An American Jew in India. On Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. The day Jews confess sins. The day God judges sins. The day God decides our fate.
Tradition tells us that on Yom Kippur, God writes our name in the Book of Life. Or not. No one knows in advance. Shall we be alive tomorrow?
Not to worry. We don’t really confess our sins. Not the real ones anyway. And we still seem to live. Is God fooling us? Biding his time?
Today, I sit in my hotel room in silence rather than in my synagogue at home or in New Delhi. I can’t go near the ritual of confession without confessing. Can’t do it. Can you?
Why India? I’m not here to cash in on India’s new global prominence. Nor will I see the suffering entailed in that “development.”
My time here is advertised as a lecture tour. If you want to know the truth, I’m in India confessing.
Development is necessary. The suffering it causes is catalogued by historians. After.
But, then, as an American, what have I to say to India about the costs of development? America rides the crest of development’s wave. For now.
Every Yom Kippur, I confess the sins of my people. Wherever I am. Wherever I can.
I have spoken and written this confession for 25 years – without any success.
Here is my confession:
What we, as Jews, have done to the Palestinian people is wrong.
What we, as Jews, are doing to the Palestinian people is wrong.
Past. Present. No equivocation. No end in sight.
Some Jews view my confession as out of place. How dare I confess the suffering of the Palestinian people at our hands? But there are many Jews who hold the same point of view. Most won’t be in synagogue on Yom Kippur either.
You see, as with any people or nation, there are Jews who think empire will save us. And, as with any people or nation, there are Jews who think we are bound to others for the greater good.
Empire Jews seek power over others. Jews of Conscience seek life with others.
Empire Jews versus Jews of Conscience. A Jewish civil war.
This civil war is hardly confined to Jews. Is there a civil war in India between those who want empire and those who exercise conscience?
Some say that Kashmir is another Palestine. I lack the knowledge to make a comparison.
South Africans I know say what is happening in Palestine is worse than the apartheid they suffered. They should know.
President Jimmy Carter believes that the Jewish colonization of Jerusalem and the West Bank is apartheid. When I visited him at his library in Atlanta, he spoke about Palestinian suffering. During his remarks, he wept.
So much suffering in the world. So much violence in the world. So many forms of violence.
I read about the next generation of American Drone aircraft. “Development” continues. Our brave new world. If India doesn’t have this latest military “advance,” you will. If India wants empire.
So much to confess historically. Today. For the future.
But on Yom Kippur, as a Jew, I think of the Palestinian people.
I write of Palestinian sufferings and their desire to be free. I write of Jews oppressing the Palestinian people.
Yes, we Jews. In Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza I see it with my own eyes. More and more Jews of Conscience see it. We are powerless. Will America help? Will India?
Without justice, Jewish history loses its foundation. Without conscience, there is only empire. Without a religious “no” to empire, why religion?
On Yom Kippur, Jews all over the world, take a deep breath. Confess.
Now exhale. Reach our hands out toward our neighbors, the Palestinians.
Don’t Palestinians have a right to be free in their own homeland?
If Palestinians are free, perhaps we could become free. Of our own oppression.
Yes, today, on Yom Kippur, let us confess our oppression. Of another people.
God, if on this Yom Kippur you find me worthy of being written into the Book of Life, I ask you to place my name on the same page as the Palestinian people.
Right there. With other Jews and Palestinians who want a future of justice and equality.
Book of Life. Same page.
Marc H. Ellis is University Professor of Jewish Studies, Professor of History and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University. He is the author of many books, most recently Encountering the Jewish Future: with Wiesel, Buber, Heschel, Arendt, Levinas.
Beautifully said. Also expresses the need for atonement of all Americans for the USA’s military empire which thinks nothing of killing, poisoning, maiming, destroying, etc., in the “name” of whatever is a popular bogeyman — anti-communism, anti-terrorism, whatever. Civil liberties? Who, here, needs them? We’ve got more important irons in the fire. Human rights? Never mind the people over there who need them.
And what of Jews (or Americans) who say, they don’t know about the oppression of Palestinians by Israel? Let them atone for failing to learn. And what of Jews (or Americans) who say they do know, but it is not their fault, there was nothing they could do to stop the oppression, the destruction. Let them atone for not at least speaking up clearly in their various communities, small and large. “Not in my name” has a nice sound to it, especially if you identify WHAT is being done but not with your permission.
