A Thank-You Note to Hashem

To my beloved Father and King, may Your Holy Name be praised forever!

Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for the gift of Yom Kippur. I never cease to be amazed at the magnitude of Your kindness; You give us a day a year when You wipe our slates clean of all transgression. For the price of a day's fasting and repentance, You forgive us for everything! How can I begin to thank You?

Imagine that the President of Chase Manhattan declared a financial Yom Kippur, and declared that anyone who agreed to fast for a day and beg forgiveness for all their accumulated debts - no matter whether they swelled to hundreds of millions of dollars - would have all their debts erased and could receive a new line of credit. Unthinkable?!?

Wiping one sin off our soul is worth much more than any million-dollar debt cancellation. You're the greatest, Hashem; I'm so happy that You are my Father and my King.

Imagine one more thing; imagine that You withheld food and drink for 26 hours from a group of skinheaded rowdies, and then allowed them to eat and drink as much as they liked. How much beer would flow? How much would they stuff themselves? How well would they have behaved before they shattered both their fast and their skulls? We both know the answer...

Now look at Your Children of Israel; during the Neila prayer, after having fasted for over 24 hours already, they were praising Your Holy Name even more fervently than all day long. Once the fast was over, they had a quick coffee and piece of honey cake, ran to the Mikva, hurried to make the blessing of the New Moon, and then ran home to start building their Succas. Dearest Father, do you have any other nation on earth that can come to anywhere near to the dedication of Your Jewish children? We both know the answer to that, too. Therefore - with all our shortcomings - You can still seal all of us in Your Book of Long and Happy Life for a wonderful New Year 5772.

Thank You, beloved Tattie. Your loving son, Eliezer Raphael ben Chasia (Lazer)