tagged: self • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ https://opensiddur.org/tagged/self/ a community-grown, libre Open Access archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources Tue, 15 Sep 2026 05:59:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Open-Siddur-Project-Logo-2015-5509b4bdv1_site_icon-250x250.png tagged: self • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ https://opensiddur.org/tagged/self/ 32 32 Repentance (CCAR 1951) https://opensiddur.org/prayers/lunisolar/days-of-judgement-new-year-days/yom-kippur/repentance-ccar-1951/ https://opensiddur.org/prayers/lunisolar/days-of-judgement-new-year-days/yom-kippur/repentance-ccar-1951/#respond Mon, 16 Mar 2026 21:51:05 +0000 https://opensiddur.org/?p=66646 Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), p. 200. It is one of only three new prayers found in this section (the others having been reprinted from CCAR's 1923 collection of teḥinot). ]]> Contribute a translation Source (English)
How easy to blame on human nature
our personal failure to measure up
to the standards we set for ourselves.
How easy to excuse,
to justify or simplify
to say we are sorry
and consider the matter closed.
The discipline of our faith
bids us to keep forever working
at self-improvement.
It accepts neither the fatalism of those who believe
that the environment determines everything
nor the fatalism of those who claim
that early childhood experiences
mould the personality in an iron cast.
Judaism teaches that personality is fluid,
that it can be changed
not only by new situations and new stimuli
but even more by inner resolution
growing out of new insight and understanding.
This insight often comes to one
who considers his way of life
in the light of God’s countenance,
that is, in the light of those values and directives
which generations of men have held so sacred
as to be of God.
Our prophets often pleaded with our fathers
to seek God and live;
to return from their compromises and backslidings
and know the mature happiness and profound satisfaction
of loyalty to His commandments.
May their pleas find a willing response
in our hearts.
Amen.

“Repentance” is the thirty-sixth prayer in the “Meditations” section of the Union Home Prayer Book (CCAR 1951), p. 200. It is one of only three new prayers found in this section (the others having been reprinted from CCAR’s 1923 collection of teḥinot). Unfortunately, as with so many of the prayers published as a result of CCAR committees from this period and earlier, we cannot yet attribute this prayer to any known author. (If you know, please leave a comment or contact us.)

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