From 67 to 73

This Yom Kippur, rather like one 47 years ago, is to a significant degree about humility and shared responsibility.

This spring many Israelis, led by the example of the government, believed בכחי ובעצם ידי, we beat this thing by our own smarts. Too many mistook this to mean that corona was over, we had figured out the magic formula. Like the self-congratulatory high after June '67 this has been followed by a steady war of attrition that now brings us to the gates of Yom Kippur with soaring infection rates, rising critical cases and sadly also higher death rates.

In parallel we have had assorted experts confidently explaining why everything the government was doing was wrong. The virus would burn itself out in 70 days and we'd all have herd immunity. The warm weather would destroy it. It mostly only affects the old, it was no danger to everyone else, the government was just reacting with hysterical fearmongering, or worse, was engineering a covid crisis for its own sinister ends.

Or maybe the virus really is dangerous, but if we just take the right medications, eat the right wonder food, take the right vitamins and supplements, it would pass us by and we would be saved easily and simply.

Other Israelis have single mindedly been yelling that it is just Bibi. This is the answer, get rid of him, and everything will be fixed. To this end a large segment of my friends are out demonstrating in central Jerusalem each and every weekend for months in mass gatherings. Have anyone in charge, just not Bibi, that is the solution. Attending the protests was the patriotic thing to do.

Then there have been those who say there is no alternative but to live life as usual, because we have to simply coexist with covid as best we can, we cannot stop our regular way of life just because of a virus. There was no alternative but to push through for the sake of sanity and the economy, and whoever gets it gets it, but there is no choice but to plough through it.

Others meanwhile knew that the answer was purely spiritual. We just need to keep davening in shul, keep the yeshivot open, continue with mass prayer gatherings and this would protect our communities from the plague.

Still others said that we need to be cautious because this strange new virus is still out there. They watched others go out and resume normal life while they stayed home, out of the way, outside of regular existence, some from fear and some from a sense of duty that reducing crowding in the public sphere was the patriotic thing to do.

Each in his or her own bubble of logic, each in his or her own community with its norms and ideologies. Each with his or her own version of בכחי ובעצם ידי

And in the background that thin still small voice coming from still others, dedicated nurses, doctors, epidemiologists, virologists, rabbis, scientists and lay people alike - we still don't know enough. We are learning, we are hopefully making important leaps in our knowledge, but tachlis we still don't know enough, it is still so early in this pandemic, there is still so much we don't understand to know which ultimately is the right path.

The only thing we do know is that we are all on this dystopian journey together. I would say it is an overused cliche, but apparently too many of us still need to hear it, only by working together can we get through this situation as safely as possible.

There are no clear simple solutions that we can see right now, rather a tightrope of conflicting theories, needs and ideas which we need to collectively attempt to balance on to try to find a safe equilibrium. 

We don't have most of the answers yet, but knowing that we lack answers to so many questions is the first step to finding them.

Ironically this Kol Nidrei night we will (most of us) not be crowded in to synagogue or even any other kind of minyan to hear the phrase אנו מתרין להתפלל עם העבריינים, it is permissible to pray with transgressors.

More than ever this year that is what we need to hear. From the relative safety of our homes. 

On Yom Kippur we together confess a formulated list of sins and transgressions, everything in the book from theft to lying to adultery to corruption. Surely most of us have not actually committed these heinous acts? And yet we list them, aloud, together, with bowed heads, beating our breasts in contrition.

On Yom Kippur we all stand together, those who are guilty of many offences, those who are not, but we collectively take responsibility for what has gone wrong.

We humbly accept that we do not live in bubbles. It isn't "we are fine, all this crisis is because of THEM!" It isn't "we don't need to sacrifice, or inconvenience ourselves, or take responsibility because SOMEONE ELSE is the one at fault."

We take joint responsibility for our communities, or friends, our families. Maybe we didn't do any of these wrongful acts, or maybe unknowingly we did things which contributed to a bad situation, another person going astray, someone's act of desperation or maybe we simply stayed aloof and said "we are OK", while others floundered and even drowned.

We have always been an opinionated, stubborn and argumentative people. This has been an ingrained part of our culture since Abraham challenged the conformist idolatry which was the established norm of the culture he grew up in and then challenged God's plan to punish Soddom and Gemorra. 

This characteristic has both at time been our downfall and our success. 

Our disagreements and refusal to humbly accept that we don't have all the answers cost us our freedom and many lives in the dark days leading up to the destruction of both the Kingdom of Israel and Judah, and centuries later the restored and rebuilt state of Judea. 

Yet that same independence of mind and spirit, ability to discuss everything from a million angles, to ask questions, to think out of the box has made us a nation of innovators, intellectuals, skilled craftspeople, scientists, writers and engineers. Skills that have saved us both in exile and our return to our ancient homeland. 

It is so easy to point the finger at someone else rather than acknowledge the need to come together. 

This year more than any other come together we must in humility and acknowledge that all of us need each other for whichever solution we choose to attempt to work. Maybe in a bitterly divided world that is what covid is here to teach us. 

May we all be inscribed in the book of Life, Blessing and Peace.