As a holy day, it is laden with ritual and significance, but those of a secular persuasion could also discover meaning in such a punctuation point in our day-to-day lives. We would all, surely, find value in a short period of corporeal abstinence, of spiritual reflection, and of disengagement from the temptations and distractions of the modern world.
Consumed with anger, Moses returned to the Mount to beg forgiveness for the Israelites, who in turn pledged atonement for their sins. God forgave them, and the Torah – the instrument of Jewish law – commands the observance of this day, Yom Kippur, stating that atonement for our transgressions is a solemn commitment to be made once a year.
But this year, for a large number of Jews, Yom Kippur cannot simply be a day of religious observance which harks back to Biblical times. Judaism is in crisis throughout the world, beset on one side by a shocking rise in antisemitism and on the other by a sense of disaffection, at best, and shame, at worst, at the military actions of the State of Israel. In the act of asking for forgiveness, how can the political be separated from the religious?
Yet we also stand firmly against the Netanyahu administration’s continuing assault on the Palestinian people, and there seems a contradiction in submitting to a religious tradition that can be traced back to the Old Testament at the very time when the commandment that “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” is, in a political sense at least, flagrantly ignored.
Of course, organised religion does not ordinarily allow for equivocation or doubt, or shades of opinion. But Jewish scholars have pointed to the fact that the Torah today is the culmination of thousands of years of development, and that the prayers have transformed and evolved to take into account the challenges of the moment.
And, yes, my view that the actions of Israel in Gaza are unconscionable is just as intractable as those who see the military incursion as a necessary response to the existential threat to the Jewish people.
But if ever there was a time to pray for justice and fairness and forgiveness and resolution, it is this Yom Kippur.
Your next read
square HUGO GYETwo ministers are looking like a good alternative to Starmer
square JAMES BALLTrump is about to hit his Maga base where it hurts – they won’t forgive him
square KATE LISTERI know what makes my friends orgasm but not what they earn – it’s the last taboo
square ZING TSJENGGen Z aren’t ‘boring’ – they’re broke
Hence then, the article about this yom kippur i feel a deep sense of shame about gaza was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( This Yom Kippur, I feel a deep sense of shame about Gaza )
Also on site :