The long confession (“al chet“) recounts a list of sins for which we take communal responsibility. In recent years, there have been many efforts to create liturgical confessions that reflect contemporary issues. The following example presents a religiously and politically left-wing interpretation of this familiar Yom Kippur confession. In its attempt to link liturgy and the real world, this piece intends to arouse action and reaction. It is the provocative nature of this vidui (confessional prayer) that is its power. It is reprinted with permission from Tikkun.org.
On the Jewish High Holidays, we take collective responsibility for our lives and
for the activities of the community of which we are a part. Although we realize
that we did not create the world into which we are born, we nevertheless have
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responsibility for what it is like as long as we participate in it.
While the struggle to change ourselves and our world may be long and painful, it is our struggle. No one else can do it for us. To the extent that we have failed to do all that we could to make ourselves or our community all that we ought to be, we ask God and each other for forgiveness and we now commit ourselves to acting differently this coming year.
Ve-al kulam Eloha selichot, selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu.
For all our sins, may the Force that makes forgiveness possible forgive us,
pardon us, and make atonement possible.
For the sins we have committed before you and in our communities by being
so preoccupied with ourselves that we ignore the large problems of the world
in which we live;
And for the sins we have committed by being so directed toward outward realities that we have ignored our spiritual development.
For the sins of accepting the current distribution of wealth and power as unchangeable;
And for the sins of giving up on social change and focusing exclusively on personal advancement and success;
For the sins of feeling so powerless when we hear about oppression that we finally close our ears
And for the sins of dulling our outrage at the continuation of poverty, oppression, and violence in this world.
And for the sins we have committed by allowing our food and our air to be poisoned;
For the sins of not doing enough to save the environment;
And for the sins of not doing enough to challenge sexist institutions and practices;
And for the sins of turning our backs on–or participating in–the oppression of gays and lesbians;
And for the sins of not doing enough to alleviate homelessness, poverty, and world hunger;
For the sins of allowing media indoctrination to convince us that others are motivated solely by money, power, or narrow self-interest;
And for the sins of not recognizing that the deprivation of meaning and spirit is as painful as the deprivation of money or freedom;
For the sins of accepting a world in which the “bottom line” is money and power, and not fighting for a new bottom line of love and caring;
And for the sins of being cynical about the possibility of building a world based on love;
And for the sins of spreading negative stories about people we know;
And for the sins of being passive recipients of negativity or listening and allowing others to spread hurtful stories;
For the sins of not publicly defending our leaders when they are unfairly attacked,
And for the sins of not giving our leaders, rabbis, educators, artists, and child caregivers the emotional and material support they need to continue to do the work that we depend on them to do.
For these sins we ask God and each other to give us the strength to forgive ourselves and each other.
For the sins we have committed by not forgiving our parents for the wrongs they committed when we were children;
And for the sins of having too little compassion or too little respect for our parents or for our children;
For the sins of cooperating with self-destructive behavior in others or in ourselves;
And for the sins of not supporting each other as we attempt to change;
For the sins of not seeing the spark of divinity within each person we encounter or within ourselves;
And for the sins of not learning from and giving adequate respect and care to our elders and to our teachers;
For the sins of being jealous and trying to possess and control those whom we love;
And for the sins of being judgmental of others and ourselves;
For the sins of withholding love and support;
And for the sins of doubting our ability to love and get love from others;
For the sins of insisting that everything we do have a payoff;
For the sins of not recognizing the beauty within ourselves;
And for the sins of not recognizing the beauty that surrounds us;
For the sins of not allowing ourselves to play;
And for the sins of being manipulative or hurting others to protect our own egos;
Ve-al kulam Eloha selichot selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu.
For all our sins, may the Force that makes forgiveness possible forgive us,
pardon us, and make atonement possible.
For the sins we have committed by not publicly supporting the Jewish people and Israel when they are being treated or criticized unfairly;
And for the sins we have committed by not publicly criticizing Israel or the Jewish people when they are acting in opposition to the highest principles of the Jewish tradition;
For the sins of not recognizing the humanity and suffering of the Palestinian people and the injustice they face living under the unwanted occupation;
And for the sins of making the idea of a united Jerusalem more important than building peace among the people who actually live there;
For the sins of allowing conservative or insensitive leaders to speak on behalf of all American Jews, and allowing our institutions to be governed by those with the most money rather than those with the most spiritual and ethical sensitivity;
And for the sins of not supporting these institutions and leaders that have attempted to provide an alternative voice;
For the sins of being critical of Jewish life from a distance rather than from a personal involvement or commitment,
And for the sins of not spending more time engaged in learning the Jewish tradition and studying Jewish history, literature, and holy texts;
For the sins of giving up on Judaism because it didn’t satisfy our highest spiritual and ethical values, rather than engaging in the process of spiritually renewing our tradition;
And for the sins of allowing the spiritual renewers to divorce spirituality from the struggle for social justice and ecological sanity;
For the sins of acting as though Jewish pain is worse than every one else’s pain;
And for the sins of being insensitive or insulting to non-Jews;
For the sins of not honoring diversity of ethnic and cultural backgrounds–including Sephardic, Mizrachi, Ethiopian, Ashkenazic, and Black Jews–the diversity of class backgrounds, the diversity of sexual orientation, and the diversity of ways that we address the spiritual truths of the universe;
For the sins of not having compassion for one another;
And for not taking care of one another;
For the sins of not sharing responsibility for child-rearing;
And for the sins of self-absorption, allowing us to be insulated from the loneliness and needs of people around us;
For the sins of focusing only on our sins and not our strengths and beauties;
And for the sins of not adequately rejoicing and celebrating the beauty and
grandeur of God’s creation.
Ve-al kulam Eloha selichot, selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu.
For all these, Lord of Forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.
Yom Kippur
Pronounced: yohm KIPP-er, also yohm kee-PORE, Origin: Hebrew, The Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar and, with Rosh Hashanah, one of the High Holidays.
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