Out of all the holidays Judaism has to offer it has always puzzled me why people seem to choose to observe Yom Kippur, which is in all honesty the most solemn and serious day of the year.
We ask God to forgive us for things we may have done, we fast, dont wash, dont wear leather shoes, dont have sex, and dont wear perfumes as a form of repentance a way of asking for forgiveness. Dont people know about Simchat Torah or Purim? Why is there this almost Catholic like desire to ask for forgiveness we even beat our hearts, and prostrate ourselves before God. Have we all really been that bad?
Ive been told by some that I shouldnt make people think or question tradition, but then I am reminded of the famous questions of Passover, Ma Nishtana
Why is this night different to all other nights? that its part of Traditional Judaism to question to think about what it is your doing, and perhaps even ask why? (the real question is to what extent you allow these questions to alter your actual practice, and that might arguably depend on if youre a pnimi or a chitzon, a real human being or a fake?) And if people are happy with not asking questions, if people are happy swallowing the same stuff every year, then thats great for them, and Id encourage them to continue, and I hope that if you are one of those, then whatever I say or share with you will not have any effect, and that you remain steadfast to whatever it is you believe.
However, how can I continue to offer new insights into Traditional Judaism, if it risks, alienating not only myself but the people who may be influenced by what I write? The answer is simple, we all have to take mature responsibility for our own lives, I dont believe that I or anyone can really influence another person, but rather people want to be, or allow themselves to be influenced, this means that whatever it is that I or anyone says, is only as important as you want it to be, if you feel that it challenges or reaffirms your tradition then thats exactly what it does, not because of the nature of the material itself, but rather, because it is what, you want it to be.
So seen maturely there is no one to blame for whatever issues you might feel this raises, but only deep self reflection, why does this stuff have any effect at all (if it does?) the question seems so much more poignant as we have just come to the end of Yom Kippur, a time set for self reflection, a time to take responsibilities for your OWN actions, a time to maturely analyze who you are and where you want to be going, etc.
So I found myself asking a Passover question on Sunday night the eve of Yom Kippur, why is tonight any different from any other day of the week, its a question I ask myself almost every Friday night ever Saturday afternoon, and almost every religious holiday, fast or festival. Whats the difference? A fast today or have a fancy meal? Does the ground I walk on know theres a difference? Does the air I breathe know that today is different? Does the earth itself recognise that today is any holier than a Tuesday? What is holy? And why do I even care? Do I care? Is there a connection between Passover and Yom Kippur? And Im back to my original question, whats the big deal with Yom Kippur?!
Our God in Heaven!- it seems was mentioned every other verse! But what difference do my or your actions make to a God that is in Heaven? Surely what would be more important would be thinking about how we were to both ourselves and with other people? Surely the Torah is not in heaven? Surely whatever Judaism wants from us, is meant for this earth, for you and me, for an attempt and making Heaven on Earth?
So the Day of Judgement, came and went, are we any different? Do we really have to wait for that once a year to become better human beings? Perhaps if we look a bit deeper into it, we might get a glimpse at an answer, perhaps not THE answer, but one that I will hope make you think a little, perhaps even question how you celebrate this day next year.
Yom Kippur is also called the Sabbath of Sabbaths, it is, believe it or not actually a holiday, if you were to eat, you would have to say Yaley v Yavo and in the Messianic Era, it will actually be a Feast Day! and Not a Fast Day! (which gives a whole new meaning to dropping an E) yet is traditionally understood as being a day of repentance, some commentaries say that the day is so holy that the day itself wipes out all your previous sins and gives you a new slate, that you dont actually have to do anything. It is called the Holiest day of the year, when in ancient times the High Priest/Cohen Gadol would enter the Holy of Holies see and commune with the Divine Presence, and if he would make it out alive, pronounce the unutterable name of God in front of the Jewish people. It is a day when there would be a chance choice between two identical goats a lottery of sorts, to decide which would live and be looked after, and which would be pushed off a cliff and dies a horrific death. This all seems far off and quite a strange Yom Kippur, than the one we celebrate now days.
