Jack’s Winning Words 10/4/22  “How old do you have to be to know the difference between right and wrong?”  (Yom Kippur)  Yom Kippur is the holiest of Jewish holidays, the Day of Atonement, the day for making “right” all broken relationships.  Life is such that mistakes are continually made.  Do the right words correct them?  Sometimes.  Are actions needed?  Sometimes.  Our Jewish friends have “a Day” set aside to get things right with God.  Is there such a time in your life, a time “to wipe the slate clean and start all over again/”  I like the line from the Gene Autrey song: “If I could atone to that dear old daddy of mine.”  Substitute “God” for “dear old daddy” and see how that works.  Maybe it just works for me.  ;-)  Jack FROM MAGGIE:  Ot works for me.===JACK:  A good idea for each of us. FROM WILLMAR REV:  Standing ready, hopefully, 24/7 . . . "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). 0;-)===JACK:  You've reminde3d me of the church song...Standing on the Promises.  "Standinging, Standing....(sing it!). FROM DANDI SANDI:  Sundown starts our day of atonement. The fasting part reminds us to look inward and to seek and give forgiveness and kindness. Being with our family is what makes it special. It saddens me that the younger generation is loosing sight of the depth of the meaning. Example: our grandson is choosing to play in a varsity tennis match instead of observing the holiday with our family. He’s a great kid and it’s not for me to say. Up to his parents, who are especially wonderful. We keep our mouths shut. Disappointing though. 🥺===JACK:  So, it happens in Judaism as it is happening in the Christian Church.  God understands, even when we don't.  That's why is G_D! FROM SHARIN' SHARON:  Thought-provoking WW, Pastor Freed.  Feel like I’m in atonement a lot because it happens in my heart whenever I and someone else are in disagreement and I think further my relationship with my daddy, Father, God is impacted too because He created both of us to love Him and to love each other as neighbors.  Just suffer, take it to the cross, pray, repent, speak and act in various and sundry ways and hope for God’s Work among us bringing  peace and reconciliation.  I would like to know more about how the Jewish people observe Yom Kippur, both in the earliest days of their faith and also contemporarily  because it does seem like all of our hearts need special awareness and times to make atonement for our broken relationships.  Thanks, Pastor Freed, for WW.===JACK:  Some of my Jewish friends have commented in today's blog.  Read what they've written in order to get further information about Yom Kippur.  Google works, too! FROM ST PAUL:  John Freed <jhfreed27@comcast.net>===JACK:  It's the Jewish High Holy Days....our Christmas and Easter rolled into one.===SP: such a great idea for a holy day!  ===JACK:  We spend too much time nit-picking the differences between our religion and others and toolittle time learning more about God from those others..===SP:  agreed.  and sadly Lutherans are sometimes very guilty of this.  My daughter Becca sat thru a 90 minute Candidacy meeting some  years ago when some asshole pastor kept asking her (and I quote).  "How can you be an effective Lutheran pastor if you are married to a man who was raised in the Assembly of God? church?"    i should have gone after him with a baseball bat.   Becca left that meeting so hurt and so angry!    and few weeks later she left Luther Seminary for the last time.  and she would have made a really fine parish pastor.  there is a bit more to the story but you get the jist of it. ===JACK:  Sad, sad, sad.  Just as there is room in Heaven....there is also room in HELL.  Let God be the judge.  I'll give Him some help if He asks for it.  Becca remains a fine person.  One of my dearest and most Christian friends is an  AG community pastor in Willmar.===SP:  well said, Jack.  thanks. FROM BB IN CHGO:  Yes, they have a day but I’m learning it’s actually asuch a great idea for a holy day!   whole season.  The “hi-ho’s” – an abbreviation and inside joke on the dwarves song from Snow White – start Erev Rosh Hashannah, the night before the New Year when the moon is at it’s smallest.   Apparently this allows for new beginnings and a gradual brightening over time, not unlike our advent lighting of the individual candle the first week.  Then…they take the 10 days? Between Rosh and YK to examine the conscience and start reaching out to those whom they may have offended, making repentance, confession and trying to right broken relationships.  On Yom K you get a couple of chances to do the same radings.  I was so surprised but like in case you didn’t resonate with the reading and “sin” or missing the mark described, once presented with it again, you may think differently and deepen your understanding.  Then the next holiday, Sukkot is where you build the little structure outside with various branches.  Our old neighbors all used to do them in the front yard and visit back and forth. I’m sending an attachment to an old article I read when Tim & I lived on Richmond; probably given by a neighbor as a way to help us understand why they built the Sukkot and what I meant to them.  I still think of it often; we are all here, doing right and wrong…by the grace of God😊===JACK:  Yes, I do recall that you once lived in a Jewish neighborhood...and, obviously, some of their customs rubbed off on you.  Our community changed shortly after we arrived in Michigan.  We now have thew largest Reformed Jewish congregation in the nation here in West Bloomfield, besides other kinds of Judaism. FROM JET IN LONDON:  This one resonated with Kiki and me.  We are all on a journey.===JACK:  Yes, life is a journey.  Things don't always go smoothly, but as long as we get to our destination safely......     www.jackswinningwords.blogspot.com to see my blog