(UNDATED) Many companies shut down for an annual inventory and an honest evaluation of past performance. The idea is to detect, correct and avoid future errors. It’s the same theme of the upcoming Jewish High Holy Days: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year that begins on Sept. 18, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, that begins on Sept. 27.

The holidays require a “Heshbon Ha-Nefesh,” Hebrew for “Inventory of the Soul.” It’s a self examination of one’s recent deeds, combined with fervent prayers seeking atonement for the transgressions of the past year. Central to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is the quest for the inner strength needed to alter errant behavior.

Because the biblically-mandated High Holy Days represent universal spiritual values, I will be repenting not only for my own sins, but also for two religious bodies that need to atone for activities I consider both shameful and sinful.

The first group is Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., led by the Rev. Fred Phelps. Despite its small size, the fringe church claims it has conducted 41,000 picketing demonstrations in 650 American cities since 1991.

The church’s lengthy list of targets includes gays, members of our armed forces, AIDS victims, Mormons, Hindus, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Catholics, Protestants who do allow same-sex unions, Jews, Billy Graham, and even the victims of the 2006 Sago, W.V., coal mine disaster.

Why the dead miners? Their underground tragedy was God’s revenge against an America that tolerates homosexuality, Phelps says. And why Billy Graham? Phelps’ church charges the 90-year-old evangelist is a “Hell-bound false prophet” because he does not share the belief that “God Hates Fags,” a basic tenet of the Westboro Church.

And the Jews? Phelps declared: “Jews, thus perverted, out of all proportion to their numbers, energize the militant sodomite agenda. … Jews are the real Nazis.”

Especially egregious is Westboro’s picketing of military funerals. One horrific example took place in July 2005, when the group protested the Boise, Idaho, funeral of 19 year-old Carrie French, who was killed in Iraq. Said Phelps at the time: “Our attitude toward what’s happening with the war is (that) the Lord is punishing this evil nation for abandoning all moral imperatives that are worth a dime.”

Phelps and his obscene band have also picketed the Marine training base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where they chanted: “One, two, three four, God hates the Marine Corps.” The group has carried placards that say “Thank God for 9/11” and “Thank God for IEDS,” the roadside bombs used against U.S. forces in Iraq.

It’s no wonder that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have labeled Phelps’ church a “hate group.” In addition, Westboro faces a host of lawsuits seeking either to prevent or curtail some of their picketing, especially their disgraceful behavior at military funerals.

The second group in my High Holy Day prayers is the Rev. Ken Pagano of Louisville, Ky., and his New Bethel Assemblies of God church. In June, Pagano’s church hosted an “open carry celebration” in which people were invited to come to New Bethel with their unloaded weapons as a visible show of support for the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms) and a weapon-loving macho Christianity. About 200 people attended the event that, in Pagano’s words, brought together “God and firearms.”

Thankfully, there was sharp public opposition to the event from other Christian leaders and an interfaith coalition. Pagano’s dangerous linking of weapons and God is another sign of America’s grotesque love affair with guns. It also reflects the panic some people face in rapid demographic change (fewer whites, more Hispanics and an African-American president) and a nearly paralyzed political system that abhors change.

I have faith God will hear my prayers that seek authentic change in my own behavior. I only hope those prayers reach Phelps and Pagano as well.

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)