Yom Kippur  10 Tishrei 5763, 16 September 2002

Shabbat Shalom: Yom Kippur
By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel - What is the essential significance of Yom Kippur- especially since it doesn't seem to fit within the general universal theme of our Fall festivals. After all, the Jewish calendar is divided into two holiday periods: The Spring Passover- Shavuot season, which highlights the birth of the Jewish nation and our religio-legal heritage of Torah, and the Fall Rosh Hashana- Yom Kippur- Sukkot season, which emphasizes the creation of the world and the sacred character of all of nature as well of the seventy Gentile nations.

But Yom Kippur, the very center-piece of this period right in-between the Rosh Hashana vision of "perfecting the world under the Kingship of G-d" and the Sukkot waving of the four species of nature's bounty in all directions of the compass, seems to focus in on the very nationalistic purification of Israel and our narrowly religious rituals of the Holy Temple sacrifice. Why does Yom Kippur shift our attention from universalism to particularism?

I believe that the answer is to be found in the curious Torah reading of Rosh Hashana, the very beginning of our Festival period. One would expect us to celebrate the anniversary of the creation of the world by publicly reading the first verses of Genesis, which majestically describe the first primordial week of creation. Indeed, the yearly cycle of Torah portion is nearing its end anyway with the advent of Rosh Hashana, so that it would be in complete accord with the pattern of the portions to celebrate our New Year by intoning, "In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Instead we turn to the birth of Isaac on the first day of Rosh Hashana, and the binding of Isaac on the second. Why? What's the connection?

I believe that the Jewish message is most profound. The vision of Rosh Hashana is that we must perfect the imperfect (Latin, incomplete) world created by G-d, that we must accept responsibility as G-d's partners to "cause all the wicked of the earth to turn to ethical monotheism." But one begins perfecting the world by perfection of oneself; one re-creates the world by creating one's private world, one's family.

Yes, Rosh Hashana invokes the "macro" by praying for the time when "every creature will know that You (the G-d of love and compassion) created it, and every formed being will understand that you formed it." But the "macro" is comprised of many "micros"; re-create the world by re-creating yourself, re-direct the world by re-directing your family- towards the G-dly ideals of loving-Kindness, truth and peace. Indeed, on this very Sabbath of Repentance we invoke the figure of Elijah the Prophet, herald of redemption, declaring that his most awesome challenge and greatest accomplishment will be "to turn the hearts of the parents to the children and the hearts of the children to the parents." If the Chinese taught that the longest march begins with the first mile, Rosh Hashana - Judaism teaches that perfection of world begins with perfection of one specific family!

It is told that a devoted disciple of Rav Yisrael Salanter, founder of the Ethicist (Mussar) Movement in Judaism, told his teacher of his desire to leave Lithuania and spread the ideals of perfecting one's ethical characteristics to the Jewish community in Berlin. "Are all of the people so perfect in our town of Salant that you can afford to go off to Germany? And are the people on your block so perfect that you can afford to teach in another part of town? Are the members of your family so deeply involved with ethicism that you can begin to preach to strangers? Are you yourself so morally and ethically developed that you can allow yourself to motivate others?" The message is hopefully indubitably clear: universal perfection must begin with personal and familial re-creation.

The second day's Torah reading, the binding of Isaac, continues this theme. Mount Moriah, the scene of the binding, is our Temple Mount, the most sacred locus in the Jewish tradition. Mount Moriah- even more than Mount Sinai. Although the Torah was given on Mount Sinai, Moses ascended that mountain alone; Abraham ascended Mount Moriah with his son Isaac, making it a familial rather than an individual experience. Moreover, G-d gave the Israelites the gift of Torah on Mount Sinai; Abraham and Isaac were willing to present G-d with a sacrifice on Mount Sinai. There can be no re-creation, there can be no perfection, without the willingness to sacrifice!

Rosh Hashana provides the universal vision, and its Torah reading explains the steps we must take to get there: sacrificially dedicating oneself and one's family to the ideals of ethical monotheism.

Yom Kippur is the Rosh Hashana Torah reading applied in practice. The individual retreats for a twenty- four hour period from the maelstrom- and majestic macrocosm- of the world around him. He understands that often by retreating we advance, by stepping back we step forward. He devotes a complete day to personal introspection and self-creation. As G-d revealed to Abraham and Isaac, when He demanded that Abraham not trick his son or do him any harm, the most profound sacrifice lies in living for G-d rather than in dying by His name. And so we fast on Yom Kippur, mindful that by so doing we all become veritable Isaacs, in accordance with the words of Rav Sheshet. After a fast: "Master of the Universe, at the time of the Holy Temple, a sinner would bring a sacrifice- by offering on the altar the fat and blood of the animal- and would be forgiven. Now I have fasted, and some of my fat and blood have been offered up to You. May this be accepted as though I had offered myself before You on the Temple Altar. Please accept me" (B. T. Brachot 17a).

Hopefully, Yom Kippur enables the individual to re-create himself in dedication to G-d's will. As the day nears close, we read the Book of Jonah - reminding us of our obligation to then reach out to the world, even to our enemies like Assyria, and teach them G-d's will. And if the Day of Forgiveness has succeeded, we are ready to confront the world of nature and nations on the festival of Sukkot, prepared to sanctify every aspect of creation and cosmos to the glory of the G-d of love and peace.

Shabbat Shalom.

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