{"id":1707,"date":"2023-09-20T12:38:18","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T16:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redchairblogs.wpengine.com\/holymoly\/?p=1707"},"modified":"2023-09-20T12:38:18","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T16:38:18","slug":"season-of-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/2023\/09\/20\/season-of-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Season of Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last Hanukkah, my mother gave me a snow globe with a Star of David inside. Sometimes when I shake it, and see all the particles fly apart and then gather together, I am reminded of something a rabbi once told me: \u201cWhen we depart, our souls go up and then connect with other souls to come back and continue G-d\u2019s work.\u201d If she is right, we are truly more connected than we ever imagined.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We are days away from the Jewish holy day, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). From sundown on September 24th through sundown on September 25th, many Jewish people will spend the day fasting, attending temple, and praying. This holy time is a day to confess sins, ask for forgiveness, and focus on abandoning jealousy and strife.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As we move closer to autumn, we may sense a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">starting over<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, no matter our faith or secular tradition. There is a feeling that things are ending, but the bright fall colors reassure us that change is not always terrible. There is often beauty before rebirth. There is often rest before awakening. And sometimes, saying <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I\u2019m sorry<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is the path to that new start.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this holy time, dear reader, I ask you to spend some time in contemplation. Have you held on to anger or strife? Do you need to apologize to yourself or to someone else for something that is heavily weighing on your heart? How often have great relationships ended just because we were unable to acknowledge our part in the separation?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To me, we are just like the little specks in my snow globe. Life sometimes throws us in many different directions, and sometimes we find ourselves far apart, divided over deeply held opinions or differing beliefs. Yet, in the end, we can come back together in a state of holy Oneness. It\u2019s never too late to say I am sorry to G-d, to family, or to friends. Perhaps one of the most holy of gifts is forgiveness.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last Hanukkah, my mother gave me a snow globe with a Star of David inside. Sometimes when I shake it, and see all the particles fly apart and then gather together, I am reminded of something a rabbi once told &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/2023\/09\/20\/season-of-forgiveness\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Season of Forgiveness<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jeremy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1QIf6-rx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}