Sign of Life

The recitation of Selichot is briefer today being Erev Yom Kippur, it provides time to pray, even slower. The expression that reverberates for me in such powerful way is the reprise.

מָחָר יִהְיֶה הָאוֹת הַזֶּה

Tomorrow this “sign” will become apparent.

It is an affirmation that Yom Kippur will be the day of decision or ruling. Yet “Ot” seems a curious word to use. Why not refer more directly to the Yom Hadin the day of judgment? 

In the Torah the word has both positive and negative connotations. It is used almost romantically to describe the bond, the unique sign and relationship between us and God both through Shabbat and Tefillin, and on the other alarming extreme, the term is repeatedly used to depict the “signs” that will afflict Pharaoh and the Egyptians. 

The word Ot, also means a letter. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, expounded the following erudite idea;

“Every Jew is a letter. Each Jewish family is a word, every community a sentence, and the Jewish people at any one time are a paragraph. The Jewish people through time constitute a story, the strangest and most moving story in the annals of humankind.”

In this light, our coming together on Yom Kippur has added if not crucial significance. We are gathered to reflect on, but perhaps more importantly to tell our story, to carve out our future;  מָחָר יִהְיֶה הָאוֹת הַזֶּה…

The duality and starkness of these alternatives echoes the oft repeated themes we have been addressing in the book of Devarim, that escort us to this period.  Blessings or curses, life or death. Moses beseeches and more so, assures us that we will choose life. Our role must be not only to relay the horrors of this past year, but surely to also choose life, to pledge if not (in)scribe a better future. A future with a leadership that make and take teshuva oh so seriously, in a manner that Rachel Goldberg-Polin articulated so eloquently and powerfully yesterday; “…Real Teshuva occurs when you find yourself in the same circumstances you were in when you did wrong and you have the chance to mend that wrong… our leaders have 101 chances… DO IT! 

The type of “ot” – outcome that will become apparent is as much dependent on us as it is on God. 

Gmar Chatima Tova