But with all this talk of repentance and sacrifices have we all forgotten what its all about? We can talk of rituals and ethics all day; we can beat our hearts and starve ourselves, we can go to synagogue and bore ourselves silly, but does that really make you a better person, in your own estimation or in the eyes of your fellow Man or even those of God?
Surely making yourself feel guilty about who you are, your actions, thoughts and what you might have said, is all great and well if youre ever going to really change, but what if you cant? then your change will ultimately only be a superficial thing, the next time someone steps on your toe, or your ego, the difference may only be in the time it takes you to react, (because youve made a resolution to count to ten before reacting) but not in who you really are. You cant change yourself, if you only have the same stuff to work with as you did have before, you can rearrange the pile of stuff, but that doesnt mean that anything has really changed, youve only changed the outer garments of your self, and who you are remains intact. But who really wants to change anyways?
Most people secretly love themselves as they are and wouldnt want to change anything for the world! (The problem is that its a secret, its probably a secret to the person themselves, and they are hiding from this secret, unaware that, if they would only embrace it then, and only then would any real personal growth take place). But still people beat themselves up; punish themselves via either going to synagogue or not going. Oh I should really change. Blarr
blarr
blarr
(Yadda
yadda
yadda
)
I would suggest that there might be something else going on here something much deeper, much more profound something that might actually help you enjoy this day however you choose to celebrate it.
Some of us spend hours in synagogue, praying, repenting etc, to a God that on the whole we know nothing of, and have no experience of. And that in itself is the problem; Yom Kippur just seems to magnify the issue rather than resolving it. The way I see it, the main problem with Judaism today is that it has forgotten all about God! I mean its almost a Four Letter word! (YHVH?!?) even in communities that call themselves religious it seems more about seeming to keep up with the Jones/the Goldbergs. It has more to do with the type of clothes you wear than the kind of person you are. Let alone even dare talk about God! If you dont have the right kind of stuff on, if you beard isnt according to the latest religious trend, then,
Im sorry whatever you say about God is simply wrong! You are just a shnip! What do you know about God? God is in Heaven! We cant know anything about God! Etc
etc
etc
Yet it is this Empty inheritance that we are supposed to be proud of and to pass on to our children? A hollow bunch of rituals all tied up with, when you are supposed to stand up and sit down, and mumbling a whole lot of words? That most have forgotten the meaning of if they ever knew them to begin with! Doing lots of stuff, that we cant really make sense of
youve just got to do it! Just do it!
and you wonder why religious people dont talk about God, its because people dont care about God, because they dont care about themselves and they dont care about anybody else. God is something abstract, an idea, an ideal, but ultimately is something we dont talk about. It seems the whole practical Judaism is base the verse Shema Yisrael
the Lord our God the Lord is One, and yet no one seems to pay much attention to what that all really means. They would rather spend huge amounts of money of the stuff it says to do afterwards
because its probably much easier to buy stuff and do stuff than to seriously think about what it is your doing with your life and the nature of God and reality.
Our God in Heaven- that phrase that seems quite prevalent on Yom Kippur, seem to sum up most of our attitude to God, God is in Heaven, and Thank God! God is not part of our lives, definitely not part of our normal life, and for some not even part of their religious lives, Heaven therefore seems a great place for God. And the feelings attached seem to be and Let Him stay there!
But perhaps there could be another reason why we petition Our God in Heaven on Yom Kippur? Maybe the phrase itself could shed some light, on this? God in Heaven, is probably about the closest phrase traditional Judaism is going to get to the idea of an Ultimate Transcendence and we petition the Ultimate to forgive us? What is that about? Why would a God in Heaven care? Ok, so thats the question. Lets investigate this a little more. The Hebrew word for repentance is Teshuva which could be seen as return to God literally Teshuv-Jah.
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman does a great job in summarizing this whole thing by saying:
Do not repent. Repentance means to stop being bad and to become good. Instead, return. Return to [your or the?] Essential Self
This we call Teshuva. (Bringing Heaven down to Earth: 365 meditations from the wisdom of the Rebbe
- acts of beauty number 244).
The question really is what does it mean to return to God? To get in touch with God? Firstly we have to ask what is God? And then we might be able to answer a few of the above mentioned questions.
