Tonight at sunset starts Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. And even for mostly secular Jews like me, YK is a big deal.
Because atonement is something none of us should ignore–on both a personal and a macro level.
The synagogue that I attend very occasionally (usually only on Yom Kippur or if a friend is doing a special event there) refers to atonement is “at-one-ment.” I’m interpreting this as the idea that forgiving yourself and others, asking others you’ve wronged to forgive you, and striving to do better can lead to an increased sense of wholeness. Though I think “at-one-ment” could also refer to an aspirational sense of unity between all people, or expanded even further–unity and connection between everything on our planet: people, animals, plants, nature, divinity, the heavens, etc….
And this is the atonement I think we need on a macro-level. To recognize that there’s no such thing as an enemy. All of us are connected as sentient human beings. All of us are one.
I say this not to be perceived as a Pollyanna, or a groovy guru. I’m not particularly enlightened. I can list many people I might perceive as my enemy. Most of them are currently in positions of power in our government. But part of the reason I perceive these folks to be my enemies is because they’re piling up the weight on the “enemy playbook,” and riling people up with an “us vs. them” mentality in order to maintain their power.
But since this is the season of forgiveness, I’m not going to go any farther with “the blame game” right now. Ultimately, we all have our ways of dividing ourselves into us and them. And this is not to guilt-trip, only to recognize. When we spend money on things we want but don’t necessarily need, or give loving but unnecessary gifts to friends, while giving nothing–or only small amounts–to those who are hungry and suffering, isn’t that a type of tribalism? Or when we ignore or glaze over the horror stories of people in Gaza starving to death, or immigrants taken from their children and disappeared into prisons, or black people killed by the police, or countless other issues, and then go about our daily lives as if all this stuff isn’t happening, aren’t we saying in some fashion that it doesn’t matter as much because it’s not about someone in our inner circle–in other words, not about us?
This morning I read a post from T’ruah, the Rabbinic call for human rights about the holiday. It mentioned that even though personal atonement is only done for acts committed this year, our collective atonement also addresses two incidents in our biblical history as a Jewish people: the Golden Calf, and the sale of Joseph into slavery, which was done by his jealous brothers for 20 pieces of silver, enough to buy each of them a pair of shoes. This second story struck me as hitting far too close to the tribal ways in how we live our lives today–selling out others for our own privilege and convenience, and ignoring their suffering.
The Golden Calf story gave me a little more pause, as I’ve always hated that tale and saw it as a jealous spoiled brat divinity ranting for not being worshipped well enough. But today, I’m thinking that perhaps the Israelites built the Golden Calf because things felt so dark in the desert, they had given up hope and they needed a “quick fix” to lift their spirits. So maybe we revisit this tale to remind us that we even in the darkest times, we must somehow find and hold onto hope. Real hope, not a golden illusion.
That might be a hard lift for me today, but I’m willing to think about it. In the meantime, I invite you to listen to one of my favorite pieces… composer Max Bruch’s interpretation of the haunting melody of the Kol Nidre prayer (traditionally recited on Yom Kippur eve) played by cellist Jacqueline DuPré. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNUkemxvsP4
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