Dear Friends,
Yom Kippur is tough.
It is tough to seriously look at our lives and vow to do better in the New Year. Many of us have been doing Yom Kippur for decades, and we still have work to do.
I love the story of the great rabbinic sage who was traveling from one shtetl to another in the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and as the sun set, he found lodging at the home of an aged, simple cobbler. As the rabbi lay down in a corner of the room and was about to cover himself with a blanket, he saw that the shoemaker had returned to his candle-lit bench and was about to work on a shoe. “What are you doing, so late at night?” asked the rabbi of the cobbler. The old man replied, “As long as there is time, there is mending to be done.”
Weeks later, it was reported that the rabbinic sage was still muttering to himself, “As long as there is time, there is mending to be done.”
Hence, on this Shabbat of Yom Kippur, we are reminded that we have both time, and mending to be done.
None of us has yet reached perfection. Each of us has at least something that troubles us and towards which we can improve. Each of us is not yet the fully holy being that God intended us to be.
On Yom Kippur afternoon in our final Torah reading of the most sacred of days, we read what is known as The Holiness Code, Leviticus 19. The text includes some of our most compelling commands: leave food for the hungry; pay your employees their wages in a timely fashion; do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor; love your neighbor as yourself.
Yet, the Holiness Code commences with the most powerful of all the charges: “You shall be holy, for I, Adonai your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2)
The specific commands of the Holiness Code give us a means to that end. If we care for the vulnerable, if we support our workers, if we are compassionate towards our neighbor, then we are achieving a measure of holiness.
Yet, there is so much more to do. There is mending of our world, and mending of ourselves.
But, as long as we have time…
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
Yom Kippur is tough.
It is tough to seriously look at our lives and vow to do better in the New Year. Many of us have been doing Yom Kippur for decades, and we still have work to do.
I love the story of the great rabbinic sage who was traveling from one shtetl to another in the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and as the sun set, he found lodging at the home of an aged, simple cobbler. As the rabbi lay down in a corner of the room and was about to cover himself with a blanket, he saw that the shoemaker had returned to his candle-lit bench and was about to work on a shoe. “What are you doing, so late at night?” asked the rabbi of the cobbler. The old man replied, “As long as there is time, there is mending to be done.”
Weeks later, it was reported that the rabbinic sage was still muttering to himself, “As long as there is time, there is mending to be done.”
Hence, on this Shabbat of Yom Kippur, we are reminded that we have both time, and mending to be done.
None of us has yet reached perfection. Each of us has at least something that troubles us and towards which we can improve. Each of us is not yet the fully holy being that God intended us to be.
On Yom Kippur afternoon in our final Torah reading of the most sacred of days, we read what is known as The Holiness Code, Leviticus 19. The text includes some of our most compelling commands: leave food for the hungry; pay your employees their wages in a timely fashion; do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor; love your neighbor as yourself.
Yet, the Holiness Code commences with the most powerful of all the charges: “You shall be holy, for I, Adonai your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2)
The specific commands of the Holiness Code give us a means to that end. If we care for the vulnerable, if we support our workers, if we are compassionate towards our neighbor, then we are achieving a measure of holiness.
Yet, there is so much more to do. There is mending of our world, and mending of ourselves.
But, as long as we have time…
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn