day of atonement

there's this jewish holiday i read about, yom kippur. also known as the day of atonement.
you ask for forgiveness for sins against god. it's like apologizing for the many shortcomings you had for the year..i think it happens around november or october....

but the day before yom kippur is what's called erev yom kippur where you ask for forgiveness for your sins against people.

before you ask for forgiveness from god, you ask for forgiveness from people. his people. his children whom you slighted in one way or another.

maybe because he entrusts us to one another, he asks for nothing but that we love one another. and we all still seem to hurt one another. so we need to forgive one another before he forgives us.

i think it's a given that he expects us to forgive one another before we can ask for forgiveness from him....

was just thinking about it, the beauty and the meaning of this holiday to the jewish people...the hope that it must bring to them. i wonder if there's a similar catholic or christian or hindu or islamic day...

la lang.

as the year draws to a close, as i prepare for a bittersweet christmas, and another birthday, i think of those two days. the day of atonement, and the day before that.

this is not me suddenly engaging in ecumenical or philosophical thinking...this is just...thinking.