All year long we avoid our shadow, we avert our gaze from the many ways in which it falls upon others and robs them of the light…
All year long we hide in the very tree we were warned against, we pretend to ourselves that our maker will not see us, does not want to see us, if we don’t want to be seen…
All year long we tell ourselves a story, a grand myth of our virtuous heroism and their vicious villainy, proclaimed on an empty stage to a crowd of none…
But there is freedom in admitting the truth.
“We are neither so brazen nor so stubborn as to say before you that we have not failed; but both we and our fathers –
We are guilty.
We betrayed.
We robbed.
We slandered.
We caused error –
And we caused injustice.
We acted maliciously.
We acted violently.
We dealt falsely.
We gave bad advice.
We misled.
We raged.
We mocked.
We rebelled.
We resented.
We lusted.
We over-indulged.
We erred.
We acted negligently.
We tormented.
We doubled-down.
We acted unjustly.
We corrupted.
We disgusted.
We strayed.
We oppressed.
We turned away from your instructions and your good laws, and it was not worth it – while you have been just in all that has happened to us; you have acted in truth and we caused injustice.
What can we say before you?
What story can we tell you?
You know everything – hidden and revealed.
. . .
And so may it be willed before you:
That you let go of all our failures.
That you overlook all of our mistakes.
That you forgive all of our negligence.
. . .
And may the words of my mouth be desired,
And the meditation of my heart be before you,
My lord –
My rock –
My liberator.”