Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur

As we look at the Jewish calendar, specifically the months of Tishrei, it is interesting to note the way one holidays follows another. First, we have Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, celebrating and bringing in things anew. Next comes Yom Kippur, a day of atonement, a day of ultimate holiness within the Jewish calendar. What follows right after is Sukkot, a celebratory and family-centric holiday, and Simchat Torah, which is full of singing, dancing, and celebrating the Torah that was given to the Jewish people.

At first, they can seem like completely different holidays. While Yom Kippur is serious, quiet, and slightly jarring, Simchat Torah concludes the season with rowdiness and excitement. But when you look at them in chronological order, they tell a story about becoming a better person.

Yom Kippur is the day amongst the holiday season to stop, to reflect, and to take a step back. And then, to take a step forward. To connect, to repent, to simply talk to Hashem (Gd).

For most of the year, we are living in a fast-paced society. We have school, work, friends, homework, phones, and a million other things happening around us, keeping us busy and distracted. It can be hard to make time to reflect and get a bit introspective about who we want to be as people. Yom Kippur gives us a chance to do that.

On Yom Kippur, we are given a chance to look within ourselves honestly. Not the version of ourselves that everyone sees but rather the version that we really, truly are, the version that Gd sees that lives within us. It is the one time in the year that is dedicated to our mishaps, mistakes, and failures. It isn’t comfortable to face our bad moments but that is what makes Yom Kippur so meaningful.

Hashem (Gd) wants us to be raw and real with ourselves, to dig deep into the unrefined versions of us and vow to create change. He gives us the opportunity with Yom Kippur to do what we may not do unless we were really faced with an ultimatum of sorts — to be transcribed in the book of life or in the book of death. Gd does not want to instill fear but rather, He provokes our inner change with the knowledge of what Yom Kippur represents, which is Gd’s plan for us for the upcoming year. But, we know Gd to be loving and merciful. We know that most importantly, Yom Kippur is given to us and intended for us to simply just try.

We are not meant to be perfect, by any means, but instead, we are meant to try to perfect our inner weaknesses before Gd.

So we repent, we cry out, we beg and plead with Gd to show us mercy and then, to cure the fear hangover, we are given Sukkot. We go from tears of repentance to tears of joy, like Gd gives us figurative permission to go live.

He accepts our pleas on Yom Kippur. And then He encourages us to enjoy life. He encourages us to realize that as long as we have our family and friends, it doesn’t matter what our surroundings look like, even if the four walls around us don’t seem all that protective. Because on Sukkot, we sit in a Sukkah, a makeshift hut, to show Gd that we trust He will protect us in this new home we’ve created, with a poor foundation and lack of concrete construction. Even after reciting all of our wrongdoings on Yom Kippur, we show Gd that we trust Him merely a few days later to keep us safe in this outdoor home we’ve created. And that is the beauty of Yom Kippur.

We do not list our bad deeds to anger Gd but rather to show him we take accountability, we know we are not perfect, and that we vow to do better.

Simchat Torah, the last holiday of the Jewish holiday season, is when we end on a joyous note, the way Gd intended. Yom Kippur asks of us to reflect on the past but the holiday season doesn’t end with the auspicious fast day. We are not meant to stay stuck in the mistakes that we list before Gd on Yom Kippur, but rather we are encouraged to move forward, to seek joy, to celebrate and to give thanks in the holidays of Sukkot and Simchat Torah that follow.

It is a striking reminder that Gd is a forgiving, loving, and realistic Gd; that He understands our human nature to sin and our naturally flawed nature, but that we are not meant to let those mistakes define us. The holidays and the chronological order of them remind us that mistakes are merely the beginning of change, and  putting them behind us so that we can start over can be an act of true strength.

May this holiday season bring forth a profound newness to you, and yours. From Judaica.com, have an easy fast and a meaningful Yom Kippur!