Rosh Hashanah Ritual   

Tonight at sundown, the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, begins. This is a time for coming to terms with one’s life, one’s self, one’s relationships, and one’s actions. This is a time for examining who one is, and who one wants to be. Where are we not in right relationship? What would it take to bring us back into right relationship? We begin with bringing matters into consciousness, into the light. But examining our lives can bring anxiety and pain. Taking full account of our actions and relationships can require forgiveness in order for us to move onto the next step of reorienting ourselves to right relationship. Where do we need to forgive? Where do we need to be forgiven?

By allowing others to bear witness to our process and hold us accountable for it, we strengthen our community and our commitment build the Beloved Community. To open this week, and this year, in our community, in order that we might embrace one another fully, we are going to engage in a ritual litany of forgiveness. We will do a call and response, where I will read a statement, and your response is: “I forgive myself, I forgive you, we begin again in love.” Try it now. When you rise, I want you to turn to someone standing next to you—a partner, a parent, a neighbor, a friend—and say this to them, rather than to the front of the room. Please rise and join us in the responsive reading.