The Gift

Yom Kippur. What does it evoke for you?  It’s safe to say that most Jews have strong feelings about it. There are so many emotions that I hear expressed when I speak to people about this holy day.  For some it's “A day of awe,” a day of fasting, prayer, Teshuva (repentance) and beating our chests. For others it’s nostalgia and childhood memories. 

One word I rarely hear, that deeply resonates with me, is “gift.”  While we do deny ourselves some physical needs on Yom Kippur such as eating, drinking, bathing, wearing leather shoes and more, it is not a sad day like Tisha B’Av, when we mourn the destruction of our Holy Temple. 

Rather than lamenting our sins, negative actions, and our “sorry state of existence,” we celebrate the wondrous annual opportunity  to  atone and receive forgiveness from Hashem. 

I heard a story about Rabbi Mendel Futerfas, the great Chassid who sacrificed everything to help Jews escape the Soviet Union, and subsequently spent years in a Siberian labor camp. He was a great Torah scholar and spiritual mentor to an entire generation. He was once talking to a group of young people about the meaning of Yom Kippur and the confessional prayer, Al Chet, which we say several times over the day, enumerating our many sins. 

How can we spend the holiest day of the year reliving our sins again and again, he asked. That doesn’t sound very uplifting!

But that’s not the point of Yom Kippur. The point, Rabbi Futerfas explains, is that we realize that we have sinned and have not properly fulfilled our purpose in life, and yet Hashem still gives us life and sustenance and countless other blessings. 

Then we say the confession again, this time marveling at all that Hashem has done for us even though we are lacking. By the end of the day, having repeated the process over and over, we feel so thankful and energized by all G-d does for us that we commit to a stronger connection to Hashem and the Torah. 

When we honestly acknowledge our shortcomings and commit to climb the ladder of observance and bring more meaning into our daily lives, we are assured that Hashem forgives us and we enter the new year with a clean slate. This is the gift of Yom Kippur, a day of great joy that Hashem gave us every year to refocus and start over. 

The more we prepare for Yom Kippur, the more meaningful the day will be. The days preceding the holiday are days of Teshuva and increasing our daily Mitzvah observance. They are a time to give more Tzedakah – the greatest Mitzvah of all which brings tremendous blessings and helps the Teshuva process. These last few days are also a time to fix broken relationships and ask forgiveness from those we have wronged. 

Greatest of all, it is a time of hope and trust that Hashem will shine his countenance upon us and seal us all for a year of great revealed blessings. 

Gmar Chatima Tova.