Road Map to 5782 | Rabbi Steven Morgen

we're about to spend all day in the synagogue praying on yom kippur or if you're watching at home we'll be spending hopefully most of the day watching us on television as the service is being broadcast over the internet why do we spend all day in the synagogue well the idea is this is the crescendo this is the epitome of the 10 days of repentance we spent the last 10 days considering all the mistakes we've made during the past year and trying to find ways to improve ourselves so that in the coming year we're going to do better and now we imagine that we're standing before our creator and we humbly ask forgiveness for the mistakes that we've made and we pledge to do better in our hearts and in our deeds and we have a whole panoply of words that were created by jewish poets throughout the centuries we always seem to add words we never seem to take any out so the prayer book is full of words but of course the whole day we're fasting so it helps to pass the time to think about these things rather than about how hungry we are in any case this is an opportunity for us to contemplate to meditate and to reflect upon how we intend to be better in the coming year think of the prayer book perhaps as a salad bar with tomatoes lettuce bell peppers and cucumbers and put on your plate amounts of each item that is appropriate for you what i'm suggesting is you don't need to say every single word in the prayer book you don't need to be focused all the time on each and every individual prayer find a few of the prayers in the book that really speak to you at the moment think about why they mean something to you and how it reflects on your life and where you're at in your life things that may have happened over the past year how you want to be better in the future that's what the prayer book is really designed to do it's to spark your own thoughts your own words so that you bring your own intention and you pray from your own heart to god in your own thoughts and and words they're just um sort of uh conversation starters for a conversation you hope to have with god in any case i hope that you will have a meaningful holiday experience as we conclude these 10 days of all with yom kippur and i look forward to spending the coming year with you enjoying a sweet and good new year so we wish you the traditional um greeting that is may you be finally sealed for a good new year and we wish to extend to you all the the blessings from bethesharan from our home to yours and within our house of worship our communal house of worship together as we celebrate the end of these high holy days [Music] of

Channel: Congregation Beth Yeshurun

Views: 61

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Rabbi, CBY, Beth Yeshurun, Congregation Beth Yeshurun, Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Road Map to 5782, Elul, Rabbi Steven Morgen, 5782, Yom Kippur

Id: G28cC3Cir6E

Length: 3min 0sec (180 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 10 2021