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Consider three cases of brokenness. Can Yom Kippur help?
Case One:
Since the 2016 election, it has just been different between you and somebody who used to be your good friend. You have not had an explicit falling out, just a gradual and deepening chill. There is more and more you cannot talk about. As events transpire, the sense of mutual incomprehension deepens. Can Yom Kippur fix this?
Case Two:
You didn’t make your friend’s wedding. At the time there just seemed to be no way you could get there, you had so much going on, it was far away, you hoped she’d understand. But turns out she was really hurt. She feels a simple equation: if you really cared about me, you would have been there. You cannot go back and make the wedding you missed. Can Yom Kippur fix this?
Case Three:
Much of your life you have struggled with some inner demon. You never solve it. All the previous Yom Kippurs were to no avail. You still struggle. Why should this Yom Kippur be any different?
Tomorrow morning, we will consider a brilliant piece by Rabbi Ethan Tucker on Maimonides’ laws of teshuvah entitled: “When Repentance is (Im)possible.” As Rabbi Tucker shows, Rambam anticipates the range of our insoluble problems and gives us options that help. If you come tomorrow, you will enter Yom Kippur with some new thinking for an old problem.
Shabbat shalom,
Wes