Rabbis For Human Rights

In so far as we take the traditional vidui of Yom Kippur seriously, we find that we are obliged to look upon ourselves in a way that will cause us unease. Reciting the vidui is not the occasion for a “balanced” view or for repeating the accepted version of events. Rather it is an opportunity to examine those matters which we can find the courage to deal with only when we are strengthened by the intensity of Yom Kippur. Rabbi Avraham Joshua Heschel said: “In a democracy there is a small group of guilty people, but each one of us must bear responsibility”. The vidui which we have written is intended to remind us of our sins (transgressions), in the hope that we will find the wisdom to do better in all that we touch in the coming year. Our soul searching on Yom Kippur is what permits our joy at the spiritual harvest of Succot.

The state of Israel has been transformed from a welfare state with one of the smallest gaps in the world between the rich and the poor to one which has one of the greatest rifts between these two groups in the West. We ignore the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee to halt the collapse of the health system and refuse to seek out the funds essential to its survival. The level of unemployment is on the increase. Instead of engaging in some much needed soul searching and taking constructive action we prefer to blame the victims: the problem, we say, arises from those “pretending” to be unemployed. We propose that foreign workers be expelled, rather than seeing to it that the laws relating to them are enforced. This step would reduce the temptation employers face under current circumstances to take on foreign workers rather than Israelis. We arrest the escort agency “girls” instead of those responsible for the trafficking in women and accuse those women, who have been refused a divorce of breaking up their families.

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by indulging in food and drink
As the social gap has grown

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by insensitivity
Repeatedly cutting away the saftey net from underneathr the weaker sections of society

For the sin
which we have sinned against You through Lashon HaRa (slander)
Claiming that the unemployed are "faking"

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by rashly blaming others
Blaming the victim and declaring war against the unemployed rather than against unemployment

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by shortsightedness
Transferring funds intended for health care elsewhere at a time when the health system is collapsing

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by casting aside the weak
Neglecting those requiring assisted living and the mentally ill in the health care budget

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by desecrating your name
Abandoning the "agunot" and those women who were not granted a divorce in the name of our religion and ignoring the solutions which exist in the Halacha

For the sin
which we have sinned against You in doing business
Rather than fighting those operating as pimps and trading in women

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by chasing material gain
Through the exploitation of foreign workers

For the sin
which we have sinned against You intentionally or unintentionally
By ignoring or turning our heads away from the disabled

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by scoffing,
Denigrating new immigrants and failing to honor their traditions and cultures

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by intentionally forgetting
When we chose to ignore poor neighborhoods and development towns

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by giving into the evil impulses
Of materialism and selfishness

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by withdrawing our hand
from the outstretched hand of a person in need

For the sin
which we have sinned against You knowingly or unknowingly
Because we did not want to know how we might be of help

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by thinking to ourselves and by whispering in closed rooms About that which we should have shouted from the rooftops
For all these sins, forgiving God, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.

Three years into the current intifada there is not a one of us who is not angry and traumatized in the face of ongoing Palestinian violence. While not excusing Palestinian terror, You Kippur is a time to rise above the unchallenged assumptions and justifications which prevent us from looking honestly at ourselves. It is all too easy for us to be trapped in our own real and justified pain. However, life is not a zero sum game in which admitting our shortcomings weakens us or negates the shortcomings of others. Finding a way out of crisis requires us to add the conclusions of our own painful kheshbon nefesh (soul searching) to those truths which are more readily clear to us.

The examination of our deeds tells us we also have much to atone for. Israeli Arabs have been systematically under represented in all areas of Israeli society, while their communities have been disproportionally over represented in terms of poverty and unemployment. In the Territories, unfair allocation of water, land expropriations, harassment by settlers, humiliation and despair left Palestinians with little faith in the peace process or hope for a better future. While common wisdom says that Palestinians threw away the chance for peace, we often ignore these sources of pent up anger which were more real to many than the details of the latest offer. While we are all too aware of the terrible ongoing attacks which we suffer, we prefer not to know about our actions which cross our tradition's red line between self defense and harming innocent civilians.

If we take the traditional Yom Kippur vidui seriously, it forces us to look at ourselves in ways that make us feel uncomfortable. The vidui is not a time for "balance" or the repeating of common wisdom, but for examining that which the power of Yom Kippur can give us the courage to face.

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by hardening our hearts -
To grinding poverty and despair.

And For the sin
which we have sinned against You by exploitation
Living well while others live in poverty.

For the sin
which we have sinned against You consciously or unconsciously -
Preventing fellow Israelis fully and equally participating in Israeli society, and leaving them under represented in government, academia and business.

And For the sin
which we have sinned against You knowingly or unknowingly -
Allowing the Israeli government to continue expropriating land, demolishing homes, building roads, uprooting trees, besieging towns and denying water to innocent civilians in our name, even while publicly speaking words of peace.

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by causeless hatred -
Demonizing the "other."

And For the sin
which we have sinned against You with our words -
Of incitement.

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by desecrating Your Name -
By abusing others and calling it Your Will.

And For the sin
which we have sinned against You through insolence -
Saying that only Jews have rights to the Land.

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by silence -
When we knew that human beings were being mistreated, and said nothing.

And For the sin
which we have sinned against you by standing by -
Protecting those who took the law into their hands.

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by failure to distinguish-
Between legitimate self defense and the collective punishment of innocent civilians

And For the sin
which we have sinned against You by justifying -
The use of collective punishment and excessive lethal force.

For the sin
which we have sinned against You by narrow mindedness -
Feeling only our own pain, closing our minds to the agony of bereaved Arab mothers and fathers.