Skip to content
Thoughts for the Yom Kippur Al Het
by Neil Einleger
I rarely get to shul on Sabbath, but the last Shabbat I was here, Rabbi Avi Winokur was on the pulpit along with Terri Novick — the dynamic duo, as it were.
Rabbi Avi decided to dispense with his sermon about Labor Day and instead told a parable of who guilt is assigned to… and it made me think of one word: indifference — and how all are complicit.
For the sin of indifference…
I am the children sitting in the pew in Minnesota, helpless, defenseless, and vulnerable.
I am also the shooter, confused, mentally unstable.
I did nothing to address either issue.
I am the four people who lost their lives in the firestorm at the Church of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan.
I am Thomas Jacob Sanford, Iraqi war veteran, yet troubled by the Mormon religion.
I am you, the person who stands gape-mouthed at yet another senseless killing — and I did nothing to address my indifference.
I am the senior citizen, broke, starving, on financial aid and struggling after working my whole life.
I am also the government, uncaring, bureaucratic, and impenetrable.
I have done nothing to address the issue.
I am the temple-goer: happy, depressed, alone, with companions;
full of joy, full of worry.
I am the clergy, with the enormous responsibility of consoling and guiding my congregants.
I have done little to address the issue.
I am the citizen of America — wealthy, poor, irate, and frustrated — struggling with freedom.
I am the elected official, overwhelmed with the myriad of problems that affect my constituents.
Unable to bring change, I have done little to address the issue.
I am the viewer of media, in a quandary over the suppression of free speech, free thought, and free will.
I am the media conglomerate who suppresses the right to defend liberty and thought; I engage in doublespeak.
I am faceless. I am indifferent.
I have done nothing to assuage my guilt.
I am Charlie Kirk — arrogant, mean-spirited, yet not worthy
of falling prey to an assassin’s bullet.
I am Charlie Kirk’s assassin — my beliefs and dark thoughts are allowed to proliferate in a country that has become indifferent to violence, because it is everywhere, and we have become numb.
I am a soul who has done nothing about it.
I am Israel — proud, defiant, a haven for the oppressed of the world.
I am a Palestinian living in Gaza, without hope, without a home, under the knuckle of a terrorist regime using me as a shield.
And yet… though I try, the world and myself remain indifferent.
I am a citizen of the world.
I have hope. I have dreams.
I want to live in the country my forefathers envisioned so many years ago.
I am regret.
I am the conscience of my people.
I have done little to affect change towards the better.
We are all guilty. We are all innocent.
We live to fight indifference, yet accept it every day.
V’al kulam, Elohei selichot, selach lanu, mechal lanu, kaper lanu.
