Vidui: Our Sincere Declaration of Responsibility

O the Sacred Depths of Your love…
Layer upon layer, extant and Divine.
We gather together in awe and wonder,
Yet Your judgment is beyond our ken.
 
Our hearts lay exposed,
Our souls are bared.
We are naked as in Eden,
And we are vulnerable.
 
We come to confess.
We come to claim responsibility.
We come to plead.
We come because we must…
 
*
 
On this day,
More sacred than any other, 
Standing before you
As did our forebears in ancient days,
We silently, and communally,
Admit our shortcomings and failures:
 
Sins of Antagonism
And Sins of Belittling
 
The Sins of Callousness
And Sins of Derision
 
Sins of Exaggeration
And Sins of Facetiousness 
 
The Sins of Gloating
And Sins of Hating
 
Sins of Impertinence 
And Sins of Jealousy 
 
The Sins of Kindlessness
And Sins of Licentiousness 
 
Sins of Mediocrity 
And Sins of Neglect
 
The Sins of Omission
And Sins of Partiality 
 
Sins of Quarreling
And Sins of Repression
 
The Sins of Sarcasm
And Sins of Truthlessness
 
Sins of Undermining
And Sins of Vanity
 
The Sins of Willfulness
And Sins of eXcess
 
Sins of Yielding
And Sins of Zealotry
 
Of all these things we are guilty.
 
Judge of Judges, who sits on high,
For those sins committed against another, 
Only they can forgive.
For those sins committed against You,
Only You can forgive.
 
ברוך אתה ה’ הרחמן שמוחל על עבירותינו ורושם אותנו בספר
 
Barukh atah HaShem, ha’rakhaman ahe’mokhel al aveiroteinu v’rosheim otanu b’sefer
Blessed are You, HaShem, the Compassionate One, who forgives our transgressions and inscribes us into the book.

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