Hello everybody,
This was originally written on October 11, 2005. However, it is still relevant today and I hope gives you a fresh and more joyful perspective on what Yom Kippor is really about.
Well here it is, the evening before Yom Kippor. I wasn’t planning on writing anything for the day, but during yeshiva (a school for the study of Torah) today, as we talked about the day, I realized that I did have some thoughts I wanted to share…
People often consider Yom Kippor to be a day of dread and fear. Here we are afflicting ourselves by fasting, and not washing, and confessing, and hoping the whole day that haShem (god) will forgive us.
Well I don’t think of the day in such a fashion. The first reason I don’t is because the whole point of Yom Kippor is that haShem WILL forgive us. Back when we had the temple, they would hang a red thread on the wall and when the goat that is sent to Azazel was sent over the cliff, that thread would turn white and we would know that haShem had forgiven us.
Another reason I don’t dread the day is because of the word affliction. The root of the word can also mean, “to answer.” So the verse that reads, “You will afflict your souls,” can be read as, “You will answer to your souls.” What this means is that all year long our souls, the part of us that connects us to god, the part of us that really knows what we should be doing, has been telling us what we should have done all year. Now, on Yom Kippor, we are to take a day, removed from all our normal activities (including eating), and talk to our souls and answer our souls, telling our souls what we did. If we followed the guidance of our souls, the day is a joyous day. If we didn’t, then we need to tell our souls what happened. Either way, in the end, our souls don’t hold a grudge, and are ready to show us the best way for us to go in this world. I go into this a little in parsha (the weekly Torah portion) called Emor.
Rabbi Raz Hartman talked in yeshiva about Yom Kippor based on what the gemorah (the oral part of our family tradition, that has since been written down) says regarding it. He basically said that the word we normally translate as affliction (annui) cannot really mean affliction. Why? Well, the gemorah says that sitting in the hot sun is not considered annui, yet one could certainly say you were afflicting yourself by getting sunstroke. My understanding of what he said is that annui is about creating a sacred space in which haShem can come in and wash you, turning your sins into something clean and pure. It is done by not doing certain things like work or washing or eating. These things, aside from creating a space around us for a national purification, also creates a slight separation between body and soul in order to create a space for haShem to enter in and purify us. Why does god require this? I don’t know, it is one of the mysteries that has not been shared with me. The point is that by not doing, we are creating a vacated space for haShem to come in and do his thing. So, what happens when you do something like eat? Well, the process of eating and digestion must make one too busy, or brings our soul back into our body too much to create this sacred bubble of emptiness that is required for haShem to do her magic. The result is that your soul winds up outside the bubble and haShem can’t do his cleaning on you.
I hope this makes sense and makes it a little easier for you to get into the day and get the most out of the day. I know there is a lot more to say on the subject, but this is all I feel asked to share today.
Have a good Yom Kippor everybody,
About the Author
Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.