5Turn us unto You, Adonai, that we may be turned. Renew our days as of old.
-Lamentations 5:21
This Shabbat is Shabbat Shuvah – The Shabbat that falls between Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur, in the midst of our High Holy Days. These are the ten days in which we
are on a higher spiritual plane – having begun our reflections of our deeds in the past
year and leading to a plea for atonement for the times we hurt others, hurt ourselves,
and fell short of the level of behavior we set out to attain at this time one year ago.
However, we are encouraged through prayer and the sayings of our sages not to
despair –we can improve ourselves and come closer to those ideals we strive to reach.
Eternal our God,
open our eyes that we may see the needs of others;
open our ears that we may hear their cries;
open our hearts so that they need not be without succor;
let us not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong,
nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich.
Show us where love and hope and faith are needed,
and use us to bring them to those places.
And so open our eyes and our ears
that this day we may be able to do some work of peace for You

Gmar Hatima Tova. May You be inscribed in the book of life for Good.
Rabbi Julia Margolis (Sourse: http://rj.org/wrj/)