New ideas about repentance

Preparing for Yom Kippur

Everybody knows that if you repent from fear, G^d forgets your sins; if you repent from love, G^d turns your sins into virtues.

Let me suggest that, when we come to Rosh haShannah, the Day of Judgement, easily, we’ll repent of fear. When we then arrive at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, we’ll so easily repent out of love.

The ram’s horn’s sound on Rosh haShannah is supposed to frighten us and make G^d milder. What’s the connection? Maybe this is for when it’s hard to repent from love. It makes us repent from fear, and G^d adds judging us mildly, which totals maybe close to repentance from love and care.

There are deep reasons for special Jews why we have two days of Rosh haShannah. But a simple reason is perhaps as follows. If we do the second day better than the first, it means perhaps the first day wasn’t perfect (nothing we do is perfect), but we strive to improve. When the second day was less, it means we’re willing to do it but we really don’t care too much.

The Torah tells us to inflict our Souls on Yom Kippur. Normally, that’s taken as our difficulty not to eat, drink, wash, etc. for 25 hours.

Maybe, it can also allude to a part of the repentance process. How so?

Typically, we rationalize our sins. I didn’t mean to, it was not so bad, it could have been worse, it was a one-off thing, instead of regretting them.

How about not just regretting them but even being pained we sinned?

Though we beat our chest at the list of sins, almost all our prayers are in the plural. We pray for everyone’s Soul. Also, for those of the Gentiles. Some Muslims fast on Yom Kippur too, though the date got a bit mangled.

Many Jews pray extra fervently on Yom Kippur. But although almost all of Prayer is in the plural, they only pray for themselves and ‘their’ loved ones. If we’d pray for everyone, the prayers from others who pray for everyone also would defend us. My proof? On average, women are sicker, less strong, work harder, and have less money, but they live a decade longer.

Repentance has two parts. A. Regret over all sins and acknowledging that it must be done better. B. A strategy on how to improve all, little by little.

Charity is one of the things that can make G^d more willing to save our life and give us a good year. Some people say: Give what you can because all the money will return to you. That’s not charity. That’s an investment.

I emailed a Dutch civil servant who had helped me tremendously the past year and had been sick several times. I thanked her and hoped the new year would give her better health. I thought, whether she’s recovered, still ill, or dying, such an email is in order. She very much appreciated and blessed me with peace, even if that now seems elusive. But I didn’t write to get anything in return. Rather, I want to live in a world where people care about and appreciate each other. Not because that’s nicer, or we should even, but because that’s how we act when we are human, are ourselves: a little charitable, generous, also with our time.

One of Judaism’s main Commandments for Jews and Gentiles is to set up courts. Maybe we can solve the problem of having captured thousands of war criminals and some terrorists without known crimes who surrendered.

Let’s transfer them to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, with individual identification and documentation. If they let them go free, they make themselves historically ridiculous. Let them pay for their detention and trials. What do we care? We want to strengthen our State. To clean up the Gentile world is their problem. Also the brothers SinWar should be dumped there. Our condition is that we receive all the hostages for free.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1