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Although we learn to say “I’m sorry” as young children, as we age, these words take on more meaning, perhaps reflecting true regret about our behavior or its impact. 

Rabbi Stephen Karol's new book is based on his many years of helping congregants in mourning, which shaped and sharpened his perceptions of death and Jewish mourning tradition.

I heard Kol Nidrei on a violin tonight.
They should take all legal documents
and set them to music.

All vows –
This legal document
written in unholy language

a prenuptial agreement
for our inevitable failing.
This relationship with

From those who always fast to those who have considered not doing so – or who have taken a year or two off for health reasons – here are a few personal perspectives about fasting on the holiest day of the Jewish year.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, presented this sermon on Rosh HaShanah morning, saying, "We need to face something so odious that we will try to avert our eyes. But we must not."

The High Holidays remind us of our natural state of human imperfection. Let's remember, though, we are striving to be better, not perfect, in this New Year,

Typically, at some point in my work on this project, my wife will lean over my shoulder and ask me, in her own style, “So. How are the Jews this year?” Some years that is a difficult question to answer. This year the answer is clear: The Jews are afraid.

Yom Kippur, 1965, I was a Navy medical officer stationed aboard a destroyer off the coast of Vietnam.