Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:59:42 GMT

There's still a few minutes before sunset, and I've been thinking about writing something about U-netaneh Tokef all week, so here I am writing it before it's too late.

It's often held up as the most important part of the High Holidays, and I think there's something to that, but I've been thinking about it in a very non-literal way, as practice. I'll be quoting from the English translation in Mahzor Lev Shalom.

"On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on the Fast of the Day of Atonement it is sealed!--"

"How many will pass one, and how many will be born; who will live and who will die; [etc. there's a whole list here]"

"But T'shuvah, T'fillah, and Tz'dakah have the power to transform the harshness of our destiny."

This time we're in right now: between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur; it has been written but not yet sealed. We talk a lot about that, and about what the words usually translated as "repentance", "prayer", and "righteous acts" mean, and I'll come back to them.

I've been thinking about that introductory sentence, though, and all that stuff in the middle. Not as judgment, but as fate. On Rosh Hashanah it is written: things have already been set into motion which will lead to the fated outcome.

But not until Yom Kippur is it sealed: there's still time to change the course of events. But also we don't have forever. *Now* is the time to make the world better.

How? T'shuvah, recognizing that something is wrong and intending to make it better; T'fillah, seeking out the path of change; and Tz'dakah, doing what is righteous.

Anyway the thing I'm really thinking about is that this is *practice*. This week, we are called upon to consider whether we are heading in the right direction and commit ourselves to act righteously.

But I think the *point* is that every day is Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and between them. Things are in motion, and there's probably still time to bring us to a better outcome, but we can't wait forever.

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