One of the things I always regret at this time of year, and one of the primary motivations for Rabbi Andrew Goldstein and I compiling our book High and Holy Days, is that far too few Jews use the month of Elul as it is intended, to prepare us properly for the High Holy Days by using its days to indulge in contemplation, meditation and penitence. The Penitential Season without some previous preparation is doomed to failure because we come to it too cold, too detached; we need, to adapt the idiom, to be ‘in it’ to get something from it.
An easy way in is to think about the wrongs we have done to other people over the past year, major or minor, and whether we have made an apology to them and sought to repair our relationship with them. If we have failed to do this then, although Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are past, we still have until Hoshanah Rabbah to rectify our omissions, for our tradition teaches that this is the last opportunity we have to confess and seek atonement. Saying ‘sorry’ is a very hard thing for most of us, for it exposes our weakness and few of us feel comfortable with that.
Equally, though, there can be nothing more disarming than an apology, especially when it emanates from an unexpected quarter, and there should be little doubt that when someone we know makes a sincere apology to us for something they have done that has upset us, we should forgive them whole heartedly and then try to forget whatever wrongdoing it is of which they were culpable.
This, of course, is what the process in which we engage at this season is all about; a genuine confession of sin followed by a deep inner knowledge that we have been forgiven and that our personal slate has been wiped clean. But it is not enough, in many cases, just to apologise – for mere words are inadequate.
We have to take action, to make concerted efforts to reform our behaviour and our attitudes and to change them significantly. Thus and only thus can we achieve the deepest form of atonement, for in reforming our ways we almost certainly guarantee that we will never repeat our original failings.
It is in this spirit that I offer my own Al Chet Shechatanu, may it be a goad to all of us to be better people in the year that lies ahead.
Al Chet she-chatanu lefanecha…
For the sin which we have committed by making unreasonable demands of God,
And for the sin which we have committed by denying God’s existence, in our thoughts and our deeds, when it suited us.
For the sin which we have committed by restricting our Judaism to the Synagogue rather than making it live in our homes,
And for the sin which we have committed by forcing our children to live the Jewish lives we ignore.
For the sin which we have committed by being steadfastly ignorant about our faith and its traditions,
And for the sin which we have committed by pretending that we did not have time for study.
For the sin which we have committed by taking from our community rather than giving to it,
And for the sin which we have committed by praising the dedication of others instead of following their example.
For the sin which we have committed by believing ourselves to be superior to others,
And for the sin which we have committed by doing nothing to distinguish our behaviour.
For all these sins, O God of forgiveness; forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.
For the sin which we have committed by denying our own responsibilities to society at large,
And for the sin which we have committed by finding fault with those who dedicate their lives to the welfare of others.
For the sin which we have committed by turning our backs on the poor and defenceless,
And for the sin which we have committed by narrowing our vision to ourselves.
For the sin which we have committed by tolerating violence against children,
And for the sin which we have committed by showing contempt and impatience for the old.
For the sin which we have committed by not campaigning for the amelioration of rights for the disabled,
And for the sin which we have committed by thinking that only those of able mind or body can play a part in society.
For all these sins, O God of forgiveness; forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.
For the sin which we have committed by failing to express outrage at the abuse of our planet,
And for the sin which we have committed by not taking appropriate action against organisations and nations guilty of such abuse.
For the sin which we have committed by using the environment for our own ends,
And for the sin which we have committed by not thinking about the implications of our own irresponsibility.
For the sin which we have committed by behaving as if natural resources were limitless,
And for the sin which we have committed by failing to constrain our voracity to consume.
For the sin which we have committed by accepting dirty streets and parks,
And for the sin which we have committed by thoughtlessly adding to their squalor.
For the sin which we have committed by fostering the delusion that we are the crown of creation,
And for the sin which we have committed by not acknowledging the worth of other creatures.
For the sin which we have committed by not campaigning for the preservation of endangered species,
And for the sin which we have committed by ignoring the fact that we are judged as people by the way that we treat defenceless animals.
For all these sins, O God of forgiveness; forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.
The views expressed in this D’var Torah do not necessarily reflect the position of Leo Baeck College.