Why we are completely unprepared...

As we step into Yom Kippur tomorrow night, we find ourselves holding two truths at once: we are completely unprepared, and yet somehow this holy day arrives right on time.

There’s a book on our shelf by Rabbi Alan Lew called This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared—and every year, that feels exactly right.

Somehow, every year, we are completely unprepared for the challenge of Yom Kippur — not just the fast, but the spiritual challenge of rising to the moment, reflecting on the past year, and putting in the work necessary to be ready to receive the year ahead.

Simultaneously — Yom Kippur always seems to arrive right at the time that we need it.

The traditional greeting with which we bless each other leading up to, and on, Yom Kippur, is gmar chatima tova — “may you be blessed with a good final sealing.”

There is a beautiful, yet haunting image of God, as it were, as a Divine Author, opening the Book of Life and, we hope, inscribing our name in it. The Book of Life stays open throughout the Aseret Yemei Teshuva (the 10 Days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur), and on Yom Kippur, the Divine judgement is sealed and fixed for the upcoming year.

When we wish each other a gmar chatima tova, what we are really expressing is a hope we have for each other that God does not forget or remove our name from the Book of Life.

Like a treasured novel or a beloved lyric from a favorite album, we hope God returns to our name in the Book of Life again and again, rereading it with tenderness and nostalgia, in times of joy equally as in moments of sorrow, and with a measure of nachas befitting a proud parent surveying the accomplishments of their children. 

The two of us wish each and every one of you a gmar chatima tova. If there is anything either of us have done over the past year that has been hurtful to you, even unintentionally so, we sincerely apologize and ask for your forgiveness.

We are so grateful for the honor of having our names listed next to yours, God willing, in the Book of Life. May we all merit to see a year of health, fulfillment, and peace.