Rabbi's Sermons

Shabbat shalom!

I will begin with three short stories:

When I lived in Mexico, I had a good friend who used to tell me about all his adventures, which occasionally included moral transgressions: with his clients, with his manager, even with his wife. When I asked him about the conscience or morality issues, he always answered, that in his church, prior to Mass on weekends, he could confess to the priest, repeat certain prayers, and the whole problem was solved. I explained that the Jews cannot confess to a priest, and that once a year in Yom Kippur, we make a public declaration in the morning service, by saying specific prayers. I also explained him, that according to our theology, God does not automatically forgives everything, but only those transgressions committed by people to God.

He replied: "Ok in the end, you follow the same principle: if there is a sin against God, you wait for Yom Kippur and God always forgives you, doesn't He?" “How would I know?” I replied and explained that at the beginning of Yom Kippur, the most important day of the year, we read a section from the Mishnah, that reminds us about the natural tendency of each person to acquire precisely this routine, because if anyone says: “I will sin and repent”, this would not be enough to have Teshuvah. Same happens to the one who says “I will sin and in Yom Kippur I will receive forgiveness”, in Yom Kippur, he would not be forgiven! Sins between man and God are forgiven by Yom Kippur, but the sins between man and his fellowman, God does not forgive them in Yom Kippur until he reconciles with his neighbor.

"Ok, but in the end," - my friend insisted - "even if you had eaten the cheeseburger that I invited you, there is still a very easy option to atone for your sins! – During that terrible day of fasting... that it turns out not to be so terrible in the end". At that moment, I ran out of appropriate answers, beyond the classical sources from the Talmud and the Midrashim, because something inside of me told me, that it couldn't be the answer. Behind the apparent and even simple way of reaching Yom Kippur and purifying ourselves, there must be a much more important truth and message.

My second story happened 2,000 years ago, during the times of the Second Temple, where a fascinating debate occurred in the house of Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, the story appears in the Midrash Bamidbar Rabba 19 as follows:

“A gentile asked Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zakkai: Those things that you do look like some witchcraft. You bring a red cow, burn it completely, take its ashes, and mix them with water. Then you use that mix when someone becomes impure by touching a dead person. You drop a few drops of that mysterious mix and you declare that the person is pure!

- Rabbi Yochanan replied: Has a spirit ever entered in your body?

- The gentile replied: No!

- Rabbi Yochanan replied: Have you ever seen someone who has a spirit in the body?

- The gentile replied: Yes! Yes indeed!

- Rabbi Yochanan replied: And what do you do then?

- The gentile replied: We bring grass roots, and we smoke them under him, and we hit him with water and the spirit comes out!

- Rabbi Yochanan replied: I wish your ears could hear what your mouth says! The same goes for the spirit of impurity! As it is written in the prophet Zechariah 13:2 - ‘And I will also cut off the prophets and the spirit of filth from the earth’. So we throw the drops to the person and the spirit of filth comes out!

Once the gentile left, his students asked him: Rabbi, you told this simple story to that gentile... What are you going to tell us?

- Rabbi Yochanan replied: For God's sake! Don’t you understand? Neither the dead creates impurity nor the waters purify! But the Holy One Blessed Be He said: ‘Laws I have created, and decrees I have decreed’ You cannot violate (or put on trial) my decrees as it is written in the book of Numbers 19:2 - "This is the ordinance of the law". No questions asked...

My third and last story happened at home. My daughter Noa once asked me: “Aba, why does God want us to fast on Yom Kippur if it is so difficult not to eat for the whole day?” I replied: “Because it is written in the Torah Leviticus 23:27 - ‘Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls’” and fasting is one of the ways to afflict my body, and consequently, my soul”. She insisted: "And why should the soul be afflicted?" I replied: “Because it is also written on Leviticus 16:30, that when I afflict my soul: ‘on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins’. In simple words, at the end of this important day, God will forgive all my sins before Him”.

My daughter left the room, then my son Liel who was there said: “That was a nice explanation for a nine year old girl, but how the sages concluded that ‘afflicting the soul’ is precisely the prohibitions of food and drink, bath, use of ointments, sexual relations and even the use of leather objects!”. I replied: “That is because the word עינוי INUI (‘affliction’ in Hebrew) appears 5 times in the Torah: 4 times in the book of Leviticus (twice on Chapter 23, and twice on Chapter 16) and once in the book of Numbers 29. Regarding food and drink it was something instituted by the rabbis of the Talmud in Yomá 74b”.

My son left completely unconvinced. Then Noa’s mother told me: “That was an interesting explanation to a nine year old girl and a very detailed one to a 17 year old teenager... but what will you explain to me? I heard you explaining that God is compassionate and merciful, and always forgives us for our sins year after year. You have also said that God does not really seek sacrifices or unintentional prayers, as you quoted from Isaiah 1: ‘¹⁵ And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear’. I also heard you explaining what truly is what God wants from us from the same chapter: ‘¹⁶ Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes. Cease to do evil, ¹⁷ learn to do well. Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless, plead for the widow’. And regarding fasting, did you not tell me that Isaiah 58 says: ‘⁶ Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? ⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?—when you see the naked, cover him, and not to hide thyself from your own flesh?’. You told me THAT was the true fast, didn’t you?”

I replied: “For God's sake! Yom Kippur is not the only day during which we may ask for forgiveness! Every morning, in the blessing of the Amidá we say: ‘Forgive us that we have sinned…’ and why do pray this every morning? Rabbi Eliezer said: ‘Repent a day before your death’ and his students asked him, but Rabbi, do you really know the day of your death?”

That is why Rabbi Eliezer's words teach us, that the true path is not having to pray in Yom Kippur, but to be able to reach a level when, despite knowing that you can sin, you will naturally avoid it! So you will never need to ask for forgiveness daily or even wait once a year for Yom Kippur! This day is not only the “day of atonement”, it is actually the “day of potential” potential that each one of us have, to reach the level that Rabbi Eliezer explained about, in the construction of a better, more noble and ethical world. Yom Kippur is not a day when we use our hands to hit our chest, but using both hands to take full responsibility for our future actions in the development of a more just and moral society, for a better life for us personally, within our families, in the American society and throughout the world!

And, regarding the fast... well... it has been a tradition after all. However, let us not understand it as an affliction, but as an opportunity to hear our soul and spirit, to avoid being involved in physiological needs, but in the spiritual ones. This is a continuous day of prayer and meditation, of letting our thoughts go freely; it is a day of introspection.

I wish our prayers may rise high and reach heavens. May the God who is within us, grant us a “Chatima tova – good signature”, to fulfill our dreams, to live and enjoy new opportunities to become spiritually higher, having a better life and peace.

May the Eternal grant us a Chatima Tova,

Gmar Chatima Tova and Shana Tova… or Tova Yoter.

Shabat Shalom!, Chatimat Shalom and an BETTER new year, Amen!

Rabbi David Laor

October 11^th 2024