Repentance

Lent may be a season of forgiveness, but not the kind of warm and fuzzy forgiveness believers often associate with Jesus' teachings. Instead, forgiveness is a hard-won and distant hope.

The point of the Lenten fast, for us, is not really about what we give up. It is about what we are supposed to do when we feel ourselves wanting what we have told ourselves we should not have.

Groups like the Southern Baptist Convention and Campus Crusade are ready to move past the poor names that have defined them in the past. But how we should receive these name changes?

Is it really such a healthy thing to feel oneself to be inadequate, judged and deficient? Does it make us better people, or does it make us more judgmental ourselves? And does God judge us, or only love?

I love to eat and do not enjoy being hungry, but I have come to realize that there is a lot to be learned from fasting.

Our tradition tells us: "For transgressions between one person and another, Yom Kippur does not serve as atonement, until the one offended has been appeased."

True repentance means asking forgiveness for all transgressions, both those intended and unintended, and even from those wrong-doings of which a person is not even wholly aware.

The blast of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah calls out to all of us: "Wake up! You have been sleeping!" The slumber is clear. The choice is ours. But to what is it that we awaken?

That the most powerful Being in the world is depicted in the Talmud as needing help, is a message of hope, rather than despair. Just as G-d needs to work on His qualities, we must struggle to do the same.

Six words that might get you yo WANT to go to services this year. Performed live at 92YTribeca as part of Smith Magazine's Six-Word Story Show on The Jewish Life.

I think we should take Sharpton at his word. A cynic might say that Sharpton needed to apologize for his role in the riots in order to get his MSNBC show. But after reading his apology, I feel it is sincere.

Why do we wait until we're right down to the wire? We're transforming our entire modus operandi to become better individuals. Isn't this something that should be taking place all year round?

America needs a period of atonement before rushing into the same mistakes we've been making globally and domestically. The Jewish tradition is useful in that it not only focuses on individual lives, but on collective responsibility.

Elul is an opportune time to engage in teshuvah, the process of repenting after committing a sin. In our world where men tend to dominate women, men have a special task to reflect on their relationship to women.

According to the VA, at least 30% of American servicewomen (and many men) have diagnosed cases of Military Sexual Trauma, a form of PTSD. The perpetrators are usually servicemen and commanders.