We spent Rosh
Hashanah in Givot Eden, and what was supposed to be a short two-day trip
through northern Israel somehow became a journey filled with enough stories for
weeks. Most of that was because of my wife Chantelle, who has a wonderful habit
of making me stop when I am ready to keep driving. One of those stops brought
us to the extraordinary Tunisian synagogue in Akko, a building covered from
floor to ceiling with millions of tiny mosaic stones. And because Chantelle
insisted that we stay, we found ourselves listening to an Israeli Air Force
officer speaking to a group of young men and women about Yom Kippur—and
teaching a lesson I needed to hear myself. 

We
can fast for twenty-five hours. We can beat our chests, cry through Kol Nidrei,
confess every sin and remain in synagogue until the final HaShem Hu HaElokim.
But the Mishnah teaches that there is one door Yom Kippur cannot open for us: עֲבֵירוֹת שֶׁבֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵירוֹ—the
hurts that remain between one person and another. Before we ask HaShem to
forgive us, there may be a phone call we need to make, an apology we need to
offer—or perhaps an old resentment we finally need to put down. In this
morning’s Breakfast & a Class,
The
Door Yom Kippur Cannot Open, we discuss
forgiveness, reconciliation, and what those millions of stones in an Akko
synagogue can teach us about repairing the mosaic before Yom Kippur.