I am far from expert on religious details, but here is my take.

We are now approaching the High Holidays, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and the general idea is that we atone for our sins and hope for a fresh start. A more folksy thought (I know this is not the adjective normally used) is that there is a Book of Life, and that God, after examing your sins and your repenting, determines who shall live and who shall die. The Book of Life is closed when the sun goes down on Yom Kippur.

The period over which one should begin to examine his life and start to atone, in preparation for the ultimate decision to make at Yom Kippur, does not begin on Rosh Hashana, however. It starts earlier. Last Saturday night, we attended an inspiring Slichot service at Adas Israel that begins a four day spiritual preparation period. Before that, their are seven weekly readings at Shabbat services which are to console Jews for the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians and putvthem in a contemplative mood, and before that, the commemoration of Tisha B’Av, the memorial to the day of destruction itself.

If you go to the Haberman site (Habermaninstitute.org), and look under Program Recordings, you will find a talk by Rabbi Lauren Tuchman that ties the introspection needed for Yom Kippur into the full time period beginning with Tisha B’Av. I really recommend her presentation if you have a spare 90 minutes.

At the Yom Kippur services, there are several long recitation of sins. As a congregation, these sins are recited aloud, and forgiveness is prayed for/asked for.

These recitations usually bore me in large part because, in my humble opinion, almost none of them personally relate to me. I really don’t think I did those things, so why should I beat my chest over them?

But I miss the point. These recitations of sins are not meant only to be individual. They are also meant to be communal. You are praying for forgiveness of sins committed by you, by other Jews, and by the Jewish community as a whole.

Now, in most years, I will acknowledge this, but not find it particularly meaningful.  But this is not most years.

Jews like to kvell about Jewish accomplishments. You know what I mean. Einstein was Jewish. So was Freud. Maybe even Columbus. And Nobel Prizes? Jews, who are about 0.2% of the world’s population, have won over 20% of all Nobel Prizes!

But this year, we also have to think about Netanyahu, and Smotrich, and Ben Gvir. We have to think about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. We have to think about Stephen Miller. We can not rest on our communal laurels when we also have more than our share of communal shame.

So maybe this High Holiday period should be a little different than most. Maybe it has to be.