Today and tomorrow Obama is hosting and trying to launch a new round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The timeliness of this new opportunity is noteworthy coming just before Rosh HaShanah, during Ramadan, and this sacred season of introspection, forgiveness and acts of reconciliation for both peoples.

For these peace talks to succeed we would need a miraculous intervention. I don't mean intervention from G!d or even from Obama. The intervention needed is actually an inner-vention, when leaders can examine their hearts, find it within themselves to listen deeply to the other, and discover the immense responsibility they have to their citizens. As insecure as these leaders are, as stuck as they are in their own political realities, they can, if they do inner-vention, rise to a higher place and a new reality for the Middle East.

For those of you reading this in time, there will be a Peace Vigil at Lafayette Park across from the White House September 1 between 6 and 8 PM. I would attend but have meetings tonight. Ari Roth from Theatre J will be leading peace songs with friends from the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities.

The thought of inner-vention leading to Teshuvah, is also for us. Each of us is expected to wrestle with ourselves, to admit lackings, take ownership for estranged relations, apologize, seek forgiveness. Not an easy assignment, but necessary for growth. And sometimes an apology doesn't work. Our sages teach that if you offer a sincere apology three times and it is not received and you are not forgiven, you are off the hook. No guilt.

Our tradition teaches the world can't survive without forgiveness. The world also can't survive without inner-vention. It is this inner work that will link the hearts of Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Muslims, the poor and the rich, and the young and the old.

Welcome 5771!

~Reb David

To read more of Reb David's commentary, please click here.