Please Forgive Us (1993)

BBC: Rosh Hashanah 5754

On teshuvah and the spiritual drama of the Jewish New Year.

Watch Rabbi Sacks’ Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 1993.

Look at me. Look at us. Look at what we’ve tried to do together. Together we’ve done something none of us could do alone. We’ve formed communities, we’ve rescued people from loneliness, we’ve built schools and charities and welfare institutions, where we gave back to others something of what You gave us. We’ve looked unto the face if the stranger and saw You, the image of God.

As individuals we know how small we are. But collectively we’re part of something great. Therefore God, I don’t ask You to forgive me, but forgive us. And grant us the strength wherever we gather together in Your Name, to give to others and thereby bring You out from the secret places of the soul into the public places of our common life.