Are You Seriously Singing? - R. Tzvi Sytner - TorahAnytime.com

Imagine a guy walks into court. It's a day of his sentencing. He walks up to the judge and he says, "Your honor, I'm guilty. I'm a traitor. I'm a thief. I gossiped. I murdered." You would look at the guy and be like, "Have you lost your mind?" It's one thing to stand up and say, "Your honor, I'm guilty." But to sing about it and here we are on Yumkipper. We all get up there and we go and we gossiped. Why are we singing? To be embarrassed. Whisper it to yourself. So I tell you like this. On one hand, the words that are coming out of our mouths are very serious. It's the process of chuva. We're admitting we have problems. We're admitting we have issues. We're regretting the things that we've done. We're accepting upon ourselves to never want to do it again ever. And that has to be real and that has to be taken very seriously. On the other hand, we're also in the process of coming back to Hashem. Chuva is returning to coming back to becoming the people that we know Hashem wants us to be. Come closely to Hashem again. Coming back to people that we want to be, that we know we can be. We're starting fresh. They're starting a new. That's something to sing about. For so many people, they approach him and they feel the sense of dread and it does have to be taken seriously because it's a serious day. On the other hand, it's also a new beginning. A chance with proper chuva, if done properly, to start a new and that is something to sing