Following up on our Yom Kippur prayers – opinion

I’ve been in business looking for new clients for most of the last 60 years of my life, from my days in Chicago to the last 40 years here in Israel. I’ve learned that the two most important words in sales are “follow up.”

You know the drill. You meet a prospect, discuss their needs, talk about how your company can address those needs, and, on the way out, you say, “I’ll get back to you shortly.” So far, so good. But, in order to make the sale, in order to turn the opportunity into something concrete, it is all about follow-up. An email that night to say thank you for the meeting, a proposal within 72 hours to show you really want the business, and continual follow-up afterward until you make the sale or are told, “Not this time, thanks.”

The prayers and commitments that we made in the synagogue on Yom Kippur are also lacking in value without follow-up. But once the fast is over, after we have sated ourselves with a joyful meal, we go back to our daily lives, maybe remembering those commitments for a short while, until… We don’t follow up any longer. But is there a reminder device or an app that we can use to do just that? Something that reminds us to follow up?

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, in his sermon on the eve of Yom Kippur at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York, asked the congregation what was the most important verse in the Torah. All of us can come up with answers, but Rabbi Hirsch noted that during the discussion at the time, it was Rabbi Shimon Ben Pazi, an Amora of the third generation (about 4,000 years ago), who said that in his opinion, the most important biblical verse is found in Exodus 29:38, where it says, “This is what you are to offer on the Altar: Two year-old lambs each and every day, one lamb in the morning and the second lamb at evening.”

Imagine! Of all the admonitions in the Torah, the sages thought this was the most important actuating verse. Not do not murder, not do not steal, not honor your father and your mother, none of those. The sages deliberated and, according to the midrash, agreed that “this is the Halacha.” This is the law that must be followed. How come?

The importance of following up

Because this verse is actually the “app” that monitors our follow-up after Yom Kippur: Whatever commitment we made, we need to act on it morning and evening, every day.

If we promised to be more caring about our families, we need to demonstrate that every day, morning and evening. If we promised to be more charitable, we need to do that every day, morning and evening (it is easier to do if you attend synagogue twice a day, as there are always people there willing to accept charitable contributions). If you promised to treat your fellow human beings better than in the past, you have to consciously act on that morning and evening every day.

Amazing, is it not? And this has applications in the political sphere as well, of course. During the Yom Kippur liturgy, we recite the confessional 10 times in 24 hours, asking for absolution for the sins “we,” the community, committed, for which all of us are guilty.

No doubt, the traditionally observant politicians here said all of these with fervor and internally committed themselves to reforming their negative conduct in the coming year.

Hopefully, for example, the vitriol that passes now for comment by one member of the Knesset about another member with whom he or she disagrees will change in the new year. But to make that happen, each member of the Knesset needs to think every morning and every evening about what they are saying and try to make those words less demeaning and more the kind of communication that is empowering.

What a wonderful world it would be if all of us could put this into practice and live by it. It will be an uphill battle to keep pace, but challenges often bring out the best in people. Winston Churchill once said: “It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.” Why not start today?

The writer has lived in Israel for 40 years and is the founder and chair of Atid EDI Ltd., an international business development consultancy. He is also the founder and chair of the American State Offices Association, a former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, and a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.