Rabbi
Doniel Staum, LMSW
Rabbi,
Kehillat New Hempstead
Social
Worker, Yeshiva Bais Hachinuch/Ashar
STAM
TORAH
YOM
KIPPUR 5773[1]
“UNADULTERATED
SUBJUGATION”
A woman once approached Rabbi Yosef
Dov Soloveitchik zt’l and told him that she wanted to begin wearing tzitzis in
order to feel more spiritual and closer to G-d.
Rabbi Soloveitchik replied that growth is
achieved incrementally. Therefore, she should first begin wearing the four
cornered tzitzis cloak without the strings for a few weeks and then report back
to him.
After a few weeks she returned and reported
that she indeed felt holier and was now ready to achieve the full tzitzis
experience by inserting the strings.
Rabbi Soloveitchik replied, “The only thing
you accomplished over the last few weeks is that if you were a man you would
have transgressed a Biblical prohibition by wearing a four cornered cloak
without tzitzis. Apparently, you don’t really know what spirituality is.
Perhaps you would be better off fulfilling those mitzvos that are incumbent
upon you for that is the real path to spirituality.”
The very words “Kol Nidrei” evoke very
distinct mental images in our minds. The shul cloaked in a sea of angelic white
and the chazzan chanting the hauntingly penetrating ancient tune of Kol Nidrei.
It is a prayer so powerful that the night derives its title from it - ‘Kol
Nidrei night’. There is no dearth of stories of straying or unaffiliated
Jews who have returned to their faith because they were so shaken and moved by
the sanctity of Kol Nidrei.
Yet, Kol Nidrei is no more than a
declaration of an annulment of our vows. It is nothing more than a public
repetition of the prayer we recited individually Erev Rosh Hashanah. What then,
is the awesome significance of the Kol Nidrei prayer and why is it the
introduction to the awesome day of Yom Kippur?
Before Kol Nidrei it is customary to
recite Tefillas Zaka, a penetrating prayer expressing our deep remorse for all
of the sins we committed. At its conclusion we add the Viduy d’Rabbeinu Nissim Gaon. One segment of the viduy states, “I
have been lenient in that which You were stringent and stringent where You were
lenient; I have permitted that which You prohibited and I have prohibited that
which You permitted.” It is understandable why we need to confess inappropriate
leniencies but what is wrong with being stringent and overly cautious?
All of the karbonos offered on Yom
Kippur came to atone for tumas Mikdash
uk’doshov (defiling the temple). While it is true that defiling the temple
is a serious offense punishable by Kares, one would think that there are more
egregious sins that the korbanos of Yom Kippur should atone for, such as
idolatry or immorality. What is the significance of tumas mikdash on Yom Kippur?
When the Torah records the laws and
guidelines for the unique service performed by the Kohain Gadol on Yom Kippur,
it begins by stating that these laws were taught, “Acharei mos shenei b’nai Aharon- After the death of the two sons of
Aharon.” The Torah is drawing our attention to an obvious connection between
the tragic death of Aharon’s two sons and the Yom Kippur service. What is the connection?
In order to understand the essence of
Yom Kippur we must comprehend what transpired during the initial Yom Kippur.
Moshe Rabbeinu ascended Har Sinai after the Torah was given on Shavuos and
remained there for forty days. On the seventeenth of Tammuz he descended, luchos
in hand, to find Klal Yisroel dancing around the golden calf. After pulverizing
the calf and exacting retribution from the perpetrators, Moshe re-ascended Har
Sinai to plead the nation’s case before G-d. On Yom Kippur, after being
promised that G-d would forgive them, Moshe returned.
Although they surely had
rationalizations and justifications for their actions, the Golden Calf was a
form of blatant idolatry.
Chazal say that there can be two motives
for idolatry. A Jew who is frustrated by the restriction and rigorous daily
demands of the Torah may turn to idolatry simply as a pretext to indulge in
forbidden pleasures[2].
