(יב) לֵ֣ב טָ֭הוֹר בְּרָא־לִ֣י אֱלֹהִ֑ים וְר֥וּחַ נָ֝כ֗וֹן חַדֵּ֥שׁ בְּקִרְבִּֽי׃
Create a pure heart in me, Great Spirit;
And renew a true soul within me.
(Melody: Yoel Sykes & Daphna Rosenberg)
יְהוָ֣ה יְהוָ֔ה
אֵ֥ל רַח֖וּם וְחַנּ֑וּן
אֶ֥רֶךְ אַפַּ֖יִם וְרַב־חֶ֥סֶד וֶאֱמֶֽת
נֹצֵ֥ר חֶ֙סֶד֙ לָאֲלָפִ֔ים
נֹשֵׂ֥א עָוֺ֛ן וָפֶ֖שַׁע וְחַטָּאָ֑ה וְנַקֵּה֙
Shechina, Shechina [/Adonai, Adonai]
compassion and tenderness,
patience, forbearance, kindness, awareness,
bearing love from age to age,
lifting guilt and mistakes and making us free.
(English: Rabbi Burt Jacobson)
The commentators undertook to comprehend how confession and regretfulness could help the person who is doing Teshuvah, for the law is that a speech cannot void an act. The sinner is guilty of many evil actions, so how can confession, which is a form of speech, help them? But our rabbis, of blessed memory, said that the Holy One, blessed be God, makes a new creature of the one who does Teshuvah (Pesikta Rabbati, 9thc.), and the result is that their speech of confession is the cause of a powerful and great act of creation, and of course all their evil actions are voided. (Midbar Kedemot, S.Y Agnon, Days of Awe, 217).
Is speech a key part of your own teshuvah?
Have others seeking your forgiveness ever spoken to you in a way that was powerful?
Is there something you have yet to say - to God, another person, or yourself - that you think will be important in your process of teshuvah?
Is speech a key part of your own teshuvah?
Have others seeking your forgiveness ever spoken to you in a way that was powerful?
Is there something you have yet to say - to God, another person, or yourself - that you think will be important in your process of teshuvah?
At one point in history it may have been the proper task of Judaism to struggle against nature cults insofar as they represented human subjugation to nature. Over the centuries, however, the reverse has occurred, reaching a frightening climax in our age: the almost total alienation of human beings from nature. Consequently, one of the crucial religious tasks of our age is to work towards human integration with nature, with all that implies societally, psychically, and theologically. (Rabbi Everett Gendler, Judaism for Universalists).
What are one or two salient memories you have of being integrated with nature?
In this time of threat to the land, air and water from which we live, how do you imagine living differently in the coming days, months and years in order to "turn towards human integration with nature" ?
What societal changes do you imagine? Which changes cause you sadness or fear? Do any of the changes that you imagine sound positive to you?
In this time of threat to the land, air and water from which we live, how do you imagine living differently in the coming days, months and years in order to "turn towards human integration with nature" ?
What societal changes do you imagine? Which changes cause you sadness or fear? Do any of the changes that you imagine sound positive to you?
Free will is granted to all humans: If one wanted to turn oneself to a good path and to be righteous, s/he has the license to do so, and if one wanted to turn oneself to an evil path and be wicked s/he has the license to do so, as it is written in the Torah, Behold, the human is become like one of us, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:22), that is, this species of human is unique in the world, and there is no other species like it in this matter, that it of its own initiative and will and thought knows good and evil and will do whatever it pleases, and there is no one to prevent its hand from doing good or evil…every person is capable of being righteous like Moshe Rabeinu or wicked like [King] Yerov'am… (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Repentance, 5:1-2).
Our freedom to think, decide and act is central to Jewish thought. How does this stand up to your personal experience?
This teaching focuses on the ability to turn or change behavior. What powerful changes have you made or witnessed this year (or ever)? What contributed to the ability to change?
Our freedom to think, decide and act is central to Jewish thought. How does this stand up to your personal experience?
This teaching focuses on the ability to turn or change behavior. What powerful changes have you made or witnessed this year (or ever)? What contributed to the ability to change?
The Baal Shem Tov was said to have asked a Rabbi in a town he was visiting how he could justify singing the Yom Kippur confessions to joyful melodies. The rabbi replied: a worker who is cleaning the royal courtyard of a ruler whom they love could be very happy cleaning the refuse from the courtyard and could even sing joyfully while doing it (Agnon 220). The happy servant of the human king is a fantasy of kings. But when we act in service to someone or something worthy of our devotion, it is possible to be happy even doing the most mundane of tasks.
Emma Goldman, feminist and anarchist activist, teacher and writer wrote in her 1931 autobiography, “At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening… a young boy took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway…My frivolity would only hurt the Cause...I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy… I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, …for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. If it meant that, I did not want it. [Goldman, Living My Life, p. 56]
These words have been famously paraphrased as "If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution!" For you, what animates or makes life joyful even in hard times?
Emma Goldman, feminist and anarchist activist, teacher and writer wrote in her 1931 autobiography, “At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening… a young boy took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway…My frivolity would only hurt the Cause...I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy… I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, …for release and freedom from conventions and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. If it meant that, I did not want it. [Goldman, Living My Life, p. 56]
These words have been famously paraphrased as "If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution!" For you, what animates or makes life joyful even in hard times?