Can Yom Kippur Atonement Be
Accomplished in 140 characters or Less?
By Alina Dain Sharon/JNS.org
C oming from a non-observant family of
Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet
Union to Israel, a country where many
people tend to lead secular lifestyles to begin with,
I wasn’t raised in a particularly religious environ-
ment. In fact, I can count on fewer than five fingers
the times that I stepped foot in a synagogue during
my childhood.

But one aspect of the Jewish faith that has always
appealed to me, and likely appeals to many other
Jews — religious and non-religious alike — is its
introspective morality. Every fall, we look back on
the past year in advance of Yom Kippur, determine
whom we have wronged, and try to atone for our
interpersonal sins with sincere apologies.

Around the time of Yom Kippur last year, I felt
that I had unintentionally offended an old friend
of mine. I then decided to make an apology. Belief
in God or prayer aside, this felt to me like the decent
thing to do.

Without too much thought about the medium,
I made the apology through a Facebook message.

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