A Revolution for Reform Judaism?

There is no higher moment in synagogue life than the High Holy Days—Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, followed by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. These Ten Days of Repentance invoke the deepest spiritual call to order in Judaism. Unlike the festival holidays of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, or the minor holidays of Chanukah and Purim, the High Holy Days are not days of national celebration, or of celebration at all. Rather, they are days of intense individual introspection. This self-examination is said to call for a cheshbon ha-nefesh, an accounting of the soul. Jews are commanded to undergo a painful process of acknowledging and confessing sins and misdeeds, to make a personal plea for forgiveness from those they have harmed, and to undertake a day-long fast and supplication ending in a final grant of divine mercy and forgiveness.