It's said that one day a rabbi told a visiting wealthy miser to look out the window and asked him, "What do you see?"

The rich man said, "People."

The rabbi then led him to a mirror and asked, "What do you see?"

Reply: "Now I see myself."

The rabbi then told the rich man: "In the window there is glass and in the mirror there is glass. But the glass of the mirror is covered with a little silver, and no sooner is the silver added than you cease to see others but only see yourself."

That bit of Russian folk wisdom is among 300 selections in "Yom Kippur Readings: Inspiration, Information, Contemplation" (Jewish Lights), edited by Dov Peretz Elkins, rabbi emeritus of the Jewish Center in Princeton, N.J.

For Jews, the period between the two biblically mandated High Holy Days, Rosh Hashana (New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), is designed for spiritual and moral self-examination.

Elkins' thought-provoking and varied collection will help foster that process (and may interest Christians as well).

The 170 writers include ancient and medieval sages (including Maimonides), storytellers (Sholom Aleichem), poets, modern non-rabbis (Albert Einstein) and rabbis (Abraham Joshua Heschel, Abraham Isaac Kook) and even a few Gentiles (Leo Tolstoy, Marian Wright Edelman).

Theologians say the weekly Sabbath is Judaism's central festival, and Elkins agrees with that in principle but says Yom Kippur "holds the most special place in the mind and imagination of the average Jew."

These solemn 25 hours have "the potential to be confusing and empty of spirituality for many who attend out of obligation, custom, family pressure or other nonreligious reasons," Elkins says. He hopes these readings will provide explanations, meaning and a deeper level of intimacy with God.

Laying groundwork, Rabbi Peter Tarlow of the Hillel center at the University of Texas at Austin writes that the daylong fast without food or water is never easy. But harder yet is the requirement "to examine the totality of one's life," to forgive others and to receive forgiveness — but only for "those who sincerely desire to recognize their errors, to repeat, to change their ways and to begin again."

Rabbi Arthur Green of Hebrew College, Boston, says the Talmud teaches that "the purification of Yom Kippur is effective only for transgressions against God. Sins against our fellow person require that person's forgiveness." Thus it's customary for Jews to ask forgiveness of one another before or during Yom Kippur.

Self-examination is complex and subtle.

Rambam, the 12th-century sage, said repentance doesn't involve just major sins such as theft but evil dispositions, for example "a hot temper, hatred, jealousy, quarreling, scoffing, eager pursuit of wealth or honors, greediness in eating."

Or consider this: France's one-time hero Marshall Petain came to accommodate Nazi tyranny. Gen. Charles de Gaulle said of his treason: "The years had gnawed away at his character." The same way, writes Michigan's Rabbi Morris Adler, "we have strength enough to resist the large temptations. The little hypocrisies, the minor duplicities are a different matter."

A listing of sins of violence by Rabbi Daniel Jezer of Dewitt, N.Y., extends beyond physical assaults to social complicity: emptying mental hospitals without providing services to those prone to violence; not adequately addressing child abuse, which perpetuates the cycle; and allowing children to watch an average 8,000 violent acts on TV during elementary years.

Sins of the tongue "strike at the core of the kind of world Judaism is trying to establish," advises Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson of the University of Judaism. Among examples so widespread we barely notice them: "Speaking and thinking ill of another person, construing their actions in the worst possible way, gossiping and spreading rumors which harm the reputation of another person."

Rabbi Irving Greenberg reflects that as he matured, the Yom Kippur transaction became "not just turning from sins but rather becoming a full human being. ... The issue was not just misdeeds, therefore, but mediocrity."

ROSH HASHANA SERVICES

CHABAD OF HAWAII

Ala Moana Hotel, 410 Atkinson Drive 735-8161.

Rosh Hashana services: evening service, 6:45 p.m. Monday (candle lighting at 5:57 p.m.); morning service, 10 a.m. Tuesday; evening service, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (candle lighting at 6:49 p.m.); morning service, 10 a.m. Wednesday.

TIKVAT YISRAEL (FORMERLY KEHILAT HINELECH), MESSIANIC CONGREGATION

Waikiki Community Center chapel. 236-0440.

Rosh Hashana services: evening service, 7-9:30 p.m. Monday; morning service, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

MAUI MITZVAH CENTER

Pa'ia Community Center. (808) 249-8770.

Rosh Hashana services: evening service, 7 p.m. Monday; morning service, 10 a.m. Tuesday; Shofar Sounding, noon Tuesday; evening service, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday; morning service, 10 a.m. Wednesday.

CONGREGATIONS OF MA'ARAV, CONSERVATIVE

2500 Pali Highway 373-3742.

Rosh Hashana services: evening service, 8-10 p.m. Monday; morning service, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday; morning service, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday.