Category: Yom Kippur

How can we embrace the powerful exercise of Shmita in a way that is both personally meaningful and works to restore the fabric of our community?

Our most holy texts make it clear that we may not stand idly by while violence is perpetrated in our midst.

I have said the words of the Yom Kippur Vidui many times, always awkwardly aware that most of the list of sins did not apply to me. I never thought I would come to embrace its awkwardness, and I certainly never imagined that it could guide me toward making decisions I was afraid to make. 

Two years ago, at age 93, my father passed away suddenly and peacefully in

When I think and talk about teshuvah, I usually focus on change. How can we take stock of our lives and improve the parts of ourselves that we wish to change? This year I was struck by a different aspect of teshuvah. I realized that teshuvah doesn’t need to be focused solely on changing who we are. Teshuvah can also be about learning to accept and forgive ourselves, and learning how to embrace our abilities, limitations, bodies, and relationships.

It is too easy to find fault in others. How can we be more honest with ourselves so that we can make corrections to our decisions? 

Teshuvah is a combination of my work, my practice, and my good intentions together with a subliminal, imperceptible, wonderful phenomenon that seems to arrive out of the blue from somewhere else.

You’ve shared a multitude of ideas that can help us celebrate joys, heal sorrows, and wash away difficulties.

Just before Yom Kippur, I observe the ritual of kapparot.

Conducting a Heshbon Ha'Nefesh