Inscribe all the children of Your Covenant for a good life. And all living things shall forever thank You, and praise Your great Name eternally, for You are good. God, You are our everlasting salvation and help, O benevolent God. Blessed are You Lord, Beneficent is Your Name, and to You it is fitting to offer thanks. Bestow peace, goodness and blessing, life, graciousness, kindness and mercy, upon us and upon all Your people Israel. Bless us, our Father, all of us as one, with the light of Your countenance. For by the light of Your countenance You gave us, Lord our God, the Torah of life and loving-kindness, righteousness, blessing, mercy, life and peace. May it be favorable in Your eyes to bless Your people Israel, at all times and at every moment, with Your peace. And all living things shall forever thank You, and praise Your great Name eternally, for You are good. God, You are our everlasting salvation and help, O benevolent God. Blessed are You Lord, Beneficent is Your Name, and to You it is fitting to offer thanks. Bestow peace, goodness and blessing, life, graciousness, kindness and mercy, upon us and upon all Your people Israel. Bless us, our Father, all of us as one, with the light of Your countenance. For by the light of Your countenance You gave us, Lord our God, the Torah of life and loving-kindness, righteousness, blessing, mercy, life and peace. May it be favorable in Your eyes to bless Your people Israel, at all times and at every moment, with Your peace.

We do not come to God alone. No matter how shy or shunned, we stand before God as one in relationship with others.

Our relationships may be slight, strained, or broken. If so, we are asking God's help to understand what this tells us of our relationship with God.

Our relationships may be deep, comfortable, and healthy. If so, we are asking God's help to understand "loving-kindness, righteousness, blessing, mercy, life and peace."

Our relationships often range between these poles and are of great variety. What does this variation tell us of ourselves, others, and God?

Bless us, our Father, all of us as one.

--+--

Sunday afternoon I finally returned home, fifteen days after leaving. The bright heat of the west was exchanged for the cloudy coolness of the east.

This is the Erev Yom Kippur, the eve of Yom Kippur. In most Jewish homes it is a day of festive meals, giving charity and asking forgiveness of others.

Before sunset the faithful gather for the Kol Nidre service. Here with sacred song the congregation renounce rash vows made in the name of God, but offered as expressions of human control. The congregants recite:

All personal vows we are likely to make, all personal oaths and pledges we are likely to take between this Yom Kippur and the next Yom Kippur, we publicly renounce. Let them all be relinquished and abandoned, null and void, neither firm nor established. Let our personal vows, pledges and oaths be considered neither vows nor pledges nor oaths.

While the purpose of Kol Nidre has sometimes been misunderstood by both Gentile and Jew, it is a communal act of worship that highlights human frailty and discourages human pride. It is not our vows, but God's will that offers assurance.

In some Jewish communities the eve of Yom Kippur is also recognized with the tradition of Kapporas. Last evening my wife and I went into the woods across our meadow, chose a tree nut, placed it in a gauzy golden bag and three times swung it over our head as we recited:

This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This living seed will be buried while I will enter and proceed to a good long life and to peace.

Then we buried the seed in the ground. There is also a tradition of doing this with a live chicken that is slaughtered and given to the poor.

Prior to the three swings, we are to read from Psalm 107:

O give thanks unto the Lordor He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever. So let the redeemed of the Lord, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the adversary; And gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the sea. They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way; they found no city of habitation.

and from Job 33: 23-24:

If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him, and he is merciful to him, and says, 'Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom.

It is easy - perhaps too easy - for a Christian to perceive in this sense of atonement something very close to how many understand the Easter story.