God’s compassion seems to be conditional. Is ours?

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, begins on the evening of October 1.

In the Yom Kippur liturgy, God’s compassion is mentioned dozens of times. Implicitly, as we review the year past and commit to the year ahead, we are urged to emulate that compassion.

In the story of the Hebrew Bible, God engages in some actions that don’t seem on their face compassionate. God kills Aaron’s sons Nadav and Abihu for a minor ritual infraction. Moses is denied the outcome he worked his life for, as God taunts him by showing him the promised land he will never be allowed to reach. Job suffers miserably as a result of a bet between God and Satan.

Is God’s version of compassion too esoteric for us to understand? The character Job literally gives up trying to understand God, saying simply “It’s a mystery to me”. Or is conditional compassion the easier way for us, since a more constant and impartial compassion is difficult, going against our reflexive self-important human traits and passions—the very same ones we spend Yom Kippur trying to renounce.

This Yom Kippur, we might think a little less about God’s compassion, and much more about our own.