Judgment Day
Every year, we stand accused. The synagogue becomes a courtroom. God sits as judge, the Torah as prosecutor, and we the defendant standing trial. The world is judged collectively on Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, according to the Mishnah. But on Rosh Hashanah, we are judged individually — “all who enter the world pass before God one by one.” It is deeply unsettling. At stake, if not life and death, are an upheaval of conscience and a dreadful sense of shame. And it is highly unconventional. Ours is a culture of acceptance. It is considered impolite to judge, to be judgmental. It is deemed unhealthy to live with guilt or shame.
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The Start of God’s Day
The High Holiday season is suffused with an awareness of judgment — of din. In that climactic prayer, the Unetaneh Tokef, the angels call aloud “hineh Yom haDin” — “it is Judgment Day!” For many Jews, what makes these truly Days of Awe is the awe and fear of God’s judgment, imagining that on these days God is examining our deeds, prompting us to anxiously do the same.
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Contending With ‘Call-Out Culture’
We are coming to understand the power of our words. After countless years (decades, centuries) of choking on the words that would convey our experiences and validate those of others — because we were not permitted to speak or were not listened to when we did — women are speaking up. This chorus of full-throated and tentative voices and stories of pain, betrayal, resilience, and solidarity, evoked with the succinct headline #MeToo, is shaking the foundations of institutions. It is remarkable, and it is about time.
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Truth(s) and Consequences
I took a class in college that has stuck with me: The Semiotics of Soviet Socialist Film. With_Glasnost_and an emerging Soviet openness, it was trendy in the world of pseudo-intellectual college students to watch hours of black-and-white Soviet films. I didn’t understand much about the class, but there was one reality-shattering takeaway that has informed my perspective ever since. Watching grainy footage in that classroom, I learned that there are multiple versions of truth.
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NiSh’ma: Din
A simulated Talmud page with three commentators exploring a line from Pirkei Avot on the relationship between judgment, truth, and peace.
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Consider and Converse: A Guide to Din/Judgment
Consider and Converse: A Guide to “Din” — Judgment
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