|
From the Rabbi:
Erev Yom Kippur!! It's a very beautiful time in human interrractions. Sending and receiving messages of apology and reconcilliation. Wishing each other well. THer's an almost macbre feeling to it. Like, "I might not come back from this, so if I don't I want you to think well of me". We even do that with Hashem, confessing at mincha of Erev Yom Kippur just in case we don't make it into the holiday, never mind out of the holiday.
There is something to that sentiment of impending death. If the Jews and the Kohen don't do proper teshuva, entering the Holy of Holies was a death sentence for the High Priest. So whether vicariously or because we all have an 'inner High Priest' we also perhaps have the sense of impending doom and wanting to be totally clean of any grudges coming into the holiday. To bad we only do this once a year!
This spirit of reconciliation is desperately needed in the world. All around us there's conflict; families, communities, political divides, ethnic hostilities, religious feuds... Wouldn't it be amazing if we could all let go of all the animosity, reconcile as a world and live together in peace?
That's' really the ultimate goal of Yom Kippur. Forgiveness and reconcilliation. First with ourselves and Hashem. Then within our families, communities, pan-communities, and moving into larger and larger cirlces. asking and offering forgiveness freely, choosing life together over trying to win.
May we see all our conflicts, inner and outer resolved in peace, and let healing and reconciliation flow through the world like streams in the Negev.
Gemar Chatima Tovah and Shabbat Shalom,
Reb Shlomo
| 
