It is traditional on Yom Kippur for Jewish communities to publicly recite a list of the ways where we individuals have missed the mark. This list, recited at the Reform Minyan at Harvard Hillel 5777, was designed to be intentionally provocative and to push us all to recognize places that we can grow. If only some of these reverberate with you, then this has served its purpose. Others people will be moved by others on the list. The list is being shared to inspire us all to find ways to grow into the coming year.
Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha…
For the wrongs we have done before You…
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not being awake and grateful, despite uncountable blessings.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for living in anticipation, and letting anxiety rule.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for living in the past, and being unable to chart a new path.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for eating in our car and at our desk, mindlessly, and without blessing.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for accepting defeatist thinking and the comfortable ache of despair.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not praising our own body’s beauty, with our quirks and imperfections.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for those extra couple of pounds.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not recognizing the divine spark that dwells at the center of our being.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for indulging our addictive behaviors.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not allowing ourselves to play.
Ve-al kulam Eloha selichot, selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu!
For all these, Lord of Forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement!
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for being so preoccupied with ourselves that we ignore the large problems of the world in which we live.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for forgetting that we are co-creators of the Universe.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for insulating ourselves from the loneliness and needs of people around us.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for putting a stumbling block before the blind.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not giving our leaders, rabbis, educators, artists, and child caregivers the emotional and material support that they need.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not rocking the boat.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for hurting others to protect our own egos.
Ve-al kulam Eloha selichot, selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu!
For all these, Lord of Forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement!
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not visiting the sick and the dying.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not respecting our parents.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not sharing in the cooking, cleaning, laundry and other house chores.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not setting healthy boundaries with loved ones.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not knowing how to give or receive love.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not communicating our needs.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not sharing responsibility for child-rearing.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for ignoring the needs of others.
Ve-al kulam Eloha selichot, selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu!
For all these, Lord of Forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement!
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for forgetting that we were all once strangers in a strange land.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for labeling human beings as “illegal.”
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for internalizing and assenting to racist ideologies.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not knowing how to say “Black Lives Matter.”
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for our complicity in regularly profiling, incarcerating, and murdering people of color.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for denying fair housing, adequate public schools, and greater opportunity to communities of economic need.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for contributing to the increased militarization of our nation and our world.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for speaking lashon hara (gossip), hateful speech, and misogyny.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for policing women’s thoughts bodies and abilities.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for telling men to “man up” and hide their emotional, or physical pain.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for dehumanizing, excluding and murdering gay, lesbian, trans and queer people.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for shaming and stigmatizing the infirm, the mentally and physically disabled, and older adults.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for allowing oppressive systems to continue unchecked.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not pressuring our elected officials.
Ve-al kulam Eloha selichot, selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu!
For all these, Lord of Forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement!
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not honoring the Sabbath.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not spending more time engaged in learning the Jewish tradition and studying Jewish history, literature, and holy texts.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not standing up against anti-Judaism, anti-Semistim, and anti-Zionism.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for the sins of giving up on Judaism because it didn’t satisfy our highest spiritual and ethical values, rather than engaging in the process of spiritually renewing our tradition.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not defending Israel.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not defending Palestine.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for the sins of allowing the spiritual renewers to divorce spirituality from the struggle for social justice and ecological sanity.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for acting as though Jewish pain is worse than the sufferings of others.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for not honoring diversity of ethnic and cultural backgrounds–including Sephardic, Mizrachi, Ethiopian, Ashkenazic, Asian and Black Jews.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for the sins of being insensitive, or insulting to non-Jews.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for allowing our institutions to be governed by those with the most money rather than those with the most spiritual and ethical sensitivity.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for thinking about Jewish values only on holy days.
Ve-al kulam Eloha selichot, selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu!
For all these, Lord of Forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for tolerating global warming, global disease, and global poverty.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for allowing our food and our air to be poisoned.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for filling land and ocean with filth, toxins and garbage.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for putting comfort above conscience.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for putting convenience above compassion.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for razing forests and trees, valleys and mountains.
- Al chet she’chatanu lifanecha for making desolate the habitats that give life to every living soul.
Ve-al kulam Eloha selichot, selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu!
For all these, Lord of Forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement!
NOTE:
Many of these are adapted and inspired from the lists at the following sources: