Yom Kippur and Israel's Sandy Koufax - by Michael Freund

...For as Dudi Sela demonstrated on a Chinese tennis court last week, a true ace is one who not only knows how to wield his racket, but when to put it down and recognize that there are values of greater import worth upholding.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/JPost..
05 October '17..
Link: http://www.michaelfreund.org/20391/dudi-sela-yom-kippur

This past Friday afternoon, as millions of Jews worldwide were preparing themselves for the onset of Yom Kippur, Israeli tennis star Dudi Sela found himself standing on a court in Shenzhen, China, leading his opponent in the middle of a critical match.

After a nine-month drought, Sela had finally made it to the quarterfinals round in an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournament, earning not only greater prestige but also the promise of greater rewards should he advance.

But as the hands of the clock inched forward, and the sun began preparing to set, Sela did something that can only be described as truly remarkable.

In an unprecedented move, he put down his tennis racket and declared that he was forfeiting the contest, effectively removing himself from the competition.

It was neither fatigue nor indolence which lay behind his decision, but rather something far more noble. As a representative of Israel, the Jewish state, Sela made up his mind that he would not play on the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

Through that simple yet surely difficult act, Sela etched his name in the pantheon of true Jewish sports heroes, in effect becoming the Israeli version of Sandy Koufax, the great, flame-throwing baseball pitcher who refused to play in Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it coincided with Yom Kippur.

Like Koufax, Sela is said to be not particularly observant, but he does have something that sets him apart, and that is a healthy sense of Jewish pride.

The liberating responsibility of atonement - by Caroline Glick

...The Jewish people and the Jewish state face extraordinary challenges today. Luckily, we can handle all of them. But to do so, we need to be capable of judging ourselves fairly – of loving what is good in us even as we work to correct what is bad. This is how we will secure our future and this is how we will remain forever free.

Caroline Glick..
Carolineglick.com..
11 October '16..
Link: http://carolineglick.com/the-liberating-responsibility-of-atonement/

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year because it is the day that the Torah sets aside for us to reckon with ourselves. We are commanded to give an accounting – before our fellow men and before God – for our actions in the previous year. We must make amends to both for our misdeeds. And since none of us is perfect, every one of us has things to atone for.

Yom Kippur’s power stems from a basic assumption that forms its core. That assumption is that we are all moral agents. We all have to make an accounting.

This basic assumption is the most liberating notion ever created. Moral agency is what makes us free. It doesn’t matter how wretched or rich our external circumstances, the fact that the Torah enjoins all of us to take responsibility for our behavior means that as far as God is concerned, we are not slaves and never will be slaves.

The converse is also true.

We are only free for as long as we are capable of accounting for our actions. This means that preserving our ability to properly judge ourselves is the key to preserving our liberty.

This is true not only for the Jewish people as individuals. It is true as well for the Jewish state, Israel.

The question then is how do we do that? As far as Israel is concerned, the answer to this question has become one of increasing urgency over the past generation or so.

Over the past couple of decades, we have seen the world – and more importantly our own elites in Israel – rushing to judge our society and find it lacking seemingly on a daily basis.

Our journalists, professors, judges and generals routinely tell us what is wrong with our society. And each year, their harangues become shriller and angrier.

Indeed it is becoming hard to avoid the conclusion that for our elites, Israeli society is morally irredeemable.

(Video) Adon Haselichot - Erez Yechiel

Love of the Land
09 Tishrei 5779






Adon HaSelichot epitomizes for me everything that the time period leading up to, and including Yom Kippur is about. This rendition has both Hebrew and English subtitles.

With wishes of a G'mar Chatima Tova, Besorot Tovot, and a Shana Tovah.

Uploaded by GBOXER292 on Sep 13, 2009

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page. .

Jews, Jerusalem and Yom Kippur

...Tomorrow in synagogues throughout the world, Jews will be remembering Jerusalem and its central role in our lives, exactly as they have for thousands of Days of Atonement before this year's. Perhaps we ought to invite along some analysts and journalists. Or some PA officials.

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
13 September '13..

Most Israelis, by far, want to see peace with the Arabs in general, with the Palestinian Arabs in particular, and are willing to make sacrifices and compromises so that it can happen. We're not open to disagreement on this. Anyone who knows Israelis in whatever degree knows this is true. The arguments about it are all in relation to detail.

This being so, we are endlessly astonished at how little criticism (relatively speaking) the Mahmoud Abbas-operated Palestinian Authority gets. It is a terrorism-friendly, corrupt and hateful political organization, led by a man whose academic career was built on Holocaust-denial. Review its activities in the two decades since the Oslo Agreement and you grasp why people continue to suffer and die in the course of the war the PA has waged against Israel's.

Now keep those two preceding paragraphs in mind while we put them into a specific context.

At sunset today, the Jewish world goes into Yom Kippur mode. While there are many people, and some Jews among them, who mistakenly believe its significance is in being the anniversary of a war of the same name, Yom Kippur is in reality the centerpiece of Jewish synagogue life - and has been for as long as there have been Jews. It's a day marked by holiness. Even Jews with relatively weak connections to their people's roots know about and respect Yom Kippur at some level. In religious terms, it's one of the great equalizers of the Jewish people: almost all of us do it.

(Continue)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Check-it out!
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(Video) Adon Haselihot - Erez Yechiel

Love of the Land
09 Tishrei 5772





Adon HaSelichot epitomizes for me everything that the time period leading up to, and including Yom Kippur is about. This rendition has both Hebrew and English subtitles.

With wishes of a G'mar Chatima Tova, Besorot Tovot, and a Shana Tovah.


Uploaded by GBOXER292 on Sep 13, 2009


If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Feel It In the Air - Israel’s Yom Kippur

Judy Balint..
Times of Israel..
24 September '12..

Have you ever spent Yom Kippur in Israel? If so, go on to the next blog right now–if not, here’s a taste of the atmosphere as an entire country gets ready to retreat into itself for 25 hours.

Preparations for Yom Kippur are in the air. Whether it’s the Gmar Chatima Tova (May you be inscribed for good) digital greeting on the face of every Egged bus, or the radio ads from the Natal organization that helps veterans of the Yom Kippur War still suffering from PTSD, there’s no way any Israeli can escape the lead-up to Yom Kippur.

Ben Gurion Airport closes at 1 p.m on erev Yom Kippur and won’t reopen until three hours after the fast is over the next evening. Public transportation all over Israel grinds to a halt by 2:30 p.m. Men of all ages can be seen on the streets of Jerusalem with towels thrown over their shoulders as they head to and from the mikve.

Many have already started building their sukkot in readiness for Sukkot, the one-week festival that starts the week after Yom Kippur. Sukkot structures of all kinds have sprung up on balconies, street corners and in front of cafes. The final decorations and the schach covering will be added right after the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

Over the past few days, the streets in and around the Old City, Nachlaot, the Bukharan Quarter and Meah Shearim have been completely packed with people hurrying to and from selichot. Curious secular Israelis by the hundreds take part in pre-dawn Selichot tours, where they look in on dozens of congregations where the faithful are immersed in penitential prayers chanted to ancient melodies.

Dear World

Paula R. Stern
A Soldier's Mother
17 September '10

(While written before Yom Kippur,this is an excellent piece and just as relevent after)

In a few short hours, we, the Jewish people, will withdraw from your presence. We’ll ask you to leave us to ourselves in peace. We have had enough of all you speak of, all you hold hear. For the next day or so, we turn ourselves inwards, to the people we are, to the God we worship.

We have done much for you this year, sacrificed too much. We have lost friends and loved ones, too young to die and we ask ourselves “Why? For what?” But now we have to make peace with the truth. We did not sacrifice these to you, nor even to the mythical god you call peace. No, we simply are living God’s plan and for some reason we cannot fully understand, it was God’s will that these people fall to the Arab knife, gun, rock, explosion, attack, terror.

This past year, we did not build in our land – that too was a sacrifice you demanded and we offered but tomorrow, we return to ourselves. The European Union wanted to come talk to us today and feels snubbed that we refused. We offered alternative days and like the petulant children they are, they refused. We will talk to you today, or not at all, they cry out in their temper tantrum.

For once, we are united. We are the adults we should be. Whatever you want, we explain to them. There really are things more important, more crucial, than a bunch of EU representatives who demand to come hours before our holiest day. For once, we are above that.

(Read full story)

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Yom Kippur 5770 (2009)

The Day of Atonement is upon us again. The next Dry Bones cartoon will appear next Wednesday, October 30 ...along with a very special notice!

Tsom Kal, have an easy fast.