Letting Go - For the Day after Yom Kippur 09202018 (Board meeting D’var Torah)

Letting Go - For the Day after Yom Kippur 09202018 

(Board meeting D’var Torah)

God of forgiveness,

Compassionate One, 

During this time following our day of atonement,

When we confess our sins before You and with each other,

Help us to continue to let go 

To apologize

To forgive

To relinquish grudges

To heal past hurts 

To reach out with a generous heart 

To make peace when possible

To do all that we are able 

to sustain a sense of equilibrium 

In our relationships.  

When we encounter people 

who are insistent on strengthening their hold

On hard feelings,

Who are unwilling to achieve even a modicum of respect,

Or to approach others with any measure of cordiality,

Who refuse to accept even the most sincere and appropriate apology, 

Do not let us sink into despair. 

Guide us to find it in our souls 

To approach everyone with equal consideration and empathy

But to realize 

That, once we have let go of past disappointments,

Once we have asked for forgiveness

And once we have demonstrated support and respect 

for those with whom we have struggled to relate, 

We will have taken necessary steps 

Towards healing and repair. 

And when our reaching out is not answered in kind

Teach us to be at peace with ourselves

To continue to act with decency

And to persist in the hope

That love and peace 

Might yet come again 

One day.