CAN PEOPLE change? Judaism's response: a resounding yes! It is this core belief that drives our concept of repentance in the High Holy Days.
Two major holidays make up the High Holy Day period. Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown Wednesday, celebrates the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur is our Day of Atonement. The two holidays, together with the days in between, comprise the Ten Days of Repentance. The Jewish community is preparing to delve into the difficult questions posed by the belief that we can change.
Toward the end of the High Holy Days, on Yom Kippur afternoon, we turn to an illustration of change in the Book of Jonah. In it, God dispatches the prophet to the city of Nineveh, and Jonah attempts to escape from God and from his purpose. When Jonah boards a ship, God casts a great wind upon the sea. Afraid for their lives, all of the sailors aboard the ship pray to their gods and cast the ship's cargo into the sea in order to make it lighter. What does Jonah do? He walks down into the hold of the vessel, where he takes a nap. This is Jonah's sin: He chooses to sleep rather than to live.