Maimonides proposes that the first mitzvah is, to know that there is a God,
To know there is an original/first Being etc, and all beings/existences etc, do not exist/take up any space, but only from the True Existence.
This could mean to say that every fibre of existence is merely an extension or expression of God, but what is the nature of this existence? As far as I am aware, as the great formulators of Hassidic philosophy have thus far been able to surmise, the world does actually exist, but its existence is not separate from God, moreover, physical existence shares the quality of Being with that of God. God therefore would be an awareness of the Unity of All Existence which also includes something beyond, something transcendent. That experience would not exclude the world and for our discussion, it would primarily include You! So now I hope things are starting to make some sense?
Firstly Our God in Heaven, is not only about the closest phrase traditional Judaism is going to get to the idea of an Ultimate Transcendence but it is a personal experience, Our God and we petition that deepest and unknown part of ourselves to grant us forgiveness. Do you think God has to be asked to forgive us? The reason why people spend so long torturing themselves over Yom Kippur, is because they are trying to convince themselves that they are forgiven, because forgiveness starts within you.
Touching that deepest part of you, that inner peace that awe, will make you whole, it will ignite our lives with a different perspective, to remind us not to be cynical, bitter and jaded, but rather to wonder in its unknown splendor. And it is only if you get in touch with this, will you be able to effect any real change in yourself. Thus if you do the world is a magical place, where almost anything is possible, the famous prayer Hear Oh Israel the Lord our God the Lord is One pretty much spells it out, God is One. So to return to God is really to attempt to get in touch with The Holy One, a sense of Oneness, perhaps a realisation of the Underlying Unity of the Universe. In this light the English word, atonement, can also be seen as At-One-ment, because it is not by petitioning God that we are forgiven but by becoming One with God, that we are selves realize that we are forgiven.
When one lets go of fear, and just relaxes then they can experience a type of inner peace and tranquility that is known as Shabbat, and that is why Teshuva which is primarily what Yom Kippur is about, has the same letters for teshuv also make the Hebrew word Shabbat, and Yom Kippur as mentioned is called the Sabbath of Sabbaths. Our God in Heaven really expresses the quintessential point of the sublime within ourselves, when we release our worldly worries and realise we are not separate from the All of Existence. So getting in touch with God is really getting in touch with ourselves.
Each of us enters our own personal Holy of Holies, we not only can become High Priests, as Maimonides explains not only the tribe of Levi, but each and every individual that gives his spirit etc, this is as holy as the Holy of Holies the place that the High priest stands but the temple is within our selves, we reach out and down into ourselves, to that part of Our God that is really beyond our mundane sins and transgressions, something so beyond that is has nothing to do with and is not at all connected with these issues of sin or bad, and does not consider them bad or as sins.
That part of us that Loves unconditionally, that accepts us for who we are and where we are. Here we commune with Gods Essence, with the Essence of all Existence, that is in effect beyond the definitions of right and wrong of good an evil, so to answer the question, the reason why we ask God in Heaven is particularly because at that level God really doesnt care, about our sins! To call out to God, is really an attempt to call out to that which is within us, that is the True God that can grant us forgiveness, for our sins and will count them as null and void, before Him, and before ourselves. At the end of our lives, and thus every moment of our lives, we are destined to come face to face with the reality of who we really are, the ultimate mirror, that is the King of Kings, the Holy One
within ourselves, Our God.
In the future to come the spirit of impurity will be wiped from the face of the earth, and there will be no more sin, Yom Kippur will be a feast, because everyone will realize they have within them a Holy of Holies, that they are High Priests, where every day will be Shabbat, and that they are indeed beyond any issues of sin or transgression, we will be able to commune with God particularly by being in and enjoying the physical world, with a physical meal, perhaps even eating the leviathan and the behemoth.
If we are honest with ourselves, and trust that we are indeed fine as we are, that we as we are, are not only loved and accepted by God and therefore by All Existence, but our very experience of Being is actually an experience of God, then we can release our fears, and when we trust the process of Life then God/Life/Love and all its hidden mysteries will open to us, and we will become High Priests of our own lives, we will forever walk in the Holy of Holies, and our lives will be called a Shabbat, and every meal will be that of the Leviathan and Behemoth.