repentance

I grew up knowing that Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah were high holy days before I knew anything about what that meant. In my half-Jewish town, we got those days off from school, two for Rosh Hashanah and one for Yom Kippur. It made a mess of the beginning of the school year, what with Labour Day and then these other two interruptions following right on the heels of the summer, but really it was a long-life lesson in honouring things that are bigger than work, stronger than routine, important enough to be ritual, to be sacred.

It wasn't until I was much older that I understood what was happening, understood the question of the book of life and God's writing one's fate...and it wasn't until years after that that I understood the value of a time for asking forgiveness.

See, you have better odds of being forgiven during these ten days, but I don't believe those odds have to do with God or the threat of a bad write-up. For me, those improved odds are because everyone is contemplating their own failures, their own atonements, their own humanity, their own need to be forgiven.

May I know the difference between asking for forgiveness and relinquishing self-respect. May I know for what I need to ask forgiveness. May I find forgiveness when I am asked.

blessed be.