Yom Kippur -- pronounced to rhyme with "Home the Poor," by the way, rather than "Bomb Zipper" -- is the holiest day of the Jewish New Year. As I write, it has already begun on the East Coast and begins within a couple of hours here in the west.
The name stands for "Day of Atonement." I find something wonderful about the theme of a religion's major holiday being regretting and trying to fix the wrongs we have done to others over the previous year. Like latkes, kibbutzim, klezmer, comedy, a weekly day off, talking with one's hands, and answering questions with questions, it strikes me as one of the things we Jews got right.
I'm not a particularly observant Jew, despite being more religious than many Jews I know who regularly attend services and never miss a holiday. I only occasionally fast on Yom Kippur. One reason for this is that I find that when I do fast, it's more an act of machismo than of self-abnegation. Others feel differently -- and more power to them. As a Reform Jew, perhaps "hyper-Reform," I believe that we come to understand our relationship to God on our own terms. Our culture may dictate one thing while our heart dictates another.
But this diary isn't so much about Yom Kippur. It is about atonement.
Atonement is supposed to be heartfelt. I can (and do) regret that things that I've said and done on this very site in this past year have been hurtful to people, but to the extent that I would do them again -- and I'm sure that in some cases I would -- I can't truly claim to be atoning for them. To atone, you have to understand what you've done, sincerely regret it, and intend not to do it again -- and ideally to repair the damage one has done to others.
I think that atoning makes one stronger. I think that knowing that people know that you are capable of atoning, and that in specific instances you do atone, makes one stronger. Atonement, properly practiced, is the way out of blood feuds. Knowing that atonement is upcoming may govern our own behavior before we offend others.
I think, if you'll allow me a moment of tribal pride, that the notion of atonement is something valuable that we Jews have offered to the world. (I'd place it ahead of klezmer and talking with our hands, but behind our comedy style and potato pancakes. See, right there -- I should atone for that, but I wouldn't really be sincere, so I'll have to live with it.) Seriously, and I know that we have no monopoly on atonement and that in some cases we actively work against it, I think that the idea of it is a boon to our global culture. This does not make us unique -- other religions and non-religions offer similar boons -- it's just one I particularly like.
And that brings me to the actual topic of the diary: as an American, I appreciate and value atonement. And my complaint to President Obama, who I think is a truer "friend to the Jews" than his loudly pro-Israel predecessor could ever have been, is that he is in some ways standing in the way of our nation's practicing atonement.
I don't mean this as Obama-bashing; I think that he is paddling through treacherous political waters and I think I understand why he takes some of the stands he does that I dislike. What I want to identify is one often-neglected cost of those "forward-looking" policies: that they prevent atonement.
Remember from before? The first step is that you have to understand what you have done. We, as a nation, don't.
Saying that we will not punish people for torture, that we will not investigate this or that instance of wrongdoing -- I know why and how this makes political sense. But I realize that my objection to it is, at base, religious-cum-moral: if you don't acknowledge what you have done, you can't regret it.
We, as a nation, are worse off without that properly deployed regret. That, to me, is a lesson of Yom Kippur.
Some acceptance of our actions, and atonement, should be easy. Finding out the truth of Bush Administration policies across the board, even if it does not (as I'd prefer) lead to the deterrent effect of individual punishment. Some aspects are harder: I don't know how one begins to atone for the sorts of national actions portrayed in "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" or "The Shock Doctrine." I think that the only thing one can do, as an American, is to recognize that what is good about this country does protect us, somewhat, from the full force of the evils that have sometimes been committed in our names.
The awful things that our nation has supported are not so different from the awful things that most any other nation, finding itself in a similar position of global hegemony, might have done. I think that the world understands that. That doesn't excuse such acts; atonement requires coming to grips with that. But we can recognize that the good things that our nation has to offer -- and here, they are the things for which we liberals, right back to our Lockean and Montesquieuan Founding Fathers, can take the credit -- lead many people of good will in the world to want to forgive us, if we atone.
In a sense, things are easier for us than they should be. We have good relations with Vietnam, despite the horrors we visited on it in decades past. We have the prospect of good relations with all or most of Latin America, despite our abuses of it over the years. President Obama, with some of his apologies and intentional empathizing with other countries, has shown how much we can melt away opposition simply by being our best.
But in some areas -- particularly coming to grips with our history of torture and the other crimes of the Bush-Cheney Administration -- our fine President has taken a position inimical to atonement by suggesting that we "put the past behind us." This is not merely wrong, but it is Wrong, in a fundamental moral sense.
I hope that -- as the President gains experience, power, and a record of success -- he will come to accept that atonement, and the self-knowledge that it requires, is exactly the tonic that this country needs. It's not political; it's a spiritual renewal. We've learned, as if we didn't already know, that a sizable chunk of our populace can believe all sorts of crazy things. That can't be helped -- but at least we can confront them with the facts so that the non-crazy part of the country can see clearly how wrong they are.
I urge President Obama -- for whose President in the White House I thank the powers that be every day -- to recognize the value of atonement and that that value is high enough to justify paying a political price. If he frames it, some autumn hence, in terms of the spirit of Yom Kippur, that would be the sort of honor that I, as a Jew, would appreciate.
To all of you -- well, Yom Kippur ends the ten-day period starting with the Jewish New Year, for which the proper greeting is "L'shanah tovah tikatevu" -- "may you be inscribed for a good year." This is based on the notion that the names of the righteous are inscribed in the Book of Life for the new year. Obviously this isn't true -- good people die and not so good people live each year -- but it's a nice conceit. What I wish for the members of this community is that you all have another fruitful year in which to inscribe yourself into what I hope will be the lasting records of our concerns, of our desires, of our actions, and of our atonements.