OCTOBER 10 • 2024 | 35

Dealing With Guilt
A

s a species and a society, we 
do not like feeling guilty. 
That twisting, crawling 
sense of shame and embarrassment, 
or failure, is one I expect most 
people try to avoid. Especially 
in our often-too-online lives, 
we are primed to respond 
defensively to any pushback or 
critique.
Rather than admitting that 
we’ve posted or commented 
something that lacked sen-
sitivity, we accuse our critics 
of being “oversensitive snow-
flakes” or may use any num-
ber of words ending in “ist” or 
“ism” to stake our moral high 
ground.
We invoke our right to free 
speech to excuse something we said, 
rather than confront the impact of 
our speech on others. We so abhor 
the guilt that comes with admitting 
that we screwed up, that we take 
harmful steps to avoid admitting it, 
sometimes by pretending the guilt is 
not ours at all. We look for a scape-
goat to bear the guilt and shame 
instead, rather than admitting that 
we’ve erred.
Luckily, Jewish tradition offers us 
a yearly framework for dealing with 
feelings of guilt and shame that relies 
on the strength of the community, 
rather than undermining it. 
Chapter 16 of the Book of Leviticus, 
which we read on Yom Kippur, lays 
out specific instructions for the elab-
orate (and bloody) rituals that the 
High Priest must perform to atone 
for himself, his household and the 
entire nation of Israel. At the center 

of this ritual is the original scapegoat, 
an animal chosen to bear the sins of 
the people as it is sent off into the 
wilderness.
This original ritual of the 
scapegoat differs in important 
ways from how so many avoid 
taking responsibility for their 
words and deeds today.
The scapegoat ritual demand-
ed that the High Priest himself 
make a public show of admitting 
his sins and seeking atonement 
for them. No one is allowed to 
hide from their sins, not even 
the High Priest. We reenact this 
moment, in the Avodah service, 
reciting the High Priest’s three 
confessions and bowing all the 
way to the ground. 
At various moments on Yom 
Kippur, we recite endless lists of sins 
in the Ashamnu and Al Chet. Like the 
High Priest, we stand amidst friends 
and family and recite our confessions 
to each other and to God, both for 
sins that we know are ours, and for 
those we have not ourselves commit-
ted. We normalize our feelings of guilt 
and bear it together as a community, 
able to focus on how we can do better 
next time. No one is exempt, but no 
one stands alone.
This Yom Kippur, I hope we can all 
find comfort and support together as 
we acknowledge and wash away the 
guilt of the year that is ending and 
look forward to being better in the 
year to come. 

Rebecca Strobehn is a Jewish studies 

instructor at Frankel Jewish Academy in West 

Bloomfield.

SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION

Rececca 
Strobehn

Parshat 

Yom Kippur: 

Leviticus 

16-:1-34; 

Numbers 

29:7-11; Isaiah 

57:14-58:14.

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