[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 22738-22739]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             DAYS OF AWE: FORGIVENESS, ATONEMENT AND PEACE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 7, 2005

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to wish L'Shanah Tova ``Good Year'' 
to my Jewish friends in Congress and to Jewish people around the world 
as they begin the celebration of the Days of Awe: the sacred Holy Days 
beginning with Rosh Hashanah continuing to the holiest day Yom Kippur, 
which falls on October 13, 2005. To those Jews who must feel the most 
forgotten and alone whether in Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and the 
remnants still living in poverty in Poland, Russia and other parts of 
Eastern Europe who can only celebrate these Holy Days in their hearts, 
I rise to say you are not forgotten.
  For Jewish people Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as well as the days 
between are the most solemn of all the Jewish Holidays and for some the 
most important. These ten days are sometimes known as the Days of 
Remembrance, the Days of Repentance and the Days of Awe. Unlike other 
Jewish holidays and festivals which are closely tied to harvests and 
changes of seasons, the High Holy Days are spiritual days of soul-
searching and prayer.
  Rosh Hashanah is a beginning of a spiritual new year, when each Jew 
can ask forgiveness for sin of conduct and of the heart, atone for 
those sins and begin again asking God to inscribe him or her in the 
``Book of Life.'' On Rosh Hashanah the Book is opened. The Shofar, the 
curled ram's horn, calls the Jewish people to gather together to pray 
on Rosh Hashanah as the Book of Life is opened, just as it has for the 
last 3000 years.
  The Jewish liturgy or prayers said during this holiday not only ask 
for forgiveness from God for sins against both of conduct and of the 
heart, the prayers remind the people that they cannot be forgiven by 
God for sins committed against their fellow man. For forgiveness from 
others, they must atone by seeking

[[Page 22739]]

it from the people they have hurt and doing charity. The liturgy, both 
the ancient derived from many beloved psalms as well as newer liturgy, 
which recognizes political realities of our time, center on ethical 
concerns, searching for the core of the ethical human being, the 
meaning of righteousness and good.
  For Jewish people this High Holy Day is one for evaluating their 
conduct of the past year, not only toward their fellow man, but for all 
the creatures of the earth and for the earth itself. This re-thinking 
of their conduct requires each person to examine his or her moral and 
spiritual values, principles, ethical standards, in other words the 
moral core of their being. The Jews from ancient times valued these 
high holy days more than the other holidays and traveled to the Temple 
in Jerusalem so the High Priests could perform the spiritual rituals 
that would cleanse them of their sins and seek blessings of peace for 
them and inscribe each with his or loved ones in the Book of Life. This 
day is the beginning of the Jewish calendar year. It is a beginning in 
a spiritual sense which is more important than a change in the 
calendar.
  For the Jewish people, each Rosh Hashanah is a new year that is one 
more step in a history thousands of years long. Jewish people strive to 
understand the values of our forebears and build on what has gone 
before. Jewish people all over the world read from the writings of the 
sages who wrote during the long exile in Babylon a model for moral 
behavior:

       ``The one who proceeds with integrity, and takes action for 
     justice, and speaks truth with their heart, the one who does 
     no harm to others, and does not raise trouble for their 
     neighbor. . . .''

  On Rosh Hashanah Jews also reflect on the words of Isaiah,

       ``Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean. Put away the evil 
     of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil; learn 
     what is good. Seek justice; relieve the oppressed; Speak out 
     for the orphan; advocate for the widow.''--Isaiah, I: 16-17

  The prayers are also a promise to God to strive for peace. In this 
Holy Day liturgy which spans the millennia, the Jewish people around 
the world pray for God's peace: Bring peace, the Jews sing, peace to 
the Jews and to the whole world.
  The second High Holy Day, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the 
most solemn day of the Jewish year. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, 
reflection and prayers. The names of this day in Hebrew are many: Yom 
HaZikkaron, ``Day of remembrance,'' Yom ha-Din ``Day of Judgment'', the 
day on which God judges all human beings by their deeds during the year 
just ended and inscribes their fate in the heavenly record book for the 
next year. Some believe the Book of Life will close at sundown on Yom 
Kippur. As the sun slowly sinks in the sky, the fasting people stand 
for the entire evening service. Some believe literally, others believe 
metaphorically, that on this day God has determined who will live, and 
who will die. They make a last plea for their loved ones and 
themselves. They also pledge to live the ethical life they believe is 
required of them by soul or spirit that is the spark of God in them. In 
Judaism, ethics are the foundation of prayer and the theology of 
prayer. This is most evident on the High Holy Days.
  Yom Kippur is also called in Hebrew, Yom Teruah, ``The Day of the 
Sounding of the Shofar'' In the ancient past trumpet sound called the 
people together to repent sins, to forsake evil and to pursue goodness 
and mercy. One of the most important observances of this holiday is 
hearing the repeated trumpeting sound of the Shofar in the synagogue.
  For most Jews the call of the Shofar is a reminder of their rich 
heritage, the centuries in a Diaspora when they had nothing but their 
Holy Book and their liturgy. The call of the Shofar reminds Jews they 
survived the Roman Empire which burned their Holy Temple twice and 
drove them to exile; survived expulsion from Spain, survived pogroms, 
poverty and restrictive regulations in Russia and Eastern Europe and 
even survived the Nazi ``final solution, genocide the murder of their 
men, women and their babies; survived to have a Jewish Country and 
flag. In all that time and through all those trials, the Jews of the 
world have kept their Holy Days. Their Holy Book is unchanged from the 
day they took it into exile. The Jews have lived now to hear the Shofar 
blown in Israel as it was before the Diaspora. The liturgy has remained 
as it was in ancient times, but in the last century prayers and 
remembrances have been added for the victims of the Holocaust.
  The words of the Kaddish are a hymn that praises God. It is a public 
declaration of the Jewish belief that God is Great and Holy and it 
envisions a time when Peace will be established on earth. One form of 
the prayer says ``may He who makes peace in heaven, make peace for 
us.''
  On the High Holy Days, the Days of Awe of 2005, I join with my Jewish 
friends and wish peace for us.

                          ____________________