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October 8, 2019

At the Heart of the Days of Awe Is Not Sin, Guilt, or Punishment but the Human Relationship with the Divine

Being someone before God.

While the phrase “High Holy Days” refers in English to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the equivalent Hebrew terms means “Days of Awe” or “Dread,” evoking the belief that God sits in judgment at this time of year, weighing individuals’ (and nations’) good deeds and sins, and determining their fates for the coming year. Rachel Gruzman notes that, in ḥaredi circles, there is a tendency to focus on the “severity and even terror” of this literally awe-filled period. But, she argues, such an emphasis can obscure its true significance, which is not about the Creator extracting punishment for misdeeds, or forgoing punishment, but about repairing the relationship between Israel and God—one most often likened, from the Bible onward, to that between a son and a father or between a wife and a husband:

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