The hardest thing for me to tolerate on Yom Kippur is not absence of food;
It’s the absence of tomorrow.
On Yom Kippur, we are present.
We are asked to let go of yesterday’s mistakes,
to forgive others, and ourselves.
We are solemn in our awareness of the gift of a clean slate.
Of a clean tomorrow.
But this is difficult for me. My busy mind.
Everyone else’s mind is busy with thoughts of food
of kippered salmon, of potato pancakes.
My mind is busy in judgment.
“Is she really sorry?”
“Is he really going to change his ways?”
“Am I?”
With so much sorry in my face, I feel compulsive in my doubt.
And incapable, more than any other day during the year, of casting away judgment.
And present only to my dilemma;
To sinning once again.
