{"id":58269,"date":"2025-10-03T14:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T14:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/?p=58269"},"modified":"2025-10-03T14:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T14:58:06","slug":"yom-kippur-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/yom-kippur-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Yom Kippur Focus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This Yom Kippur, in addition to our loved ones, we will certainly have the captives (the <em>chatufim<\/em>), the\u00a0<em>chayalim<\/em>, and their families in mind, as well as all the wounded.\u00a0 Each of us will undoubtedly have many other individuals and needs in mind as well.<\/p>\n<p>Let us remember to beg Hashem pleadingly for the vast majority of our brothers and sisters, many of whom are currently unable to ask for themselves.\u00a0 This is the only request that, in our daily\u00a0<em>Shemoneh Esrei<\/em>, Hashem Himself expressly states that He desires.\u00a0 Let us storm the heavens for our beloved Father and for the majority of His children who are disconnected right now, to return to their loving Father Who desires and awaits their return.<\/p>\n<p>The first\u00a0<em>Avinu Malkeinu<\/em>\u00a0we say responsively, repeating after the\u00a0<em>chazan<\/em>, is asking Hashem to cause\u00a0<strong>our<\/strong>\u00a0(ALL of us) complete return to Him.\u00a0 Unfortunately, my experience is that we tend to sleep through that\u00a0<em>Avinu Malkeinu<\/em>\u00a0and wake up with a loud and energized\u00a0<em>\u201cSh\u2019lach r\u2019fuah sh\u2019leimah<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 While health is crucially important, it is only important in this world.\u00a0 What is even more crucial and urgent is that we and all of our brothers and sisters return to Hashem, because that is for eternity \u2013 forever and forever.<\/p>\n<p>Why do we\u00a0<em>daven<\/em>\u00a0so hard for others who are in need of healing and for the return of the captives, which we absolutely should continue to do, and yet be so nonchalant and passive about\u00a0<em>davening<\/em>\u00a0for the eternity of others? \u00a0Perhaps, eternity is not as real to us as it should be.\u00a0 For if it was, we would be belting out the loudest, most intense and emotional\u00a0<em>\u201cAvinu Malkeinu hachazireinu<\/em>\u2026\u201d that would even overshadow the others.\u00a0 We would be emotionally invested in the\u00a0<em>brachah<\/em>\u00a0of\u00a0<em>\u201cHashiveinu\u201d<\/em>\u00a0in\u00a0<em>Shemoneh Esrei<\/em>, knowing it is the one desire expressed by Hashem, and it is by far the most important need of our brothers and sisters who are now distant in their feeling of connection to Hashem. \u00a0(In truth, they are really\u00a0<strong>not<\/strong>\u00a0distant, as we are all Hashem\u2019s children, regardless of what we do or don\u2019t do, and can never lose that title of child).<\/p>\n<p>It is also the most important need of every one of us, even those who currently feel connected with Hashem.\u00a0 We all want to deepen our connection and return completely to Hashem.\u00a0 So at least until after Yom Kippur, let us raise the bar high in our\u00a0<em>tefilos<\/em>\u00a0in\u00a0<em>Shemoneh Esrei<\/em>\u00a0and in\u00a0<em>Avinu Malkeinu<\/em>\u00a0specifically for what Hashem desires, and for what we and all of our brothers and sisters need more than anything else in the world:\u00a0<em>t\u2019shuvah sh\u2019leimah!!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>May Hashem return all of us to Him speedily and completely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Yom Kippur, in addition to our loved ones, we will certainly have the captives (the chatufim), the\u00a0chayalim, and their families in mind, as well as all the wounded.\u00a0 Each of us will undoubtedly have many other individuals and needs in mind as well. Let us remember to beg Hashem pleadingly for the vast majority [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133662,"featured_media":58271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[339],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yom-kippur"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Yom Kippur Focus - Jewish Holidays<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/holidays\/yom-kippur-focus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yom Kippur Focus - Jewish Holidays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This Yom Kippur, in addition to our loved ones, we will certainly have the captives (the chatufim), the\u00a0chayalim, and their families in mind, as well as all the wounded.\u00a0 Each of us will undoubtedly have many other individuals and needs in mind as well. 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