SPIRIT
Yom Kippur: The Happiest Day of the Year
H
ow would you describe
Yom Kippur? A solemn
day? A day of prayer
and supplication? A day of absti-
nence? The Mishnah has a dif-
ferent description.
It says Yom Kippur
is a day of joy — in
fact, one of the
two happiest days
of the year. This
seems surprising to
say the least. Yom
Kippur is a day
spent praying and fasting and
generally putting aside the things
that bring us physical enjoyment.
The Talmud explains the
happiness and joy of the day is
because it’s a day of forgiveness
for our misdeeds, the opportuni-
ty to begin our lives afresh, free
from the mistakes and wrongdo-
ings of the past. It’s the miracu-
lous opportunity to go back and
change history … our history.
The Hebrew word for repen-
tance is teshuvah, which literally
means “return.
” Through teshu-
vah, we return to that pristine
state in which there was no dis-
tance or disconnect in our rela-
tionship with our Creator and
with our fellow human beings.
Of course, it doesn’t just
happen. Real repentance takes
heart-rending effort and appli-
cation. The Rambam, in his
Laws of Repentance (Laws of
Teshuvah, 2:2), defines the pro-
cess of repentance and sets out
its various components: regret-
ting the mistakes of the past,
desisting from that wrongdoing
in the present, resolving not to
return to this course of action in
the future and, finally, confes-
sion, an explicit verbal admission
of all of our misdeeds.
The process of teshuvah leads
to forgiveness at any time, but
it has special power on Yom
Kippur. As the Rambam writes:
“Yom Kippur is a time of teshu-
vah for every individual and
for the multitudes, and it is the
climax of forgiveness … there-
fore everyone is obligated to do
teshuvah and to confess on Yom
Kippur.
” (Laws of Teshuvah, 2:7).
On Yom Kippur, the force of
Divine forgiveness is at its apex.
Our heartfelt pleas for forgive-
ness are more readily accepted.
AN EXTRA STEP IS NEEDED
The Rambam points out that the
process of teshuvah is sufficient
when it comes to misdeeds that
have damaged our relationship
with God, but words and actions
that cause harm to other people
require an extra step. To rectify
the harm done to others, we
need to personally ask their
forgiveness, as well as make any
monetary restitution if we have
caused them financial loss.
Indeed, the Rambam says,
based on the Talmud, that Yom
Kippur does not atone for sins
between one person and anoth-
er unless personal forgiveness
has been granted. It is for this
reason that in the days leading
up to Yom Kippur,we ask for
forgiveness from whoever we
have wronged in the past year, so
as to be able to access the gift of
Divine forgiveness.
The Rambam writes that it’s
important for the person who
has been wronged to act with
compassion and graciously grant
forgiveness. In this way, relation-
ships damaged by our wrongdo-
ing can be fully restored.
The bottom line is that the
redemptive, purifying powers
of Yom Kippur can only be
accessed through real action and
sincere intention — through a
deep and meaningful teshuvah
process. This also explains why
an important part of our Yom
Kippur prayers is devoted to
viduy — “confession.
” In each of
the Yom Kippur Amidahs, there
is a section devoted to confes-
sion. The fact that the confes-
sions formula is embedded in
the most intimate and personal
of our prayers — the Amidah
— indicates our confession is
meant to be a direct encounter
with God, a moment of truth as
we stand before our Creator, our
defenses down, without any pre-
tensions of innocence.
The relationship between
confession and the other com-
ponents of the teshuvah process
is important to understand. The
teshuvah process is largely an
internal process of transforma-
tion, buried in the heart, mind
and soul of a person. Regret
for the past and resolve for the
future are a state of mind. It is
TORAH EXPANDED
Rabbi
Warren
Goldstein
40 | SEPTEMBER 9 • 2021