BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

The Jewish high holidays -- which end today on Yom Kippur -- are a time when many are called upon to repent and seek forgiveness from others. But in a world where the Internet has increasingly become a way to communicate, some are replacing one-on-one apologies with Facebook and Twitter updates during the Jewish holy days. That concerns Rabbi Jason Miller of Congregation T'chiyah in Oak Park, who sees some using the impersonal nature of the Web as a way to avoid real interaction. He plans to talk about the issue today to his congregation during services on what is known as the Day of Atonement. "We've lost the personal touch," said Miller, who also is the rabbi of Tamarack Camps in Michigan. "There should be an effort, a little challenge to go up to another person and seek forgiveness, to admit our wrongdoing." Miller often uses social media himself and blogs at blog.rabbijason.com, but cautions against overdoing it. He notes one Facebook update he got Frida...

by Sara Yoheved Rigler After crying intermittently for 36 hours, ever since the eerie wail of ambulance sirens carrying the dead and wounded from the terror attack at the Hillel Cafe woke me up last Tuesday night, I thought I had no more tears to shed. Then I saw the picture of the wedding dress. It appeared in an Israeli newspaper -- a photo of a long, white, taffeta and chiffon gown, hanging forlornly on a hanger on the door of the bride's bedroom closet, because the 20-year-old bride, Nava Applebaum, is clothed in a shroud instead. Nava was buried together with her father, Dr. David Applebaum, on the day that was supposed to be her wedding day. The photo next to it shows Nava's fiance Chanan Sand beside Nava's open grave, holding the wedding ring he had intended to place on her finger. He placed it instead on her lifeless body as it was lowered into the grave. There are other pictures in that day's newspaper: A picture of the handsome, smiling 39-year-old Yaakov Ben ...

by David R. Blumenthal Teshuva (Repentance) Teshuvá is the key concept in the rabbinic view of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. The tradition is not of one mind on the steps one must take to repent of one's sins. However, almost all agree that repentance requires five elements: recognition of one's sins as sins (hakarát ha-chét'), remorse (charatá), desisting from sin (azivát ha-chét'), restitution where possible (peira'ón), and confession (vidúi). "Recognition of one's sins as sins" is an act of one's intelligence and moral conscience. It involves knowing that certain actions are sinful, recognizing such actions in oneself as more than just lapses of praxis, and analyzing one's motives for sin as deeply as one can. For example, stealing from someone must be seen not only as a crime but also as a sin against another human and a violation of God's demands of us within the covenant. It also involves realizing that such acts are part of deep...

I ASK YOU ALL FOR FORGIVENESS, AND... As we pray for God to forgive us, we recite a particular prayer several times on Yom Kippur: the vidui -- the confessional prayer -- portions of which I have reproduced below (I will not be at shul tonite as I have a high fever and serious viral infection. I will be doing a modified fast and participating 'virtually') : We have trespassed. We have dealt treacherously. We have robbed. We have acted perversely. We have wrought wickedness. We have been presumptuous. We have done violence. We have counselled evil. We have scoffed. We have revolted. We have provoked. We have rebelled. We have committed iniquity. We have transgressed. We have oppressed. We have been stiff-necked. We have done wickedly. We have corrupted. We have committed abomination. We have gone astray. We have led others astray... For the sin we have committed before You under compulsion or of our own will, And for the sin we have committed before You by harden...