Repentance

Why Gadi Eisenkot is rejecting the haredi political embrace that once helped Netanyahu win

POLITICAL AFFAIRS: Yitzhak Yosef’s embrace – and Eisenkot's effort to distance himself from it – reflects Israel's shifting political landscape.

|ByHERB KEINON
Amid reports that the Shas Party could be willing to sit with him in government, Yashar Party head Gadi Eisenkot did not rule out that option entirely. Here, Eisenkot attends the Sagi Laws for Equality Confrence at the Peres Center in Jaffa earlier this week.
ON YOM KIPPUR, feel the joy that bursts forth from a cleansed heart and purified soul.

Embrace Yom Kippur with joy, not sorrow as prayer is today’s greatest offering

A sacrifice for a deliberate sin is never atoned, but heartfelt prayer does.

|ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
IN THE early morning before Yom Kippur, 2024, prayers for forgiveness are recited at the Western Wall and elsewhere in the Jewish world.

Teshuva is an emotional landscape

Most mitzvot summon us to perform tangible actions. Teshuva cannot be reduced to ritual or gesture. It demands intent, sincerity, and inner upheaval.

|ByMOSHE TARAGIN
The Cave of Machpelah in Hebron.

Yom Kippur 2024: Reconciling our personal journeys and collective experiences - opinion

How do we reconcile the deeply personal journey of Yom Kippur with the overwhelming collective experiences of the past year?

|ByMOSHE TARAGIN

Yom Kippur: 4 big ideas for Israelis to reflect on during the fast day

Yom Kippur is not just a personal day, it is a public day that invites us to contemplate various aspects of our collective life.

OCTOBER 4, 2022ByYEDIDIA STERN
PEOPLE ON THE empty Jerusalem roads, on Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur: A snowy day at the laundromat

Isaiah depicts two very different metaphors for whitening our red sins – snow and laundered wool. How do these two metaphors illustrate the experience of repentance? 

OCTOBER 1, 2022ByMOSHE TARAGIN
Removing stains today will make them significantly easier to remove tomorrow.

Elul: Remembering and forgetting are the keys to unlock teshuva - opinion

As Elul dawns on us this week, don’t forget to remember all the tasks left undone, but remember to forget any trivial indignities you might have endured or any petty arguments.

AUGUST 27, 2022BySTEWART WEISS
AS ELUL dawns, remember to forget any trivial indignities or petty arguments.

Yom Kippur: Finding forgiveness in an unforgiving society - opinion

When it comes to human beings, those we offended must be ready to forgive if our desire to be forgiven is genuine.

SEPTEMBER 9, 2021BySHERWIN POMERANTZ
THE DAYS leading up to Yom Kippur allow us to begin the process of repair.

Five new year resolutions

What New Year’s resolutions can we set for ourselves and for our institutions? How can we inspire our colleagues, students, and children to believe in a more positive future?

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020ByARIEL ERANI
Hechal Shlomo, the former headquarters of the chief rabbis of Israel, is now the home of Herzog College’s Jerusalem campus and its International Center of Jewish Heritage

Days of Awe - A time for reflection and a call to action

Will any of the prayers and poems that we recite on these holidays help us deal with these issues?

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020ByRON KRONISH
A man blowing the shofar at the Western Wall days before Rosh Hashanah

Parashat Nitzavim-Vayelech - A moment of honesty

Teshuva is primarily an emotional process that has practical implications.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020ByRABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
‘And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger, and in His wrath’ – Deuteronomy, Nizavim 29:22

The blessing of Elul

Soon, each of us will begin our heshbon nefesh, our soul-searching.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2020ByDAVID GEFFEN

Can a divided nation learn to forgive?

The imperative to learn from our mistakes and make amends isn’t consistent with intolerance for and refusing to listen to opposing views.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2018ByJONATHAN S. TOBIN
A general view shows Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City

Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year

This year, Yom Kippur begins a few minutes before sunset on Tuesday, September 18th and concludes after nightfall on Wednesday, September 19th.

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018BySARA RUBENSTEIN
PAINTING by the Polish artist Maurycy Gottlieb c. 1878, titled ‘Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur.’