A Yom Kippur confessional for 2025

An image of an ornate synagogue ceiling. Photo by Getty Images

Contributing Columnist Jay Michaelson September 29, 2025

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One of the beautiful paradoxes of Yom Kippur is that introspection is, by definition, individual, yet Jews recite the confessional in the plural. None of us has committed all the transgressions in the standard liturgy, yet we are each invited to find our shortcomings in the text’s long, alphabetical list. And to remember that, whether we like it or not, we are bound to one another. It is in that spirit that I offer the following Al Chet prayer after a year marked by pain, division and rancor.

We have missed the mark, Source of Justice and Compassion; we have stumbled, we have failed; we are, after all, only human.  We turn to You and turn to our better selves, seeking atonement and repair

For the sin of assuming the worst about another’s motivations

And for the sin of not reflecting on our own motivations;

For the sin of allowing our rage, trauma, and pain after October 7 to blind us to the misery, collective punishment, and war crimes in Gaza

And for the sin of allowing the misery, collective punishment, and war crimes in Gaza to blind us to the unspeakable evils of October 7;

For the sin of shunning anti-Zionists and slandering them as antisemites

And for the sin of shunning Zionists, and slandering them as genociders;

For the sin of denying that there are innocent people in Gaza who do not support Hamas

And for the sin of denying that there are innocent people in Israel who do not support injustice;

For the sin of not seeing both sides of a dispute

And for the sin of both-sidesing without reflection;

For the sin of lashing out at fellow Jews

And for the sin of dehumanizing non-Jews;

For the sin of not loving our Jewish siblings enough

And for the sin of loving our Jewish siblings too much;

For the sin of hardening our hearts against millions of innocent Palestinians in Gaza displaced by violence, or with children in harm’s way, or with relatives or friends killed by Israeli rockets

And for the sin of hardening our hearts against millions of Israelis huddling in bomb shelters, or with children in harm’s way, or with relatives and friends massacred by Hamas;

For the sin of forgetting that the cruelty of the occupation cannot justify murdering innocent Israelis

And for the sin of forgetting that the cruelty of the occupation exists;

For the sin of keeping silent when righteous speech is called for

And for the sin of lashon hara instead of righteous speech;

For the sin of denying the truth when we see images that disturb our beliefs

And for the sin of jumping to conclusions when presented with images on social media;

For the sin of ostracizing imperfect allies instead of building coalitions together

And for the sin of canceling those with whom we disagree;

For the sin of certainty instead of intellectual humility

And for the sin of conflating intellectual humility with moral relativism;

For the sin of forgetting the hostages

And for the sin of remembering only the hostages;

For the sin of using antisemitism to shield Israel from accountability

And for the sin of using Israel’s actions to excuse antisemitism;

For the sin of blaming Jews for the worst actions of Israel

And for the sin of blaming Muslims, Palestinians, or critics of Israel for the worst actions of extremists;

For the sin of ignoring rising authoritarianism in our midst

And for the sin of failing to unite with those we disagree in order to combat it;

For the sin of not caring for one another

And for the sin of not caring for ourselves;

For the sin of not grieving enough

And for the sin of not releasing our grief.

For all these, and for all we have not yet named, O Source of Holiness, Compassionate One, please grant us the ability to see clearly, to let go of that which harms, and to change our lives and our world for the better.