The other night I was walking near the Summit
Train Station, when I bumped into a neighborhood friend. After some
"small talk," my neighbor Ben sighed and remarked that Rosh Hashanah
would begin at sundown on the next day, which was Sunday, October 2.
"It is the Jewish New Year's, and my family always celebrates it in
the full Jewish tradition," Ben told me.
I was curious about this event. Being a
Christian, I really did not understand much about it, so I asked Ben to tell me
more.
"The Jewish New Year differs in some
fundamental ways from the secular New Year," my neighbor said.
"The observance, for example, is far more muted. This is
because the Jewish New Year is largely a period of introspection that begins
with Rosh Hashanah and extends for ten days until Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement. This ten-day period is meant to be a time of stock-taking, of
self-reflection."
"It is customary during this time, for
example, to seek out in person those whom we may have offended in the preceding
year and ask forgiveness. So, this period of ten days is a time
principally to reflect on how we are conducting our lives, and specifically how
we may have messed up. Given the scope of that task, sometimes I think
ten days is not nearly enough time!" he said.
I had to say that as a Christian I regularly
search for the same things in my life, and then I ask God to forgive me.
"The ten days beginning on Rosh Hashanah
concludes on Yom Kippur, October 12," my friend continued. "If
there is any day of the year when even the most non-observant, non-believing
Jew goes to Temple, this is it. Anyone my age remembers with pride when
in 1965 Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers refused to pitch in Game One of
the World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur."
I asked Ben, "Why do virtually
all Jews in the world go to Temple on Yom Kippur? What happens there on
that day that is so compelling?"
"Well," Ben said, "in the
broadest sense, what Jews do in Temple on Yom Kippur is to stand as a community
and publicly confess their sins. The Jewish concept of sin differs in
some important ways from that of other religions. Judaism teaches that
humans are born with free will, and are born morally neutral, with both an
inclination toward goodness, leading to a productive life and being concerned
for others ----- but, also an inclination toward evil, the baser instincts and
selfishness. The moral laws in the Torah ----- starting with the Ten
Commandments, but including hundreds of other commandments, are meant to help steer
one's behavior toward the good. To Jews, sinning is like an arrow missing
the target. Sinning, in short, is missing the mark."
My friend continued, "The ways in which
individuals can miss the mark during the course of a year are many, and in the
Yom Kippur service we stand all together and recite them out loud. The list we
recite ----- and we do it multiple times ----- runs through the alphabet with each
letter corresponding to a different sin. This does not mean we have
committed only 24 sins (the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet) but that
as the confessing group, we have committed the whole range of sins (from A to
Z), the full gamut of possible human failings. For every mark that could
have been missed someone among us surely has missed it, and sometime in our
lives, we have missed it. So we stand together and say
aloud, 'We have been arrogant, we have betrayed, we have stolen, we've corrupted
our own character, we have corrupted the character of others, we've been
deceitful, we've ridiculed good people, we've made misleading statements.' And
every seven or eight sins or so, we stop and ask God for forgiveness
(presumably we've already asked forgiveness from the people we've actually
hurt). We say, 'Forgive all these sins. forgive us, pardon us, grant us
atonement.' And then we continue with the list of sins."
Ben added that this full day at Temple is
done while observing a complete 24-hour fast!
My friend was silent for a few moments.
Then he said, "I like the Yom Kippur ritual because it presupposes that
human beings are fallible, that we all miss the mark sometimes, and that with
effort, we can control some of our baser urges and maybe do better next
year. I find reciting the litany of possible failures is a good way to
take stock ---- as I say the list out loud together with the congregation, I
often think to myself, "Yup, did that one. Yeah, did that one, too.
Oh, there's one I'm not guilty of ----- at least not this year.' For me,
there are always more 'guiltys' than 'not-guiltys,' but it is interesting year
to year to see how my failings either remain consistent or shift with
circumstances," he said.
We had just reached my street and I wished
there was more time to talk to Ben about the management of sin. As a
Christian, I did not believe that I was born morally neutral
---- it seemed that I was born biased toward sinning, so I was grateful that
someone named Jesus had made a very great sacrifice to redeem me. But,
both Ben and I are in possession of free will. The problem is that often we
don't use our free will effectively to live as God directs us.
As I walked toward my house, I began
comparing these two very different styles of sin management. As Ben
described the Jewish approach, there is intensity and depth,
with sins specifically named and acknowledged. But, it is done formally
only once a year. However, I do assume that Jews are
always free to make a "sin self-examination" informally at any time.
In my experience as a Presbyterian, I recall
that every Sunday in Worship we formally acknowledge in general terms that we
are sinners, without publicly being specific about the whole range of sins we
may have committed. But, we do this every week.
Perhaps we only give our sinfulness a glancing blow, but we do it frequently.
I began to wonder if there might be some real
value in each approach. Do we Presbyterians need a
little more intensity and depth, while perhaps the
Jewish practice would benefit from a little more frequency, in
seriously addressing personal sinfulness? But, one solution does not fit
all people! Each of us must find our optimal intensity, depth and
frequency to address our inherent tendency to sin..
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's
Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some
personal spiritual growth this fall at CPC.
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