I got a lot of homework done this weekend, though not as much as I had hoped. I was angry at myself, until I realized that the message of shabbat is that we are not work machines, but human beings who need to recharge, and who are entitled to time to relax.
Yom Kippur is a shabbat shabbaton, an ultra-Sabbath. Because if shabbat is a reminder to take time out of our week to focus on our spirituality, Yom Kippur is a chance for us to shape our entire year through the mold of spirituality. It is a chance for us to ask what we want from ourselves as human beings this year, irrespective of our careers or mundane obligations. It is a chance to look back on what we've done wrong and think of ways we can do things right next time around.
Most of all, it is a time to remember that our lives are in the hands of God. It is a chance to remember that the most important thing in our lives is our relationship with God, and that our acheivments, even in the secular realm, are not by the might of our hands, but by the help of God. This is also the lesson of Bikurim, first fruit offerings, where the farmer would bring their first fruits to the temple and acknowledge those fruits were not thanks to his hands, but thanks to God's blessings - because God performs miracles, as we say in shemoneh esrey, "at all times, evening and mornings and afternoons".
Have a chatima tovah.
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