english – yom kippur
SHORTCUT TO FORGIVENESS
Not many hours lie between us and the sealing of our fate for the upcoming year. We cannot afford to waste time. This situation causes pressure for many of us. How are we going to complete our “teshuvah agenda” by Yom Kippur?
Our Rabbis teach that there is a kind of shortcut: .כל המעביר על מדותיו מעבירין לו על כל פשעיו Loosely translated, this means: If a person overlooks his natural tendencies (middot) and forgives those who have wronged him, G-d will overlook all of his sins (Rosh Hashanah 17a). G-d is willing to judge us the way we judge others. If we treat others strictly, that is how G-d will treat us as well. This is not a punishment. Rather, it is the most precise way of executing justice. Each person’s actions are judged in accordance with that person’s perception and standards. (Interestingly, this can result in a situation where two people with identical merits and sins get entirely different judgments.)
But it’s not quite that simple. As Rav Chaim Friedlander reminds us, this “shortcut” is not available to one who forgives those over whom he/she has no power. It is reserved for the person who has power over the one who wronged him – such as an employer or teacher vis-à-vis an employee or student – but grants forgiveness anyway. When a powerless person turns a blind eye to the one who has wronged him, this does not qualify as overlooking one’s natural tendencies. Allow me to elaborate.
Anger, for example, is a place where one’s middot (natural tendencies and character traits) are clearly visible. Why do we get angry? It usually stems from the feeling that someone stepped on us or our principles. And that is exactly how we are measured! How much we can forgive and how much can we overlook. This may be the reason why the word middot also means measures. Upon becoming angry one reveals where the limits of his/her endurance are. Through one’s middot one can reveal the limits of spiritual growth that can be achieved as well.
Taking control of our middot is so important because they not only led to our past misbehavior, but they also dictate how we will act in any given situation in the future. That is why we are judged on our middot on Yom Kippur, and that is why Hashem grants atonement to one who overcomes anger. Such a person has overcome his middot and essentially become a different person. For him or her, past misbehavior is no longer a sure indication of future misbehavior.
The Satan testifies on Yom Kippur that the Jews are angelic for overcoming anger and letting bygones be bygones. For if we can learn to understand and accept, we are displaying angelic behavior. We are no longer judged by the pettiness of our own “rules and regulations.”
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The days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are a time when G-d is especially close to us, and when it is easy to call out to Him: דרשו ה’ בהמצאו קראוהו בהיותו קרוב Where exactly do we find G-d? The Baal Shem Tov offers a Chassidic approach based on the passuk, שויתי ה’ לנגדי תמיד (I place G-d before me at all times). The termלנגדי (before me) can also mean opposite me. G-d is to be found opposite you, in your “opponent” – the person whom you feel is the hardest person in your life to deal with. G-d put the annoyance in your life to see how you deal with it. And He is right there taking notes.
This is the secret of the Selichot prayers and the repetition of the Thirteen Divine Attributes. The repetition is intended to help us internalize the awareness that the greatness of G-d lies in His finding a way to forgive us. Our obligation is to emulate Him and His Attributes of Mercy. As one Rabbi put it, G-d sends us annoyances to overlook so that we can understand His greatness in overlooking our sins.
This may be the secret of the mikveh as well. It is customary to immerse oneself in the mikveh on Erev Yom Kippur. There is an old saying: Although sadness is not a sin, it can take the person further from G-d than the worst sin. And there is a similar Chassidic saying about the mikveh. Although immersing oneself in the mikveh is not a mitzvah, it can bring one closer to G-d than the greatest mitzvah. The mikveh has the segulah to be able to help one refrain from anger. The numerical value of mikveh (מקוה) is 151, and is almost identical to the numerical value of כעס (anger). What is the connection?
The mikveh is a place where one purifies oneself, but this can only be achieved if one is entirely immersed in water. Any separation between the skin and the water disqualifies the immersion. According to Halachah, though, only something that one is particular about not being on the skin is considered a separation. On the symbolic level, then, the mikveh teaches a person not to get hung up or angry about the things that could cause division between himself and others. There is no separation: I am selfless. This is the shortcut to atonement on Yom Kippur.
