Rosh Hashanah poses a question that is at once deeply personal and profoundly communal: Can we change?

The holiday’s prayers and our selichot insist that we can. We are not prisoners of habit, reputation, or past mistakes. Yet the Torah reading that ushers us toward the new year adds another dimension to teshuvah. Recently we read in parashat Nitzavim: “You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God, the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers – all the men of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 29:9) On the last day of his life, Moses convenes the people and then identifies every segment of society: leaders, women, children, strangers, and laborers.

Why does the Torah add “all of you”? The covenant is not entrusted only to leaders. Every person stands before God, and everyone bears responsibility for the community.

The Kli Yakar explains that this covenant established the principle of mutual responsibility. Before this moment, someone might have witnessed another going astray and concluded, “That is not my concern.” A covenantal community cannot live that way. We are not only responsible for our own conduct, but also accountable for helping........

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