Out of the Depths: Yom Kippur and the Rediscovery of Jewish Identity

Oh, what a year it has been—like a jolt to our collective soul! It’s as if we are being shaken awake from a two-thousand-year slumber.

We’ve been beaten by so many, we’ve lost count. It happens so often, we’ve come to expect nothing else. The hatred—so intense and irrational—shakes us to our core.

Worse yet, the hatred directed at us over so many years, has shaped our very identity. The bullies control how we see ourselves. We have been manipulated entirely by those who seek to destroy us.

Yet, as the Jewish people pause for a moment this Yom Kippur, listening closely to the quiet whisper within, a very different story begins to emerge.

It is the story of a pristine light piercing the cracks of a facade built on lies and hate.

It is the story of a despised and persecuted people, rising once more with conviction and courage.

It is the story of a people who, despite their best efforts to assimilate, are beginning to rediscover their true identities.

Yom Kippur is the quintessential moment in time. It is a day when time transcends itself, allowing every one of us to encounter our deepest, truest self. It is the moment we experience our oneness with G-d and with every other Jew.

Let us all together celebrate this moment of oneness. 

Gmar Chatima Yova

Yosef Vogel