Dont be so hard on yourself Marc. You are a good man and a brother to all humanity.
“On Yom Kippur, Jews all over the world, take a deep breath. Confess”
Bradley Burston is very depressed this year. The tone is very different to last year
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/a-message-for-jews-in-a-charred-mosque-at-yom-kippur-1.388534
Burston last year
On this day when we boycott that which medicates and blunts, cleanse us of the disappointments and the failures of this year.
By Bradley Burston Tags: Yom Kippur
Lord, prepare me to fast.
Help me turn this life around.
Help me look anew at people whom You made perfect, and whom life has made like me: wounded, nasty, guarded, bile-driven, vengeful, resigned, cynical, uncertain that what is broken, rust-bound, wrong-headed, can be turned around.
Pound on my heart. Find the list I have lost in there. Read it back to me, so I can’t claim not to have heard.
This is the list: This is the year the war ends. This is the year I change the vocabulary of my blood. This is the year of pride in peace. This is the year when the world begins to turn around. This is the year when people, whoever their parents, are one color. The way You made them. Perfect.
Lord who created the brothers Ishmael and Isaac, Lord who makes victims to teach lessons, Who sustained them in expulsion and exile and binding and the shadow of murder, prepare me to detox from the war inside. Lord who created my ancestors, who left them as children with poison in the blood from fates they did not deserve, save me as you saved them.
On this day when we boycott the pleasures and distractions and feuds and art which medicate and blunt and crutch, cleanse us of the disappointments and the failures of this year, which we have come together this day, this fast, to bury.
This is the list:
Asham’nu – This is our confession. It is written that we will seek You out only when we admit that we have done wrong.
Bagadnu – We have betrayed You. We have made gods of stone and tile and asphalt.
Gazalnu – We have stolen, and called it reclaiming.
Dibarnu Dofi – We have learned to say one thing to the world, and something different to one other.
He’evinu V’hirshanu – We have caused others to sin. We have warped our tradition to suit the politics of the moment.
Zadnu – We have allowed our anger to overrule our judgment, our values, our compassion.
Hamasnu – We have been violent, and blamed the wrongdoing of others for our wrongdoing.
Tafalnu Sheker, Ya’atznu Ra, Kizavnu – We have lied to ourselves and others in order to justify our actions. We have given poor advice in order to serve our own ends. We have altered the truth to serve our aims, and spread the lie as if absolutely true.
Latznu – We have made light of the suffering and the humanity and the dreams of those who are unlike us.
Maradnu, Ni’atznu, Sarar’nu, Avinu – In the name of land, we have sanctified rebellion against leaders, our own and those of our allies. In our anger, we have taken vengeance against innocents, and sinned against nature.
Pashanu, Tzarar’nu, Kishinu Oref – We have committed crimes, we have persecuted others. We have been stubborn to an extreme, unbending and insensitive.
Rashanu, Shichatnu, Ti’avnu – We have engaged in wickedness, corruption, abhorrent acts.
Ta’inu, Ti’tanu, Sarnu M’mitzvo’techa – We have gone astray, we have been led astray, we have lost our way.
Lord of Ishmael and Isaac, for their sake if not for ours, heal our children and our childrens’ children. For their sake if not for ours, grant them life, inscribe them for health, seal them
The confession of one’s sins is holistic, not political.
The political is a component of one’s life, but to fixate on only the political, is to indulge and to deflect.
There is a great word in Hebrew that appears in the akedah three times. Hineni, literally “here I am”.
God calls to Abraham, Abraham responds “Here I am”, naked, seen, trusting, unpretentious, present.
Abraham calls to Isaac, Isaac responds “Here I am”, trusting, unpretentious, present.
God calls to Abraham again, Abraham responds again “Here I am”.
Hineni as “here I am”, seen. Hineni as “here I am”, ready to act.
This is what we do on Yom Kippur. “Search my heart”. Heal all that can be healed by one’s words and actions. Ask for existential forgiveness for what cannot be healed by one’s words and actions, accompanied by resolution to not repeat. And, most importantly, refresh the existential unconditional intimate link between God and I.
Marc,
Please do all of it, not just the political. The political for many is an easy out, something that one cannot be held accountable for, for the very small impact that we have one way or another.
Whereas, we do affect our own consciousness by our actions. We do affect our intimates, our colleagues, our friends, our neighbors.