Remembering All the Dead

JVL Introduction

We post this one day before Kol Nidre which marks the start of the Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement,  (which comes in at sunset on October 11th).  The days between the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashona) and Yom Kippur are known as the Days of Awe, during which time observant Jews consider the sins they have committed as individuals and as a community; the structure of the Al Het prayers include seeking forgiveness from others for the “sins that we have committed under duress or willingly” and then forgiveness from God.

Joseph Finlay like Peter Beinart writes clearly about the need to remember all the victims and in this short video Peter Beinart considers also what he needs to seek forgiveness for over this part year and explains and considers the Al Het prayers for this period.  Our Canadian colleague, Sheryl Nestel from Independent Jewish Voices, rewrote these contemplations for what has been done to Gaza. We published them here just before Rosh Hashona.

For many of us, as activists, perhaps what we seek forgiveness for is that feeling of not doing enough after one year and 100 years of Palestinian suffering?  Perhaps it is bewilderment for the fact that we have not sufficiently changed the narrative so that so many still operate within the framework that, as Nasser Mashni, President of the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network said:  “We’re in a bizarre situation where nothing justifies October 7th, yet October 7th justifies everything”.

LL

This article was originally published by Torat Albion (Blog) on Mon 7 Oct 2024. Read the original here.