If only all would take one day for atonement

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© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 26, 2001

This shall be to you a law for all time: to make atonement for the Israelites for all their sins once a year.

-- Leviticus 16:34

This evening marks the onset of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the most holy day of the Jewish year. As to why Jewish days begins at sunset, the answer is found in the order of events spelled out in Genesis 1:5 ("and the evening and the morning were the first day"). Who are we to rearrange?

You might recall, if not from the book then at least from Cecil B. DeMille's movie version, that the Israelites were a pretty fickle bunch. God and Moses agreed that they were a "stiffnecked" people. God kept saving them with one miracle after another, and five minutes later, they would forget the whole thing and start sinning all over again. Amazing. They had zero memory of their own history, even recent history. You know, just like us.

Anyway, while Moses is up on Mount Sinai, getting the original Ten Commandments, the Israelites forget the whole plague-Egypt-Red Sea business and set out to sin all over again. This is an impressive bit of stiff-neckedness. They round up all their gold, make a big golden calf and start worshiping it. Moses is so angry when he returns that he destroys the tablets (not to mention a few thousand unrepentant Israelites).

God figures on wiping out the nation and starting from scratch with Moses, but Moses talks him out of it -- remember all that good stuff you promised Abraham about his descendants, Moses points out. (Moses is one of the few men in the Bible who ever gets to parley with God.) God relents and agrees to publish a second edition of the commandments. He also lays down the law, but good -- the entire book of Leviticus consists of God spelling out new rules to Moses.

It is here, in Leviticus 16:29-34, that God instructs Moses to institute a Day of Atonement to make up for Israel's sins. There is a slight difference in the wording of the Torah and the King James Bible, but the gist of it is the same: In the seventh month (of the Hebrew calendar year), on the 10th day, you must practice self-denial, and atonement must be made.

So here is a common theme between Christianity and Judaism -- the explicit recognition that we make many mistakes, but that we have the opportunity to make up for those mistakes. The details are different, but let's stick to the general concept. Islam, too, provides for atonement and forgiveness of our sins, with perhaps a little more emphasis on performing good deeds to outweigh the bad.

Even as a secular policy, acknowledging and making up for flaws is not a bad idea. But that kind of thing is almost entirely absent from our modern culture. Admitting a flaw not only is a sign of weakness, but it can be used against you in court. A staple of modern legal practice is the settling of lawsuits where no wrongdoing is admitted. We thus avoid the tacky embarrassment of actually having to admit anything by spreading a little cash.

In the same vein, a common form of modern apology is the mere, useless statement: "If anyone was offended or hurt, I apologize." The implication is that the speaker is not truly sorry, and does not even grasp the nature of his or her wrong. The statement implies that a wrong has occurred only if someone else takes offense -- "no blood, no foul," as they say on the neighborhood basketball court.

One aspect of atonement you find in a religious setting, but almost never in a secular setting, is the group apology, a statement that the whole community has erred. Our friends the Episcopalians do an excellent job of this ("We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness..."). Likewise, the Yom Kippur liturgy includes a lengthy statement of community sins.

There is no real trick to claiming to be in the right all the time. Anybody can do it. But to admit you were wrong, to know you were wrong, and to make up for it -- now, that is the act of a grown-up person. It turns out that it feels good, too, which is a good thing, since we need to do it so often.

- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.

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