Yom Kippur began last night at sunset. For those of the Jewish faith, it is the day of atonement, and a day of repentance and fasting for personal and community/communal sins committed in the past year in the hope of forgiveness (with forgiveness being the critically important aspect).
I was raised a Catholic who was taught to see Jews as (also) people of the Book (the Bible) but who limited themselves to the Old Testament and a God of Vengeance and Punishment.Jesus, as I remember, came, we were taught, to fulfill the Old Testament and by so doing, and living, and dying, created a New Testament. I think my problem with my church became reconciling the New God with the Old Testament one. After all, what kind of a loving Deity would crucify His own Son?
Music such as this to mark the Day of Atonement, has convinced me while I may have lost faith in my church, I'm not sure I've abandoned a belief in God, if that's Who inspired such beauty, majesty, and ineffable sorrow in one piece of music.
Present-day Israel, surrounded on three sides by enemies and on the fourth by the sea could not be in a more precarious position than the Jewish people themselves have been since the start of The Common Era.
Music such as this to mark the Day of Atonement, has convinced me while I may have lost faith in my church, I'm not sure I've abandoned a belief in God, if that's Who inspired such beauty, majesty, and ineffable sorrow in one piece of music.
Present-day Israel, surrounded on three sides by enemies and on the fourth by the sea could not be in a more precarious position than the Jewish people themselves have been since the start of The Common Era.
And yet, countless persecutions later, they stand, as self-anointed as God's Chosen, and regardless of your own religious beliefs or the depth of your persuasion, you have to admire their devotion to Him and their belief in His providence for them.
-bill kenny
-bill kenny
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