High Holy Days offer a chance to look inward
While the Jewish New
Year is often noted as two days on the calendar — Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur — it actually lasts 10 days, including the days in between. It’s called the “10 Days of Awe.”
Rosh Hashana, which began this year on the evening of Sept. 6, is simply the beginning. The conclusion is Yom Kippur, on Sept. 16, also known as the
“Day of Atonement.”
Rabbi Oren Hayon at Congregation Emanu El, near Rice University, offered an analogy.
“It’s not just restarting your computer,” he said.
“It’s a reinstall of your entire operating system.”
In that way, it’s unlike the secular new year on Dec. 31, the rabbi continued. “In Jewish life, there’s a flip of a calendar page, but it also involves participation and taking an active role.”
For the occasion, Jews are tasked with reevaluating their relationships — with friends, family and God. They are also charged to reexamine their actions and priorities.
Hayon said even Elul, the month leading up to Rosh Hashana, is reserved as a time of introspection and contemplation.
“You get a month to prepare for the High Holy
Days,” he said. “You reflect and take inventory.”
And you get ready for the job ahead, Hayon added. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are celebrations of life but also a time of repentance and forgiveness. That requires acknowledging all sins, both intentional and unintentional, before God and asking for forgiveness. It also means seeking a pardon from individuals.
“If you realize apologies need to be made, you are encouraged to take care of them during those 10 days,” Hayon said. “On Yom Kippur, that’s when the book is officially closed.”
Missing the mark
Self-examination spiritually is necessary to understand how to change for the better, explained Rabbi Stuart Federow with Congregation Shaar Hashalom in Clear Lake. He said “Cheshbon HaNefesh,” which translates to accounting of the soul, is an essential component of the High Holy Days.
For instance, Federow considers the “Al Chet” — a central Yom Kippur prayer — an outline for improvement. The text describes 44 sins, including 11 related to speech.
“Judaism does have a confessional, and it takes place on the High Holy
Days,” Federow said. “But it’s not like a confessional in a booth with a priest.”
Instead, the statements are plural and spoken in a communal setting.
“We understand sin as an act, not as a statement,” he said. “I am equally free to sin or do good. We choose how we’re going to act.”
He suggests considering the sins as questions: “Was I kind, compassionate and loving? Was I sometimes nicer to
a stranger than my own loved ones and friends? These are questions that are supposed to come up when we recite the Al Chet.”
Sin, he said, is not a state of being. “It’s not really an element of our character,” he said. “It’s simply missing the mark.”
The Hebrew word for sin, “chet,” comes from archery. “It literally means missing the target,” said Rabbi Gideon Estes of Congregation Or Ami in Westchase.
Giving up won’t help you make a bull’s-eye, Estes explained. Instead, it requires recalibrating and taking better aim.
“If we understand that sin is missing the target, then we know that the answer is not to stop shooting arrows,” he said. “We’ve missed the mark, and we’re trying to do better.”
Cheshbon HaNefesh is an opportunity to determine what “we want to hold on to and what do we want to leave behind,” said Rabbi Adrienne Scott at Congregation Beth Israel in Meyerland. “Ultimately, we can become the best versions of ourselves.”
Putting in effort
Cheshbon HaNefesh requires time.
“We can’t rush,” Scott said. “We’re returning to a better place.”
The High Holy Days are heralded in with a shofar, a ram’s horn that serves as a trumpet, which Scott said “calls us to respond.”
While she advised taking time to determine whether in-person services or streaming feels safest, she said devoting time to prayer and spiritual development should continue regardless. “You can’t postpone that,” she said.
Yom Kippur is a deadline. “You can’t file for an extension,” Hayon said. “The missteps that we have in the course of the year, this is the time to ask God for forgiveness.”
But that doesn’t work automatically, he explained.
“The sins we commit
against other people, you have to personally ask them for forgiveness,” Hayon said. “You need to seek them out, acknowledge what you did wrong and make amends.”
That takes effort, he said. “It’s hard to recognize when you did something wrong. You have to do things that make it right.”
Forgiving others is also important during the Jewish New Year.
“The whole point is to repair our relationships with other people,” Federow said. “It also helps us repair our relationship with ourselves. When we hurt others, we also hurt ourselves.”
Forgiving ourselves and setting goals is an important part of this time of year. “We’re not living up to the image of ourselves that we know we could meet,” Federow said. “Sometimes, God does not live up to the image
I think God should live up to. It’s also forgiving God.”
Estes is preparing a sermon on “feeling feelings” for Yom Kippur.
“There’s a lot going on right now,” he said. “It’s OK to have a release and catharsis.”
A lot going on these days
Estes sees a number of parallels with the High Holy Days and COVID-19, which has pushed many people toward introspection.
“It’s kind of pulled back the curtain,’ he said. “COVID was, for a lot of us, a forced pause.”
The Days of Awe also are a reminder to pause and reprioritize, Estes said.
“We do this accounting of the soul,” he added. “We remember that life is more than just our stuff and the work we do.”
A Yom Kippur prayer asks, “How many shall pass away and how many shall be born, Who shall live and who shall die, Who shall reach the end of his days and who shall not …”
“It’s a reminder to us that our time on this Earth is limited,” Estes said. “COVID in a very real sense has also reminded many of us of our own mortality.”
The High Holy Days also emphasize social justice. During the Days of Awe, Jews have to consider if they were charitable enough and sought justice, Estes added.
“It’s a conscious act of hope,” he said. “If we are reflective of what we did and return to doing what’s right, if we exercise acts of kindness and social justice, we still have agency. We can choose to live our best lives.”
Hayon agreed that Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur offer an opportunity. He advises others to take time for the soul-accounting required of the season.
“This work requires clearing away some of our distractions,” he said. “It could be journaling, meditating, going on a quiet walk. Whatever it is, it needs to be regular, habitual and genuine.”
Federow considers the Jewish New Year a chance to see where we’re going — and change course if needed.
“It’s not just sin atonement; it’s a reset for the entire year,” he explained. “We’re taking the eraser to the chalkboard and starting over again.”