Yom Kippur 2004, Oct. 6, 2003
D'Var Torah

(continued)

At the risk of returning you to a sense of despair by alluding to one more opportunity, I feel compelled to draw our attention to Israel, as a country more and more affected by poverty that it has been since its early days as a nation. From its inception, the values of the state have included tremendous attention to the well-being of its most disadvantaged.

In his report this erev Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Executive Director of the Israeli-based Rabbis For Human Rights, writes: "The state of Israel has been transformed from a welfare state with one of the smallest gaps in the world between the rich and the poor to one which has one of the greatest rifts between these two groups in the West. We ignore the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee to halt the collapse of the health system and refuse to seek out the funds essential to its survival. The level of unemployment is on the increase. Instead of engaging in some much needed soul searching and taking constructive action we prefer to blame the victims: the problem, we say, arises from those "pretending" to be unemployed."

Rabbi Ascherman and his rabbinic colleagues have composed a supplementary vidui, or confession, for this Yom Kippur. He explains: "In so far as we take the traditional vidui of Yom Kippur seriously, we find that we are obliged to look upon ourselves in a way that will cause us unease. Reciting the vidui is not the occasion for a "balanced" view or for repeating the accepted version of events. Rather it is an opportunity to examine those matters which we can find the courage to deal with only when we are strengthened by the intensity of Yom Kippur. Rabbi Avraham Joshua Heschel said: "In a democracy there is a small group of guilty people, but each one of us must bear responsibility". The vidui which we have written is intended to remind us of our sins (transgressions), in the hope that we will find the wisdom to do better in all that we touch in the coming year."

As I re-read the text of the vidui, I was tempted to take out the few that seemed specific to the situation in Israel. I had to smile to myself, and remember the very teaching I borrowed from Rabbi Schorsch:
"And what of the sins we did not commit? We assume a share of the guilt, "for all Jews are responsible for each other." As bystanders we are accomplices; our apathy and silence facilitated the malevolence of others. In a world awash with human evil, some are guilty, but all are implicated."

And Rabbi Ascherman wrote: "If we take the traditional Yom Kippur vidui seriously, it forces us to look at ourselves in ways that make us feel uncomfortable. The vidui is not a time for "balance" or the repeating of common wisdom, but for examining that which the power of Yom Kippur can give us the courage to face."

For the sin which we have sinned against You by indulging in food and drink
As the social gap has grown

For the sin which we have sinned against You by insensitivity
When we permitted a cut in funds for the weaker sections of society

For the sin which we have sinned against You through Lashon HaRa (slander)
Claiming that the unemployed were "faking"

For the sin which we have sinned against You by rashly blaming others
As we blamed the victim, declaring war against the unemployed rather than against unemployment

For the sin which we have sinned against You by shortsightedness
In transferring funds intended for health care elsewhere at a time when the health system is collapsing

For the sin which we have sinned against You by casting aside the weak
By neglecting those requiring assisted living and the mentally ill in the health care budget

For the sin which we have sinned against You by desecrating your name
By abandoning the agunot and those women who were not granted a divorce in the name of our religion and by ignoring the solutions which exist in the halacha

For the sin which we have sinned against You in doing business
Rather than fighting those operating as pimps and trading in women

For the sin which we have sinned against You by chasing material gain
Through the exploitation of foreign workers

For the sin which we have sinned against You intentionally or
unintentionally
By ignoring or turning our heads away from the disabled

For the sin which we have sinned against You by scoffing,
Denigrating new immigrants and failing to honor their traditions and
cultures

For the sin which we have sinned against You by intentionally forgetting
When we chose to ignore poor neighborhoods and development towns

For the sin which we have sinned against You by giving into the evil
impulses
Of materialism and selfishness

For the sin which we have sinned against You by withdrawing our hand
from the outstretched hand of a person in need

For the sin which we have sinned against You knowingly or unknowingly
Because we did not want to know how we might be of help

For the sin which we have sinned against You by thinking to ourselves and by whispering in closed rooms
About that which we should have shouted from the
rooftops

For the sin which we have sinned against You by hardening our hearts
To grinding poverty and despair.

And for the sin which we have sinned against You by exploitation
Living well while others live in poverty.

For all these sins, forgiving God, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.

Rabbi Ascherman himself is fond of quoting the passage from the Talmud, about the possibility that each of us has to tip the scales one way or the other: "… if we perform one mitzvah we should be joyous, for we have tilted the scales towards righteousness." Let his call on behalf of Rabbis for Human Rights, along with than that of MAZON, of IHN, of the prophet Isaiah himself, give us hope, and energize us to walk the walk.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said: "In a democracy there is a small group of guilty people, but each one of us must bear responsibility". He also said, after marching in Selma arm in arm with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., "It felt as though my feet were praying."

This year, as we leave this place of prayer, may our feet, and our hands, carry on the prayers of our heart, bringing the fullness of meaning to our readings and rituals, our confessions and our fast.