Yom Kippur End 2012: Reflecting on A Holiday Celebrated with Tea, Not Bread

Culture

Yesterday was Yom Kippur, and as I wrote this, I had just done tashlich with tea.

I almost passed the creek on the walk home, actually, but generations of Jewish guilt instantaneously clobbered me and I stopped. I can’t not do it. The water’s right here. Tea, bread, what’s the difference? I have to do it.

Asking forgiveness, however it is done, is fundamentally self-reflection. It encourages us, on our own terms and held accountable only to ourselves (or God, I guess), to be better next year. In the end, being a better person is the whole point, whether the endgame is to be written in the Book of Life, to reach heaven, to experience salvation, or to attain Enlightenment.