Atonement
The Jewish Community has just concluded the ten most important days in its religious calendar.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
Philip Goldenberg
9/22/20261 min read
Starting with our New Year (Rosh Ha-Shanah, literally meaning “Head of the Year”), it concludes with Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement.
We repent of our individual transgressions, but we also say this when we look at the dreadful state of the world as it is today, with wars of aggression, man-made climate crisis and the frightening possibilities of uncontrolled AI:
“God, we have confessed the sins of everyday, the small deceits and evasions that we practise. Help us now to recognise our hand in the great failures and crimes of our world that we commit by our actions or our indifference.
We waste what we have – our food, our fuel, our wealth, our gifts.
Then we watch in surprise the destruction of our world.
What we do not explode or gouge out of the earth, we pollute.
What we do not pollute, we kill.
We do not see, or wish to see, the damage we do.
Later we regret.”
PHILIP GOLDENBERG
Member of the Jewish Faith