A wonderfully expressed set of tensions, Joshua. It's true that the Day of Atonement is a Day of Contradiction but I don't think it's *the* day of contradiction since to anyone reasonably observant, not of Judaism per se, but of the world around them and what is inside their own thoughts and feelings, it should be transparent that most if not all days are days of contradiction. Therefore, Yom Kippur would not be special if it were merely what one encounters daily. It would be an unmarked day. Anyway, here is another seeming contradiction: it's customary to wish others an easy fast, but if the act of fasting is to take us out of our local minima of daily life, shouldn't the fast be challenging? To wish that it be easy seems to me to defeat the purpose of temporarily escaping from daily comfort seeking. To that end, I wish all of you fasting today a meaningful fast and a successful escape from your local minima of everyday life. May you resettle on a more favorable point, on a better local minimum for the new year.
A wonderfully expressed set of tensions, Joshua. It's true that the Day of Atonement is a Day of Contradiction but I don't think it's *the* day of contradiction since to anyone reasonably observant, not of Judaism per se, but of the world around them and what is inside their own thoughts and feelings, it should be transparent that most if not all days are days of contradiction. Therefore, Yom Kippur would not be special if it were merely what one encounters daily. It would be an unmarked day. Anyway, here is another seeming contradiction: it's customary to wish others an easy fast, but if the act of fasting is to take us out of our local minima of daily life, shouldn't the fast be challenging? To wish that it be easy seems to me to defeat the purpose of temporarily escaping from daily comfort seeking. To that end, I wish all of you fasting today a meaningful fast and a successful escape from your local minima of everyday life. May you resettle on a more favorable point, on a better local minimum for the new year.