Do the gates of heaven open for ten days? Are you suppossed to ask for forgiveness for those you've done wrong to? Am I confusing it with another holiday,lol?

for 10 days between Rosh hashana and yom Kippur - also the month preceding Rosh hashana is a good time for asking for forgiveness. Also even up to the end of the next set of holidays ...I'll try to post more tomorrow when i'm coherent. This time between RH and YK is called the Aseret Yemei Tshuva.

hey mama. Whenever I'm asked to explain a holiday or something major (I'm a messianic btw) I point to these pages

http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday2.htm
http://www.torah.org/learning/yomtov/roshhashanah/survival2.html

I think they have basic, understandable information about the holydays and alot more

double post

Thanks mamas!

But I have another question. Do you have to approach people in person (if possible) that you've wronged and ask for forgiveness? Yikes!

I do.
I called my sister. I acknowledged the pain I caused her 15 years ago when our mother was dying. I told her that although I can't say I'd have done anything differently, I know that my choices affected her and hurt her - and I apologized for that. I asked her forgiveness. It wasn't easy, but its what needed to happen (per a sermon I had heard, per the scripture and I felt on this holiday it was the time to do it)

She told me she "appreciated that".

She never did forgive me . But thats ok - all I can do is ask for forgiveness, acknowledge my actions and how they affect others and go and sin no more.

anyway, wow -didn't mean to hijack or whatever. But yes - I approach people in person when possible. Via phone or email if not possible to see them in person. In letters when the person is already too far out of my life to contact (or deceased) yet I still need to ask for forgiveness.

We believe that you need to ask man for forgiveness before you ask G-d. There are 3 levels of 'tshuva' which loosely translated means forgiveness: man to himself(acknowledging you did something wrong - owning it), man to man, and man to G-d. Each level is necessary to go through the process of tshuva.