Are They Really Our Sins?

The Season of Repentance is shaping up to be a tough slog this year. Of course, when Yom Kippur comes, Jews will gather in our millions in synagogues across the globe to recite the prayers together and bask in the warmth of family for a few hours. In fact, it’s the one moment in the year, surveys show, when most of the world’s Jews gather physically for a shared endeavor. We’ll schmooze, catch up and joke about how hungry we are. And at the assigned moments we’ll beat our breasts and solemnly chant the climactic words: Ashamnu, bagadnu — we have sinned, we have betrayed, we have robbed, we have slandered.

But we won’t mean it, most of us. We’ll say “For all these sins, God of forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement,” but somewhere inside we’ll be thinking, “Who, me?”