People Before G-d

How precious is a human being in the eyes of G-d!

Hashem cares more about how we treat our fellows than how we treat G-d. Aside from the salient examples of the Waters of Noah, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where G-d withheld punishment despite rampant idolatry, until humankind began to wrong each other, we also see how much G-d cares about the honor of human beings from the laws of teshuvah. For when a person wrongs G-d, one needs only to regret the action and resolve to correct it, and one is immediately accepted.


But when one wrongs a fellow human, one must beg one's fellow's forgiveness -- even repeatedly! And only then can one ask G-d for forgiveness.

I know I must have wronged many people over this past year, many times, and it would not be possible to enumerate them all. Please forgive me! And if this is not sufficient, please tell me how I can make it right!

"I hereby forgive anyone who may have angered me or harmed me or sinned against me, whether to myself, my property, my honor, or to anything else that is mine; whether it was unwillingly or willingly; whether accidental or intentional; whether in speech, whether in action; whether in this incarnation or in another incarnation.... Let no one suffer punishment because of me!" (Siddur, Bedtime Shema)

May you all be sealed for a good and sweet new year! Happy Yom Kippur!