How Can We Do Better?

This coming Wednesday we will gather for Yom Kippur services. We will recite the viddui, the confession of sins. We beat our chests and proclaim, “For the sin we have committed…” and we then intone a litany of wrongs.

Here are a few of the sins listed in our prayerbook:

The ways we have wronged You by hardening our hearts;
and harm we have caused in Your world through careless speech.

The ways we have wronged You by judging others unfairly;
and harm we have caused in Your world through disrespect to parents and teachers.

The ways we have wronged You by violence and abuse;
and harm we have caused in Your dishonesty in business.

Although there are several items on this lengthy list that every single one of us is guilty of doing—there is no one among us who is completely righteous—there are many others that each of us has not committed. This is why we say the viddui in the plural. There is someone who has done the wrong. Someone has transgressed each and every one of these sins and so we embrace each other in order to lift each other up.

Perhaps this past year I managed not to judge someone unfairly, but by proclaiming this sin as a group, others who did so will not feel singled out. If every individual had to declare their individual sins out loud, and say “For the sin I have sinned,” they might be too embarrassed to turn in repentance and correct their failings. The group provides protection and strength.

We say, “For the sin we have committed.” By proclaiming these wrongs together, even those that might not apply, we strengthen each other. We are supported and strengthened by the community. We gain courage to admit our failings by standing with others. This is a central teaching of the Jewish tradition.

We can encourage each other to realize our best version of ourselves.

Then again, maybe the reason why the viddui is said in the plural is to say we want the Jewish people to do better. We so love the Jewish community that we want our family to acknowledge its wrongs and correct its failings. It is not so much about the individuals realizing their potential but the Jewish people striving to do better. And the only way we can acknowledge our collective failings is by acknowledging them together.

On this Yom Kippur, for what must the Jewish people ask forgiveness?