This Yom Kippur, let’s take a look at the things we can fix
TorahParshat Yom Kippur

This Yom Kippur, let’s take a look at the things we can fix

Leviticus 16:1-34

To have the honor of a d’var Torah for Yom Kippur before the whole community in these pages is an honor that truly requires grand themes and eloquent thoughts and sophisticated exhortations.

Nope. I’m going to keep it simple.

Charles Dudley Warner (d. 1900) is credited with the saying, “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it” ­­­­­­— a classic humorist line blaming people for not stepping up to do something about a thing they cannot fix.

I would like to offer that today we are in a moment where people complain about all sorts of things that they can indeed fix, or at least mend, but don’t do it because they would rather blame others. It’s easier to blame others, and possibly more fun.

But fun or not, on this Yom Kippur, let’s talk about things you and I can fix. And I’m going to say “you” because I want to dig into things that you and I, individuals, can address. We don’t need to wait for others.

People complain about social media and the trolls and the people who just love to throw snarky meanspirited comments. What can we do? Well, you can make sure you are never one of those people. Do you toss out shade, feeling pretty good about your cutting remarks? If you do, then don’t complain; but if you don’t like people doing it, then you shouldn’t do it. And while we’re at it, turn off the comments. There is no law that says you have to open yourself up to mean people.

Don’t like long emails that people write to gripe when they should just pick up the phone and talk it out instead? Don’t you do that. We have a trillion-dollar telephone infrastructure and yet we’ve all forgotten how to pick up the phone and talk to someone.

Don’t appreciate gossip? Then make sure you don’t gossip.

Don’t like drama? Then make sure you don’t add to the drama.

Yom Kippur is an inverse Nike commercial. “Just don’t do it.” You have agency. You have control over your life. You can decide if you will be part of the larger problem or, at least in your own little sphere, a part of the solution.

If you go to synagogue this Yom Kippur, you will read over the Al Chet Shechatanu list of sins. They are listed in the plural so as not to embarrass anyone, but you should read them in the singular and be honest about which ones apply to you (and me). Some of those sins that apply to you (and me) are going to take some work to remove. But some of those sins are just not that hard to get rid of if you (and I) make a commitment to ourselves and stop bemoaning how there are all these problems and nobody does anything about them. You are the somebody. You can
change how you behave. You can be counter-cultural and say, “I know everybody does it, but I won’t.”

And we can remember that society is not the weather. We can choose to complain about it or we can choose to do something about it. It all starts with you (and me). PJC

Rabbi Larry Freedman is the director of the Joint Jewish Education Program. This column is a service of the Greater Pittsburgh Jewish Clergy Association.

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