Wishing You An Easy And Meaningful Fast This Yom Kippur

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I’d like to wish all my Jewish readers an easy and meaningful fast this Yom Kippur and a g’mar chasima tova. It’s a day on which we forgive each other for any slights and in turn hope to be forgiven by G-d for our misdeeds. It’s a day on which we resolve to do better in the future and look forward to being inscribed for a great year ahead.

Here is an essay on forgiveness that I wrote last year for the Jewish Press,

“As someone who has been blessed to be able to see so much of Hashem’s beautiful world, I have learned some valuable lessons along the way about true forgiveness.

When I travel I can clearly see how everything is bashert. Whether it’s a fuel shortage that caused our kosher Antarctica cruise to detour to the Falklands where we learned and printed the Tanya with a Jew, or choosing a slower customs line that caused me to be in a taxi that was just behind rather than inside a deadly riot, or a missed connection that forced us to spend a Shabbos in Japan and do a mitzvah with a Jew in Tokyo, it’s Hashem who chooses our experiences and the people we meet. What appears to be a missed opportunity becomes life changing.

Sometimes we have negative interactions and we forget that it’s Hashem who orchestrated it for his own reasons, which are ultimately for the best.

When I focus on the Hashgocha Protis rather than the “problem”, and remember that Hashem engineered the encounter for my benefit, it becomes easier to let go. By doing that, I can not only forgive, but be thankful for everyone I encounter and the lessons learned.”

Tonight in shul we’ll sing 2 powerful and hauntingly beautiful Chabad nigunim that have made their way to universal use over the past century. Local Clevelander Yosef Peysin does an incredible job covering them with his Rogers Park band and they certainly put me in the right frame of mind for the upcoming fast and day of prayers ahead: