Yom Kippur

If Rosh Hashana is the Day of Judgement and Yom Kippur, ten days later, is the Day of Atonement, it would seem that the order of the days is out of sequence. Surely forgiveness should be sought and would be preferable before the trial rather than being judged and only then pursuing some absolution for [...]

Life is a book, the story of our lives: – The challenges, the low moments and also success. Sometimes one finds oneself in a rut, like being on a highway with no exit in sight and one needs to stop and change direction. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the exits, the beginning of new [...]

There is a custom that I have seen wherever I have been in the world on Yom Kippur, to sing a lively melody when we begin beating our hearts and listing our transgressions in the Vidui, the confession. Ashamnu, we are guilty, Bagadnu, we have rebelled, Gazalnu, we have stolen! This highly animated refrain, while [...]

There are only a few opportunities that life presents us with, whereby we are able, unlike the story of Humpty Dumpty to set everything right and to put Humpty together again, in other words to start out completely afresh and anew. One of those opportunities is when a person converts to Judaism. Another is when [...]

I would like to quote you a Rambam, from his Laws of Teshuva, a compilation of all the Laws of just how to come back on track to the road leading to G-d, a timeous observation, what with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur just around the corner. Each and every person has merits as well [...]