While this form of idolatry is a serious breach of faith, it is not as egregious
as the second idol-worshipper who does so out of mistaken ideology. This Jew
who falsely concludes that there is another power besides G-d, has committed a
far more spiritually damaging sin. The former idolater knows in his heart that his
actions are wrong and therefore there is hope that he will eventually repent.
The latter idolater however, is convinced that his idolatry is correct. In his
search for spiritual fulfillment he has mistaken ersatz spiritualism for true
G-dliness. It is far more difficult for one to repent when he is convinced of
the veracity of his ways.
When Moshe Rabbeniu first descended Har
Sinai and saw the Golden Calf he was unsure which classification of idolatry it
stemmed from. But when he saw that they were dancing and rejoicing over it he
understood that it was the more egregious form of idolatry. Only one who feels
justified in his actions would espouse them and rejoice wholeheartedly. That is
why the verse[3]
states, “And it was when he (Moshe) approached the camp and he saw the calf and
the dancing, and Moshe’s anger flared; he cast the luchos from his hands
and shattered them at the foot of the mountain”. It was only when Moshe saw the
dancing that he shattered the luchos because that proved to Moshe the true
severity of their sin. The golden calf was not merely a hedonistic pretense for
sin, but it represented an erroneous understanding of their relationship with
G-d.
Therefore, when G-d forgave them on Yom
Kippur it was for that mistaken outlook. In other words, the root of Yom Kippur
is forgiveness for mistaken ideology and misunderstanding of true spirituality.
Nadav and Avihu, the great elite sons of
Aharon, who were worthy to become the successors of Moshe and Aharon, did not
sin with materialistic motives. Their error lay in their misconstruing Divine
service by adding unwarranted incense.
Their death is therefore the perfect
introduction for the Yom Kippur service. The korbanos of Yom Kippur do not
atone for hedonistic and materialistic sins because that is not at the core and
essence of the day. One who is immersed in carnal pleasures has hope of
repenting on his own accord. Rather, Yom Kippur atones for false impressions of
spirituality and mistaken modalities in serving G-d.
This is also why we must confess for being
overly stringent. If one does not follow the dictates of the Torah and lives a
lifestyle beyond the parameters of the Torah - even by being more stringent -
he has lost touch with what Judaism really is. An extreme example of this concept
would be one who decides to keep a second Shabbos each week on Tuesday. Not
only does his Tuesday observance not add to his Shabbos observance but he has
diminished his regular Shabbos observance too. By adding to Shabbos he has
demonstrated that he observes Shabbos according to his dictates, and therefore
even the Shabbos he does keep is not a testament of his belief in G-d.
The Gemara[4]
compares one who makes a vow to one who constructs a bamah[5].
The Ran explains that just as a person who erects a bamah is deluding himself
into thinking that he is accomplishing something of value by adding more altars
and sacrifices than the Torah requires, so too someone who vows to adhere to
self imposed restrictions and believes he is doing something meritorious by
adding to the Torah.
There is no prayer more appropriate to
commence the solemn day of repentance than a prayer which declares the
annulment of all vows. On Yom Kippur we reaffirm ourselves to G-d’s will as
the Torah commands. Repentance implies complete self abnegation to the Torah.
Our own opinions are nullified before that sole truth. Kol Nidrei serves as the
introduction of Yom Kippur because it sets that tone.
We live in a world that seeks
fulfillment and spirituality. Our society is a testament that fame, glamour,
wealth and paparazzi cannot sooth the inner call of the soul yearning for
fulfillment and growth. Yom Kippur’s message is that the only way a Jew can achieve
fulfillment is by living according to the Torah.
It is vital that we understand that holiness
is not translated by our definitions and how we envision it. As an example, it
is late Yom Kippur and the day is waning. A man is in the back of shul feeling feeble
and dizzy. He approaches the Rabbi and says that he can either fast or pray but
he cannot do both. We may not think that lying in bed at the crescendo of the
holy day is worth much, but that is what the Rabbi would tell him to do. The
main mitzvah of Yom Kippur is to fast even if it means at the sacrifice of
davening.
