Tefilla Zakkah- Forgiveness

The streets of Jerusalem are emptied of cars (a beautiful and surreal experience, with people walking and talking and sitting in the streets), as Israel begins the observance of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, 10 days after Rosh Hashanah, the New Year. On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed- so the line goes with regard to our future. When you think about it, though, Rosh Hashanah is really the day of judgement, whereas Yom Kippur is a day of "rachamim", of mercy or compassion. Indeed, the message of Yom Kippur is that whatever ill we have done we can correct, we can return, we can seek forgiveness and change our actions. Yom Kippur is thus fundamentally hopeful, and by going through the process of forgiving and seeking forgiveness ("selichah") we purify ourselves for the year to come. We start the year with a clean slate. Before we kick off Yom Kippur with Kol Nidre (the renunciation of the vows towards ourselves (not to others) that we could not keep), we engage in a long confessional prayer, the Tefilla Zakkah, that also ensures that we forgive those who might have slighted us in the past. I want to reproduce the key bit here:

"I know that there is no one so righteous that they have not wronged another, financially or physically, through deed or speech. This pains my heart within me, because wrongs between humans and their fellow are not atoned by Yom Kippur, until the wronged one is appeased. Because of this, my heart breaks within me, and my bones tremble; for even the day of death does not atone for such sins. Therefore I prostrate and beg before You, to have mercy on me, and grant me grace, compassion, and mercy in Your eyes and in the eyes of all people. For behold, I forgive with a final and resolved forgiveness anyone who has wronged me, whether in person or property, even if they slandered me, or spread falsehoods against me. So I release anyone who has injured me either in person or in property, or has committed any manner of sin that one may commit against another [except for legally enforceable business obligations, and except for someone who has deliberately harmed my with the thought ‘I can harm him because he will forgive me']. Except for these two, I fully and finally forgive everyone; may no one be punished because of me. And just as I forgive everyone, so may You grant me grace in the eyes of others, that they too forgive me absolutely."

May everyone find blessing and forgiveness this Yom Kippur and enjoy a meaningful fast.

Shana tova u'metukah, and gmar chatimah tova (have a good and sweet new year, and may you be written in the Book of Life),

D ;-)