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Perhaps the most familiar melody we hear each High Holiday season is Kol Nidre – the introductory prayer recited before sundown on the eve of Yom Kippur.

 As we begin the year 5777, let us commit to putting greater inclusion, equality, and acceptance of all God’s children front and center.

I have a hard time believing that, however good the intentions may be, typing "Please forgive me if I hurt you" into our browsers can create change.

If posting an apology online serves as a starting point for follow-up conversations, I say go for it. How could that ever be a bad thing?

I vowed that if Israel survived, I would never again abandon my people, never again be indifferent to Israel’s fate.

Cold and dark
the month of Kislev
comes in

Ending Cheshvan
ushering in the month of
festive
lights

Each year on Yom Kippur, I join my congregation is reciting the Ashamnu, an alphabetic acrostic of sins for which we repent. And each year, it occurs to me that most of the sins named in the Ashamnu don’t hit me in the heart I’m beating – and so, I wrote my own version of the prayer.

Whether you prefer the 1843 book or any of the many movie versions made since, there is no question that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a classic.

Now, despite the season for which Dickens wrote it, A Christmas Carol is a Yom Kippur story if there ever was one.