Holding Ourselves Accountable on the Day of Atonement

This Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, is a time for reflection like no other. With everything going on in the world such as the Russian war against Ukraine, Hurricane Ian, not to mention Covid that hasn't left us yet, we can see very clearly that no matter what we do - good or bad - it impacts everyone. So we need to start taking a closer look at how all these things are connected, and what they have to do with every one of us.

We know how to evaluate our actions, but we need to learn to evaluate our intentions toward others as well. What does that look like? Asking ourselves a simple question: Are my intentions for my own sake or for the sake of others?

During the Ten Days of Repentance in which?Yom Kippur?is the climax, when Jews supposedly fast, pray and ask for forgiveness, we arrive at a point where we look back at things we did and measure them against the rules that we're supposed to keep to see where we have failed. Of all these precepts, the most important is “love thy neighbor as thyself,” the great rule of the Torah.

Just like Jonah, we get warning after warning but avoid our mandate and refuse to unite. It's all our division, clashes, and arguments that trigger humanity’s imbalances and destabilization. So the only sin we really need to repent about is our stubborn refusal to come together and get along here.

A key part of the Yom Kippur traditions, the most solemn day of the Jewish calendar, is reading the book of Jonah the Prophet. In the story God orders Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh, who had become very hardhearted to eachother, to correct their relationships if they wanted to survive. But instead of warning them, Jonah went out to sea to try to escape God’s orders.

Just like Jonah, we get warning after warning but avoid our mandate and refuse to unite. It's all our division, clashes, and arguments that trigger humanity’s imbalances and destabilization. So the only sin we really need to repent about is our stubborn refusal to come together and get along here.

Each of us needs to hold himself accountable for what he or she does from day to day. But on Yom Kippur we sign off on the year, we close the account of what we did the whole year so we can start the new year with a clean slate. How much we succeeded or failed on an individual basis is not the most important issue. During the soul-searching we do on this holiday we need to be sorry for all the missed opportunities and start again from scratch.

Yom Kippur is also called the Day of Judgment. Who exactly is judging us and what is being judged? First of all we need to examine and judge ourselves. But instead of waiting the whole year to do this, we can go through this process on a daily basis. Before we go to sleep, we can also "close the account" for that day and ask the universe to forgive us for all we did and didn't do. And this is always about how we treated others.

Our intention for a clean slate is really about conducting ourselves in a way to avoid hurting anyone, and to strive to have a good connection with all humans. If we truly and wholeheartedly ask for forgiveness for the harm we've caused to others, then we're ready to ask the universe for total forgiveness. Mending our human relations is the precondition for mending our relationship with the force running this "operating system" we're all connected to.

So on the one hand, during Yom Kippur we're supposed to feel sorry for our shortcomings. But in this sorrow we're also happy to have the opportunity to apologize and finish the year in a beautiful and clean way, where all our "debts" are covered.

We live in a special time called the “Last Generation,” an era where we're experiencing the emergence of a new world. This period is characterized by us going through a transition from having egoistic tendencies of self-benefit, to having attributes of caring, cooperation, and giving to others. Does being nice to others make us weak? Not in today's world. And this also is not about our material possessions. Acquiring these attributes is mainly about our attitude to others.

Hopefully soon, we'll figure out what we're up against and decide to get rid of all weapons and only focus on investing in the development of human connection.