Yom Kippur: Bringing Our Highest Connection to Hashem into the Entire Year
By Rabbi Shimon Raichik
I would like to wish everyone a Kasiva uGmar Chasima Tovah and an easy fast. May all of our prayers be answered for a good sweet year with the geula and blessed with every letter of the aleph beis.
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year. We stay in shul throughout the day and daven five prayers which correspond to the five parts of the neshama. On Yom Kippur the highest level of the neshama, yechidah, how a Jew is one with Hashem is revealed.
On a day like Yom Kippur one would think that the most important priority of the day is davening, which emphasizes the feeling of the neshama. As the day progresses we reveal deeper and deeper levels of the neshama and its power to reach a level beyond all limitation. Once the neshama reaches this level we become cleansed, as it says “Lifnei Hashem ti’taharu, In front of Hashem you shall be cleansed”. Since the highest level of the neshama is revealed we elicit a purity from even higher than Hashem’s name Havaya.
The entire theme of the day would not seem to place a priority on the needs of the body. Nevertheless we see that halacha states that if a person's effort in davening would cause weakness that would lead to needing to break the fast it's better to lie down in bed than pray because fasting is the essential priority. Why is fasting which is a physical thing more important than the feelings and connection of the neshama prayer? It would seem more appropriate to allow someone to drink if they need to pray.
We see another similar question about the Kohen Gadol after Yom Kippur. The Rambam in the halachos of Yom Kippur says that after Yom Kippur the Kohen Gadol went home and made a festive meal with his family and friends. The Rambam is a sefer of halacha not of stories. Therefore the Kohen Gadol’s schedule after Yom Kippur was not said to tell us a story but to teach us something important. What is that lesson?
Also in the Tur Shulchan Aruch it states that a heavenly voice went out in the evening after Yom Kippur saying (based on a pasuk); “Go and eat with joy your bread, Hashem has accepted your prayers.” Why was there a need for a heavenly voice to come down below and make this announcement after Yom Kippur?
The most striking question of all is with regard to the Kohen Gadol when he left the Kodesh HaKodashim on Yom Kippur after making the incense offering. This was the highest and most spiritual moment of Yom Kippur, the most holy day of the year by the most holy person acting on behalf of the entire Jewish people in the holiest of places. On his way out he offered a short prayer including the following requests: “The coming year should be a year of dew and rain if it is hot and dry, a year of plenty, a year in which all your people of the house of Israel will not be dependent for their livelihood upon another nor upon any other people. It should be a year that the House of David should continue. At the time of rain the prayers of travelers should not come before you.”
The entire prayer is talking about rain, making a good income and similar such things. Why was there no mention about the holiness and spirituality of that special moment?
The point is that physical and spiritual things are not two separate avenues of life rather they are part of a greater whole. On one hand we need to separate from crass physicality and raise ourselves to a lofty level of spirituality on Yom Kippur in order to become close, connected and one with Hashem. On the other hand the Torah teaches us that the spiritual connection and closeness we achieve needs to penetrate, integrate and become absorbed into the physical body in order to fulfill the purpose for which we were created.
This is why fasting on Yom Kippur which involves the body is of such great importance, even outweighing prayer so that we stop praying if necessary so as not to break the fast. This is also why the Rambam writes in a halacha that the Kohen Gadol went home for a festive meal after Yom Kippur, after seven days of separation and having achieved the highest spiritual level. This is because the purpose of every spiritual pursuit is to bring spirituality and sanctity into our homes and into mundane affairs after Yom Kippur and throughout the year. This is also why the heavenly voice announces after Yom Kippur to the Jewish people to eat with joy because Hashem has accepted their prayers.
We also now understand the reason for the Kohen Gadol’s prayer on his way out of the Kodesh HaKodashim. This because the ultimate goal is to bring the highest spiritual level, our absolute connection and oneness with Hashem into physical mundane activities after Yom Kippur and throughout the rest of the year.
The Rebbe said that this is the reason that the Previous Rebbe was particular to wash on bread and make a seudah after Yom Kippur.
May the inspiration of Yom Kippur carry over into the evening after and the entire year. May our requests that this year be a year of light, bracha, geula, Torah, tefilla, teshuva and techiyas hameisim be completely fulfilled with the coming of Moshiach this year.
(Adapted from the Letters and Sichos of the Rebbe)