|
|
April 25, 2003/Nisan 23 5763, Vol. 55, No. 35
Yom Kippur helps purify our souls
Torah study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Acharei Mot/Leviticus: 16:1-18:30
"For on this day atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you of all your sins; you shall be clean before the Lord." (Leviticus 16:30)
The major source for the fast known as Yom Kippur is found in this week's Torah portion of Acharei Mot.
It is fascinating to note that while Yom Kippur is the most ascetic day of the Hebrew calendar, wherein eating, drinking, bathing, sexual relations, bodily anointment and leather shoes are all forbidden, it is considered a joyous festival, even more joyous than the Sabbath. Rav Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev would say, "Even had the Torah not commanded me to fast, I would be too mournfully sad to eat on Tisha B'Av and I would be too excitedly joyous to eat on Yom Kippur."
From whence the excitement and the joy? Yom Kippur is our opportunity for a second chance. On Passover we celebrate our birth as a nation; on Yom Kippur we celebrate our rebirth as human beings. On Pesach we renew our homes by routing out the leavening that symbolizes our excess materialism; on Yom Kippur we renew our deeds and our personalities by means of repentance.
The repentance of spiritual purification is a two-step process, kapparah, forgiveness, and taharah, purification.
These two divine gifts correspond to the two stages of transgression. The first is a stain in the world as a result of an act of theft or hateful words. The second is a stain on the individual's soul as a result of impure motivation.
Rav Joseph Ber Soloveitchik believed that kapparah - paying back the theft or asking for forgiveness - removes the first stage. Taharah - the decision of the individual to change his personality and to be different to what it was before - removes the second.
Kapparah, paying the debt, is much easier to achieve than a reconstitution of personality. How does one pass the second phase, acquire requisite spiritual energy to be able to say, in the words of Maimonides, "I am not the same one who committed those improper actions." (Laws of Repentance 2,4)
I believe the answer is to be found in the manner in which we celebrate Yom Kippur. It is a day when we separate ourselves from our physical drives in order to free our spiritual selves to commune with God. Undoubtedly such a day spent almost exclusively in the company of God can be a transforming experience.
Even a brief encounter with a great spiritual individual can be life transforming. In 1973 I was lecturing in Miami Beach, Fla., on the life of Rav Yisrael Meir Kahan, known as the Hafetz Haim. I recounted the story that a teenage student in the Yeshiva of Radin had been caught smoking on the Sabbath and was about to leave the Yeshiva. The Hafetz Haim met with him for a few minutes and the student not only became observant but went on to become ordained by the Hafetz Haim.
When I concluded, an elderly gentleman in the audience came up to me visibly moved. "Where did you hear the story?" He asked. "It happened to me."
I couldn't help but ask what the Hafetz Haim said to him.
"I was about to leave the Yeshiva," the gentleman said. "All of my bags were packed. Then this great sage appeared out of nowhere and invited me to his home. Holding my hand, he looked into my eyes and said but one word: 'Shabbos.' He then began to weep. At that moment I felt deeply in my soul that there was nothing more important than the Sabbath, and this great Jew loved me, and that I wished to be ordained by him."
It is this kind of inspiration that Yom Kippur hopes to effectuate as we stand in God's presence for a full day.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the spiritual leader of Efrat, Israel.
|