So many Jews, even Torah Jews, delude
themselves into thinking that they can become “spiritual” and “holy” based on
their own agenda. Yom Kippur reminds us that holiness results from adhering to
the Torah, and nothing else. It is a day of atonement for our ‘sticking our
nose into G-d’s business’, i.e. by thinking we can improve and add to His work.
It is only when we have accepted G-d’s word as unyielding and true that we can
appreciate and bask in the genuine embrace of G-d and His holiness in the
Succah during our festival of joy[6].
“After the death of the two sons of
Aharon”
“I have prohibited that which You
permitted”
[1] Stam Torah on Yom Kippur is lovingly dedicated to the
memory of R’ Alexander ben Nutah Yitzchak z’l, Mr. Sender Mermelstein a’h, who
was niftar, “B’ays ni’elas sha’ar” 1980/5740. Yehi zichro baruch!
[2] The
Gemarah Sanehdrin 63a states that, “Klal Yisroel only worshipped idols to
permit themselves to indulge in immorality.”
[3] Shemos
32:19
[4] Nedarim
22a
[5] A
private altar outside the Bais Hamikdash
[6]
This idea was gleaned from an essay in Time Pieces by Rabbi Aharon
Lopiansky (Targum Press, 1995), a collection of penetrating essays on the
Jewish year.
_______________________________________________________________________________
“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Yom Kippur
9 Tishrei 5773/September 25, 2012
It’s never a good thing when your vacuum cleaner, not only stops cleaning the floor, but also begins regurgitating what it previously suctioned.
That’s exactly what happened in the Staum house Erev Shabbos last week. So with
no recourse I surgically opened the bowels of the machine to try to
figure out what had gone wrong. The bag wasn’t full and the main part of
the machine seemed fine. So, my dear Watson, I surmised that there was obviously something wrong with the hose.
We (yes we, I had to call Chani in for backup…) realized that somebody (somebody to whom we pay money to clean our home!) had vacuumed up something big which had now wedged itself inside the hose, completely obscuring the air suction. The anonymous perpetrator herself brought the problem to my attention the next time she tried to use the machine.
We finally realized that it was a makeup brush that was stuck inside the hose. Now I don’t really know what a make-up brush is for, but I do know that it’s big enough to render our vacuum cleaner ineffective. Logic would dictate that if it was able to get in it should be able to come out, but thus far we have been unable to pry it out. (Sweeping the carpet is annoying…)
You
may be thinking that I’m going to use this anecdote to emphasize that
Yom Kippur is a day to ‘makeup’ and rebuild relationships that have
become ‘stuck’. There is definitely truth in that observation, but I
have a different point in mind.
Every morning we declare before our Creator that ‘the soul that You have placed inside of me is pure.’ Our
soul is a piece of divinity, an untouchable spark of holiness embedded
in the core of our essence. When one performs mitzvos and acts in
accordance with the Torah that spark becomes strengthened and we are
further drawn to Torah and mitzvos like a spiritual magnet. We pine for
even greater spiritual accomplishment and connection.
When we sin and do not act properly on the other hand, that connection becomes enervated and we start to feel spiritually numb. There is an empty sense of disconnect, like a barrier has been erected between us and what we intellectually know is right. But unlike our
vacuum which became completely blocked and totally ineffective, Chazal
tell us that the spark within us never becomes extinguished. The plug
never falls out and the connection is never
completely severed. Dimmed and numbed – yes, but always glowing beneath
the muck and grime of our hindering foolish actions.
The
great gift of Yom Kippur which Hashem grants us with love is an
opportunity to clean the hose and – with proper repentance – instantly
clear the channels so that the spark within us can again glow to its
full capacity and draw us into its hypnotic spiritual embrace. Metaphorically, we need only to open the mechanism so that Yom Kippur itself will yank out the hindering debris, so that we can again feel the spiritual draw of our soul.
Forget Orrick, Hoover, and Electrolux. The joy and purity of Yom Kippur is the greatest cleanser of them all.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
G’mar Chasima Tova,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum
720 Union Road • New Hempstead, NY 10977 • (845) 362-2425
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