YOM KIPPUR AND JIBEL MONTER
One day this summer, my boys and I went for a jeep ride in the JudeanDesert. Our driver/guide brought us to a mountain peak the Arabs call “Jibel Monter” (Mt. Monter). We got out, and the guide pointed to Mt.Scopusin the distance. He said that, according to many, we were standing on the very mountain so central to the avodah of Yom Kippur – the mountain from which the goat was flipped backwards to “Azazel” during Temple times. It was a clear day, and I turned to see the magnificent view of Jerusalem, and turned again to the jagged cliff below. As I looked down the cliff and then up to see the other mountains that tower over the beautiful view of the Dead Sea, I could not keep my eyes off the drop. I wondered out loud to our guide: “Wouldn’t this place be a great place for zip lining or bungee jumping?” I could just see the advertisement: Face Satan, and jump off Azazel Peak! The guide quickly put this wild idea to rest. He told me that even non-religious people feel some type of trepidation regarding this mountain, and would not use this serious place for entertainment.
I proceeded to ask our guide if this spot attracts tourists. He replied, ironically, “In a few weeks, the summer break starts for the chareidi community. This becomes a busy tourist stop for all the jeeps in this area of the desert. Every fifteen minutes, there is another minyan out here for minchah.” In the meantime, though, we were the only people in sight. I took another breath as an eerie feeling crept through my bones.
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The Rambam writes that inTempletimes, the goat sent to Azazel serves as an atonement for all our sins including the intentional ones – even sins punishable by death. To atone for the gravest sins, one needs repentance as well, but for the lighter sins, only the goat is needed. No sacrifice brought in theTemplehas the power to atone for intentional sins as does the power of the Azazel goat.
What is the idea of tossing the goat who lost the lottery down the cliff to smithereens? Indeed, what is the origin of the name “Azazel”? If it is a name of Satan, as some commentators explain, isn’t there a prohibition against bringing a sacrifice to Satan? How can this purify us from our sins?
As I stood there, these questions ran through my mind. As you will see from the sampling below, our Torah commentators, both past and present, have addressed these questions. R’ Shimshon Pincus zt”l, for example, emphasizes that we should not understand that the goat was meant as a “present” or “bribe” to Satan (or Evil Inclination). Once you give this character a finger, he takes the entire hand. The concept of Azazel is entirely different. According to the Zohar (Emor) and the Midrash (Toldot), Azazel, Satan, and Esav are related. Sending the goat to Azazel is meant as a statement that the Evil Inclination and Esav’s ways caused us to sin. We do not want anything to do with them. The Beis Halevi (Drush 3) writes that we are symbolically giving Esav a bit of our merits on Yom Kippur as payment for using and benefiting from his material world (given to him by Yitzchak). G-d converts this payment into all the riches and power that Esav gets each year. Symbolically, we are declaring that the world-to-come has supreme value in our eyes, and that this world is just temporary. This alone atones for all our sins.
During the year, we sometimes commit sins that we feel are a reflection of the real “us” – as if the sinful act is part of our nature or DNA. This is a terrible mistake! It’s almost as if we were to look in a mirror with a massive wart drawn on it, and say, “I hate the way I look.” Although we may have caused the problem, we are not the problem. Some people get so mad at themselves that they want to break the mirror. But, of course, that does not help either. We will always be stuck with who we are. Some people would prefer to move to another mirror, and be happy to see that the wart is gone. Clearly, though, the best approach is to wipe the mirror clean. And this was achieved through the goat of Azazel and the special power of Yom Kippur. On this day, by separating from worldly things and acting like angels, we try to show G-d that this is actually our true identity and nature all year long.
The blood of the goat is closest in color to that of human blood. (That is why Yosef’s brothers showed their father Yosef’s coat dipped in goat blood when they wanted to convince him that the boy had been killed by an animal.) This can help us understand the symbolism of using two similar goats in the Yom Kippur avodah. Despite their outward similarity, the goats went in two completely different directions: one sent to the wilderness of Azazel and the other sacrificed to G-d on the Altar in the Temple. Symbolically, we are demonstrating that a distinction and separation is possible for us as well. If we will direct our thoughts and fully align ourselves with HaShem, then the sinful part of our being and personality can be sent away as if it were not part of us. Even if it looked as if G-d’s priorities were not at the top of our list, this was due to the influence that Esav put in the world. As the Sages so eloquently put it: “Master of the Universe! It is well known to You that our will is to do Yours, but what is stopping us is the leaven in the dough and the nations.” ריבון העולמים, גלוי וידוע לפניך שברצוננו לעשות רצונך, ומי מעכב? שאור שבעיסה ושעבוד מלכויות (Berachot 17a). Our natural, true identity is לשם “for G-d.”
IN LOVING MEMORY OF REUVEN BEN SARA AND CHANA BAT CHENYA
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