MAY 2 • 2024 | 49
J
N
Your Own Personal
‘Holy of Holies’
I
t may seem odd to think
about Yom Kippur in the
spring, but each year at
this time the annual cycle of
reading of the Torah brings
us a “preview” of the Day of
Atonement. We read of the
ritual of atonement
performed by Aaron in
the Holy of Holies, the
innermost place in the
Tabernacle.
This holy space and
the similar spaces in the
Temples in Jerusalem
were entered only on
Yom Kippur and only by
the Kohein Gadol, the
High Priest. Entering
surely was the most
sacred moment of the
year for him.
Since the destruction of the
Temple, the Holy of Holies is
only a memory. In many ways,
“time” has significantly replaced
“place” as we search for holiness
in our lives; when we do this
reading on Yom Kippur, we
realize that our Holy of Holies
is, in fact, Yom Kippur itself.
Rather than seeking a holy
place, we find ourselves in a holy
time standing alone before God.
But holiness is not only about
time. We can still conceive of
places being holy, even if not
in the same way as the inner
sanctum of the Tabernacle.
Some think of religious
sites such as the Kotel, the
Western Wall, where they feel
their thoughts and prayers are
elevated.
We can also think of the
cemeteries where loved ones
are buried or the synagogues
we grew up in, so often the
destinations of pilgrimages in
our lives.
We can surely think of our
homes, the holy sanctuaries
in which our families can find
peace and serenity in a chaotic
world.
In addition, each of us
should have personal, private
places of holiness: places
where we go to be alone
with our thoughts and
deepest hopes. Some are
physically accessible to
us each day and some
we can reach through
memory. Often, the latter
types resonate most
deeply with us.
For many years, I
worked at Camp Ramah
in New England. Even
though it has been many
years since I spent a
summer there — through all
the places I have been and all
the precious memories I have
created with my family and
friends since then — I still
remember how much that place
meant to me.
Quite often, I find myself
thinking of standing by the lake
in my favorite spot very early
on Shabbat morning when
everyone else was asleep, and
the simple quiet reflected the
peace of Shabbat. It is a holy
place for me, a sacred place of
memory.
Whether it is a sacred place
that we visit physically or one
that we visit only through our
memories, we should all keep in
mind the significance of places
that are our “Holy of Holies.”
We should all recognize and
celebrate the need to find such
places of meaning in our lives.
Robert Dobrusin is rabbi emeritus of
Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor.
This article originally appeared in the
JN on May 5, 2016.
SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION
Rabbi Robert
Dobrusin
Parshat
Achare Mot:
Leviticus
16:11-18:30;
Amos 9:7-15.
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