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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