for one another. One of the most powerful parts of Yom Kippur is this repetition of communal confession. Like the Shofar service on Rosh Hashana - it is a wake up call, a call to attention. Let's do a better job this year of seeing each other's missed marks as our own or in the least, be willing, like the High Priests of the past, to accept as them as our own, so that we can do the hard work of repairing G-d's innermost sanctuary. Let's use our honesty and desire, our blank slate, our newly aimed selves, to move toward a just, compassionate, and sustainable world.

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