For more information, shut the fuck up.
As I've gotten progressively more discouraged about the breakdown of morality and common decency in our society, mirroring the endemic corruption and wickedness of our "elites," I've had a bit of an epiphany. Most people, me included, find it easy to rail against wrongdoing in high places, but tend to overlook our own sins & moral flaws. I'm not in any position to lecture anyone else on morality. I would note, though, that if it's light the darkness most fears, then imagine the effect on us personally, our families and friends, and those around us if we start striving to walk before God with integrity, and live according to an unshakable moral code that boiled down to its essence, means we live by truth, deal fairly and honestly with others even when it costs us, never take from others what isn't ours to take, and be resolute in confronting evil and corruption. In other words, be rebels in a deeply corrupt and increasingly debauched society.
I'm not Jewish, I'm a mostly secular Christian - but I find value in the idea of a day of atonement and introspection when those who seek to do God's will look within and focus on identifying, confessing, and atoning for their sins and faults. I missed the boat on observing the Yom Kippur holiday this year - as the highest holiday in Judaism it was observed on September 15 and 16 of 2021 - but next year I intend to observe it, not in a synagog and not to the letter of the normal religious traditions, since I'm not Jewish, but rather in the privacy of my own home, and with the respect due to another religion's sacred traditions. I particularly liked the following prayer which is recited during Yom Kippur, and invite anyone who is equally striving to be a better person to read it and maybe make a point of reciting it and reflecting on it during the next Yom Kippur observance.
The Text of Al Chet
https://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/6577/jewish/Text-of-Al-Chet.htm
They were hungry for some Herring
In light of the recent desire for discussion, I wanted to recount the yom kippur sermon a rabbi gave last year at the synagogue I go to.
I essentially consider myself humanistic, but there isn't a congregation here so I go to a rather large reform synagogue. I grew up conservative, but I didn't feel like I was getting much out of a lot of it, and my wife grew up reform so we settled on that.
While I wish I could post the entire sermon, I can't find an archive of it so the best I can do is paraphrase the main bit.
The rabbi was talking about how, when her mother passed away, she was given all of her mothers cookbooks and recipe boxes. Her mother was a prolific chef, and had probably thousands of recipes, hundreds of which were well known to the family.
As the rabbi sorted through all of it, she began to find some of the recipes she knew and love. Some of them were simply clippings from a magazine or coppied out of a book. Others were clipped, but notes had been written in the margin, and some lines were crossed out or amounts altered.
Still others were hand written recipes written by her great grandmother, and two other sets of handwriting (her grandmother and mother) had made their own edits. Tallow became shortening became margarine and then butter. Amounts changed. Spices changed. Whole parts of the recipe were removed or added.
And the rabbi began to wonder: At what point does it stay "the family recipe" and when does it become something else? If you make great Great Grandma's kugel the way that it was written by great great grandma, it will taste nothing like the dish your mother made when she made "great great grandma's kugel" because great grandma and grandma and mom all made little changes.
But do you WANT to make the kugel the original way? Maybe you try it and you like it, but you have no connection to it. It's not the great great grandma's kugel that YOU know and love.
Contrawise, maybe you never really loved Nana's brisket, but you find that she changed the recipe to use 3x as many onions as are called for. You make it the original way, and find you actually like it much better that way. Is it still Nana's brisket, or is it yours? Do you have the RIGHT to change Nana's brisket?
The rabbi decided, she said, that what is important are those things that we find to be important. Over time and the generations, we each shape the things we pass on a little bit. Even though some people may feel that they have no right to change things
... keep reading on reddit β‘In the beginning of quarantine I started thinking about converted (To Judaism), but because of COVID-19 I was unable to talk to a rabbi. I was wondering if, since I havenβt converted to Judaism yet and technically havenβt even begun the process, if it was okay to celebrate/observe Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah since itβs coming up on the 18th I think.
I value the idea of repentance/Teshuva and this would be the first time I celebrated/observed any Jewish Holiday. Iβd be celebrating alone because of COVID and I donβt really have a Jewish community I know at the moment that Iβd be able to celebrate with. I think Iβd just do something simple like going to a local lake and toss stones or breadcrumbs into the water and say the tashlikh/tashlich (Not sure how itβs spelled). Iβll probably buy some round challah or regular Challah if I canβt find the round ones and have apples and honey. Do some meditation and self reflection.
But anyways I was just wondering if itβd still be okay and acceptable to celebrate/observe the holidays. If so, do you have any advice for how to make it feel a little less lonely with quarantine and all? Anyways thank you for reading this I know it was super long sorry π .
β€οΈ
I loved the solemnity and the communal desire for repentance. I loved the prayers and the beautiful singing. However, I was baffled that when it came time for the Rabbi to address the congregation he chose such a service to speak at length for his support of Pope Francis, particularly his positions on global warming and doing good to the poor. Is that typical? He ended the service by leading the congregation in an ecumenical prayer fashioned by the Pope. I was left bewildered.
My reasons for going were not to be critical, but were threefold: the first was genuine curiousity, the second was to honor Israel, and the third was because Christians don't celebrate Yom Kippur and I'm not sure why. It's in Leviticus, but for some reason we skip it.
I am thinking of going back, but I also don't want to cause offense. Are Jews generally accepting of people of other faiths attending their services--particularly Christianity?
Take a look at Jew Peter
