We teach that only God has the right to judge us and during the 10 days of repentance, we ask God to judge us mercifully.
While aboard ship, we do not wait for Yom Kippur to pass judgement.
I watched a captain try to follow in God's footsteps.
When someone has gotten into enough trouble, they go to Captain's Mast (Non Judicial Punishment).
It is there that their fate is decided. Do they stay in the Navy? Do they get demoted? Sent to the brig for three days with only water and bread?
When the captain pronounced judgement, he tempered it with mercy.
Several times I heard him say that the sailor was demoted in rank but the sentence was suspended.
He told them what perhaps they could not see for themselves - that they matter.
I will remember, as hopefully they will, the captain of the most powerful carrier in the world tell them that they are smart, they are leaders and are filled with potential.
He is giving them an opportunity to repent, trusting them to do the right thing.
He is taking a chance on them and the captain does not give everyone the chance to prove his faith in them correctly.
The captain made the NJP a sacred space.
The ever present God made God's presence felt through the captain as a merciful judge upon his people.
We should all be so lucky.
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