Tomorrow night, Tuesday night, the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement begins. A day to make final reckoning with our behavior and our relationships with the people and the world around us. One last chance to forgive and ask forgiveness from those we have hurt and those who have hurt us. One last day of fasting, prayer and introspection before God enters his final judgment in our individual Book of Life. With great humility, we appeal to God for another year. Another opportunity. Another chance.
You know, seems like all three major monotheistic religions have these important and central holidays and/or rituals that focus on coming clean with our behavior and asking for, giving and receiving forgiveness. Those holidays or rituals when we honestly examine our behavior. Check out the bad stuff. Acknowledge the good. Committing to ourselves and to our God to do more of the good stuff. The Jewish version started with Rosh Hashanah, our New Year, followed by ten introspective days of awe and finally culminating with Tuesday night's Yom Kippur, our Day of Atonement. For Muslims, I believe many of the same themes are present in Ramadan and in the holiday at the end of the fasting month -Eid al fitr. And for Chrisitans, there's confession I guess.
As I think about it, these holidays and rituals must either be...
In the first case, it shows God as a patient, ever-suffering, understanding and forgiving God. Because if I look around me, all the best of our so-called intentions, all our introspection, all our asking and giving forgiveness, all our commitments to do better, all that doesn't seem to be making much of a difference in the world as time goes by. Year after year. So God could only be a patient, ever-suffering, understanding and forgiving god to deal with that repetitive disappointment while always giving us another hopeful chance. If that's not Divine behavior, I don't know what is!
In the second case, what a handy coincidence.
If it is all just the expression of our self-serving inventive imaginations, what a great self-con! Year in and year out, able to go on our happy, egotistical, violent ways and then just wait for our rituals and holidays to come around. And then we take a page out of Steve Martin's comedy playbook, lament and pray: "Excuuuuuuse me." Or perhaps like a Dutch pop-culture saying goes, "Foutje bedankt!" (in English "Hey. My bad! Soooorrrrry.") What a great arrangement! Sign me up, too!
But it strikes me that it could be something else. Maybe there's a third possibility. Perhaps what we see here with this revolving door of "sin -> forgiveness -> woops I did it again -> sorry I'll really try better next time -> Oh damn, I just can't help doing that -> My bad, won't happen again, Promise!…"
Perhaps this revolving door is really what Einstein was talking about he when made his famous observation about insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
So on the night before Yom Kippur begins I am wondering. Is there this ever suffering God who embraces our pathologically recidivist behavior while never giving up on us? Or are we just clever, self-serving and cynical enough to create this wonderful scam for ourselves and call it Religion? Or are we just an intelligent and technologically capable species that is deeply insane?
From what I can see in the world and from what I can tell, I kind of have to go with the insanity plea. I mean, only in that case would our behavior actually make sense. Only if we're insane is our collective behavior acceptable or excusable. Insane? Pathologically dysfunctional? Hey, we can't do any better than this until we cure ourselves of what ails us? Eckhart Tolle talks about it in A New Earth, suggesting that our extreme attachment to the 'ego' has created a deep mental dysfunction. A deep spiritual dysfunction in fact. And let's be honest, if we look around us, that is kind of what we see all over the place these days. Egos and dysfunction.
I don't know....
What I do know, is that I wish all my Jewish family and friends a good Yom Kippur and for those who fast, an easy fast. But not too easy. And when we greet each other, it’s with the wish, "May you be written in the Book of Life." And we mean it. And we say it, knowing that if God hears our prayers and grants us another year in the Book of Life, we’ll be doing this all over again one year from today. Collectively, and too often personally, we accept that we won’t really end up changing much in the coming year. 'Cuz collectively, and too often personally, we haven’t really changed much from last year. Or from the years before…
This Yom Kippur, this will be my introspection: To all my Jewish family and friends, to all my Muslim family and friends, to all my friends everywhere, I pray that this year may see the start of real transformation. In myself and in the world around us. May this year be the year when we are no longer satisfied with routine lip service. May this year be the year we put our money - and our true intentions and our consistent actions - where our mouths are. Nike would say, "Just do it." I say, Come on, let's all do it.
May we all be blessed in our lives and in our chosen paths. And may we all find a way to share the two beautiful gifts we have all been granted. Its all we have. Our planet and Each other. Peace & Love
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