Lots of posts around in the past few days about people getting ready for Yom Kippur, explaining what it means to them and how it fits into their complicated relationship with Judaism, and opening conversations about forgiveness with people they might have wronged during the year. I didn't post anything like that, mainly because I was too busy learning tricky bits of Leviticus, making a plan for how to manage the liturgy, writing sermons, and contacting congregants to assign them roles in the services and reassure them when they weren't confident about reading in public. In some ways this is explicitly the wrong priority; there's a story that often gets told about the student who asks to be excused from his studies at yeshiva in order to practise the liturgy for YK, and the rabbi rebukes him that it's more important to consider the state of his soul as the liturgy is the same every year. In other ways, well, my commitment to my community is a much more central part of religion for me than anything to do with personal spirituality.
( balance is hard )
That gave me just the right boost I needed to be ready for the students descending on us on Monday. I have met my new tutorial group, and the Med School is buzzing and busy again. And generally I'm feeling good about the beginning of the religious and the academic year, even though I could do without them coinciding! As far as repentance goes, I would like to hope that at any time of the year I'm open to people letting me know if I've hurt, wronged or upset them. I don't promise to be perfect, but I also hope I don't need the excuse of Yom Kippur to be able to have those conversations without being defensive or unkind.
Also,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
papersky wrote a High Holy Day themed thing which is a bit hard to describe, but I think is worth reading. It's sort of an imaginative idea of what Yom Kippur would be like if Judaism were a fantasy religion rather than a real world one? I have mixed feelings about it, because on the one hand, yay, somebody playing and being creative with my mythology, which is usually too obscure for that sort of creative response. But at the same time it feels a bit weird for an outsider to take something that's quite important to me religiously and play with it. I mean, it's really sweet and respectful, so you should probably check it out and see for yourself.
( balance is hard )
That gave me just the right boost I needed to be ready for the students descending on us on Monday. I have met my new tutorial group, and the Med School is buzzing and busy again. And generally I'm feeling good about the beginning of the religious and the academic year, even though I could do without them coinciding! As far as repentance goes, I would like to hope that at any time of the year I'm open to people letting me know if I've hurt, wronged or upset them. I don't promise to be perfect, but I also hope I don't need the excuse of Yom Kippur to be able to have those conversations without being defensive or unkind.
Also,
papersky wrote a High Holy Day themed thing which is a bit hard to describe, but I think is worth reading. It's sort of an imaginative idea of what Yom Kippur would be like if Judaism were a fantasy religion rather than a real world one? I have mixed feelings about it, because on the one hand, yay, somebody playing and being creative with my mythology, which is usually too obscure for that sort of creative response. But at the same time it feels a bit weird for an outsider to take something that's quite important to me religiously and play with it. I mean, it's really sweet and respectful, so you should probably check it out and see for yourself.