Fresh from the jarring experience of Yom Kippur prayer, I find myself wishing that we would struggle with sin more than we do.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, the power of not-doing possesses a purity and a truth that doing cannot rival. Giving is easy. Doing is easy. Movement is easy. What's difficult is stopping.

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.

Repentance, even when it falls short, is still a mark of moral resolve and personal courage. This is the moral lesson that I take from the life of Robert Byrd in the weeks leading up to this Yom Kippur.