Yom Kippur Reflections

On Yom Kippur we strive to confess before God all of our wrongdoings, taking true stock of what we have done wrong and where we have failed. The repeated recitation of the אשמנו prayer, with its alef-bet acrostic, gives us the opportunity to reflect on our own personal sins and shortcomings, from A to Z, and to perhaps even articulate them alongside the standard text.

But we have done more this last year than failed and fallen short. We have also succeeded; we have done good every day in ways big and small; we may have even done some extraordinary things.  That needs to be recognized as well.

We are forgiven on Yom Kippur for a reason. It is to allow us to start fresh. To free us from the sins that weigh us down, keeping us looking backwards, robbing our belief in ourselves and preventing us from achieving our true potential. That process begins with seeing the good in ourselves, giving voice to that, owning it and believing in it.

For this we need a different type of viduy. A positive viduy. An articulation of what we have done right, a viduy of what we are proud of.

This is the viduy of ma’aser, the viduy recited when a person fulfils the mitzvah of giving tithes and declares: “I have done all that you have commanded me!” (Deut. 26:14). As Rav Kook so powerfully writes (Ein Ayah on Mishnah Ma’aser Sheini 5:10):

נתנה לנו הדרך להתעוררות שצריך האדם שישמח גם כן לפעמים בביטוי שפתיים על מעשה הטוב אשר עשה וכפי המדה הראויה לחזק לבבו בעבודה,

The Torah has given us a path of awakening: a person needs to also rejoice themselves sometimes by articulating the good deeds that they have done, in the appropriate measure, in order to strengthen their heart in [Divine] service.

Rav Avi Weiss, founder of YCT, has been teaching all of us this lesson for many years. Over 10 years ago, he composed the following ahavnu viduy to be said alongside the ashamnu one. We encourage each of you to recite this viduy on Yom Kippur as well and to use it as an opportunity to reflect on and to articulate to ourselves all that we are proud of over this last year. On the day that God has promised to forgive us for our sins, we pray that we can learn to forgive ourselves, to own the good within us, and to devote this coming year to bringing that good out into the world.

— Rabbi Dov Linzer

Ahavnu Viduy

Composed by Rabbi Avi Weiss

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