Gracious God, in a world at war, seemingly on the brink of catastrophe, when our political differences divide us region from region, class from class, neighbor from neighbor, parent from child, when life feels as it does in these days, we tend to grasp for the language and ideal of unity – that your people might someday be one, that there might indeed be peace, liberty, and justice for all.
But God of all, your faithful people – notwithstanding faith or doctrine – are also one under your commandment to repent and to reconcile. To repent of the harm we have done to one another. To repent of the harm done on our behalf by unjust systems of which we are a part. To repent of the absence of the healing we each might have accomplished in the world you have made and loved, had we only acted or spoken up instead of doing or saying nothing. And when we repent, oh, the joy of being reconciled with you, Holy One, and with our neighbor.
On Yom Kippur, the Christian wearing their Lenten apparel comes alongside their Jewish siblings to acknowledge our unity in repentance – to pray your blessing, almighty God, on this congregation and everyone they love; to pray for a ceasefire, a return of all hostages, and a path to peace with justice, and to pray in thanksgiving that you have never abandoned us your people, and you never will. Amen.
— My prayer at today’s four-hour Yom Kippur and Torah service organized by Rabbi Susan Goldberg and executive director Jordana Frader of Nefesh, our partners at St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park. This High Holy Day service took place at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, where, by the time song and prayers were well underway, almost every seat was occupied.