Sign In Forgot Password

Yom Kippur Day 2018 - Ten Questions to Change Your Life

Yom Kippur 2018 – What Are We Passionate About?

Boker tov, tzom kal, and g’mar hatimah tovah to each of you this morning.  In this morning’s Torah portion we read the many details of Aaron’s service in the tabernacle on Yom Kippur.  We read about what he had to wear, how he purified himself, which animals he had to sacrifice, the ritual of the scapegoat, the purging of the Shrine, and more.  The rituals that Aaron performed in the tabernacle were eventually transferred to the High Priest who served in the Temple in Jerusalem, and we will actually re-enact part of it – goats excluded – later on today during the “Service of the High Priest in the Temple,” shortly before the end of musaf.  While said service in the tabernacle and Temple may not be considered extremely exciting today, it used to be. 

As Rabbi Jacob Schacter once wrote:  “The highlight of the Yom Kippur service in the Temple (featured in the Torah reading of that day and in the traditional Musaf service) was, without any question, the entrance and hopefully safe exit of the High Priest into and out of the Holy of Holies.  Once a year, there took place a convergence between the holiest person (the High Priest), the holiest place (the Holy of Holies), and the holiest time (the day of Yom Kippur).  For a brief moment, the High Priest entered this place which was off limits even to him the entire year and prayed there on behalf of the Jewish people.  His concentration had to be perfect, his involvement total, and the intensity of his devotion all encompassing.  One slip, God forbid, and God could take his life.  And so, when the High Priest emerged safely from this holiest of places, you can imagine how relieved he and the members of his family surely were.  Then, culminating his Temple service on this great day, the High Priest recited a beautiful and meaningful prayer upon exiting the Temple:

“May it be thy will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that the forthcoming year shall be for thy people, the house of Israel, a year of abundant prosperity; a year of generous decrees declared by thee; a year of grain, wine and oil; a year of attainment and success; a year of meeting in thy sanctuary; a year of enjoyable living; a year of dew, rain, and warmth; a year of delicious fruits; a year of atonement for all our iniquities; a year wherein thou wilt bless our food and drink; a year of business transactions; a year of attending our sanctuary; a year of plenty and delight; a year wherein thou wilt bless our coming and going; a year wherein thou wilt save our community; a year wherein thou wilt be merciful toward us; a year of peace and serenity; ayear wherein thou wilt let us make joyous pilgrimages to our country; a year wherein thou wilt open thy goodly treasury for us; a year wherein thy people, the house of Israel, will not be in need of one another’s aid nor the support of another people, for thou wilt bless the products of their own hands.”  (Philip Birnbaum, High Holiday Prayer Book New York:  [Hebrew Publishing Co.] 1951, 826)

Rabbi Schachter writes concerning this prayer:  It is a beautiful prayer because it is a real prayer, a direct prayer.  It covers all the bases – personal and communal, physical and spiritual.  “A year of delicious fruits” is immediately followed by “a year of atonement for all our iniquities.”  It touches all of a human being’s possible needs.”  And I might add, it covers not only our needs but our dreams, our hopes as well! 

Rabbi Schacter however, notes that the prayer as has been passed down for many generations now and included in the machzor actually deviates in one way from the versions of the prayer in both the Babylonian (Yoma 53b) and Jerusalem Talmuds (Yoma 5:3).  In the Babylonian Talmud the last sentence is NOT about whether or not the Jewish people need support from each other or other people, but rather that last sentence is:  “The prayer of the travelers should not enter before you,” and in the Jerusalem Talmud’s version, “Do not be swayed by the prayer of the travelers.”

Now this may seem like a throw-away line, completely irrelevant today, and therefore rightly excluded.  However, it actually provides a fascinating insight.  You see, during the era of the Talmud, if a person was traveling and it began to rain, they could face serious threat.  The traveler might have had to stay out in the rain, a road could wash away, etc.  Rainy weather could be a serious threat to life.  Having just watched as Hurricane Florence came through, we know how serious bad weather can be even today to people’s health and livelihood.  Since travelers on the road wanted to get home safely they might pray for no rain.  However, the community as a whole needed rain lest they experience both a drought and a famine if the rain didn’t come to make the crops grow, allow the food to be produced, etc.  So the High Priest prayed to God:  Don’t be influenced by the traveler’s prayer for no rain; send it anyway, to a hungry and needy world.

It may seem like a small thing, but understanding the original brings up some very interesting questions including:  Who determined what went into the prayer the High Priest said, and how did they decide to include this last part in it?  And if God is omniscient and knows that the whole community needs rain, why would we even THINK that God would listen to the prayers of the traveler over and above the community? 

While I can’t answer the first question, there is an answer to the second question.  Last night I shared the story of Moses pleading with God during the incident of the Golden Calf.  Based on the story in the Talmud, which says that Moses basically grabbed God by the lapels and wouldn’t let go until he got his way, we know that prayer is supposed to be passionate.  Since the prayer of the traveler was surely passionate, the High Priest became worried.  You see, if the prayer of the traveler was passionate but the prayers of the community were NOT passionate, the High Priest worried that God might listen to the passionate plea of the lone traveler over and above the half-hearted prayers of the community.  Rabbi Schacter explains:  “So the holiest man includes a most important component to his most joyous prayer upon safely exiting from the holiest place on the holiest day –a prayer that the community’s prayer be even more passionate, that all Jews pray to God always with seriousness, with solemnity, with passion.  Don’t listen to the traveler’s prayer, he asks.  May the prayers of the community be even more passionate [and more worthy].”

Which leads me to a dilemma.  You see, last night I spoke about prayer and how it is supposed to cause us to think about and then behave in ways which will make the dreams we have of a better world into that better world.  A problem arises however if we don’t know what we are passionate about, we don’t know our own dreams, don’t know our own selves.  As strange as it may seem, even though we live in a selfie world, many of us don’t know ourselves as well as we could.  I have, over the last twelve days, given NINE sermons.  These sermons have covered a myriad of topics, including learning not to complain so much, gratitude, changing ourselves for the better, passionate prayer, connection to God, how to determine the path you are meant to travel in this life, and more.  But none of these things are possible if we don't know who we are.  So this morning I have ten questions to share with everyone here to help us all focus our thoughts on self-improvement.  By thinking about the answers to these ten questions, hopefully we will be moved to change our lives.  Here we go:

What are your top three priorities in life?  If someone who doesn’t know you had been watching you for the last two weeks, what would s/he believe your top three priorities are?

What does being part of the Jewish community mean to you? 

Who are the most important people in your life and are you treating them with the importance they deserve?

What does Israel mean to you?  What are you doing to help Israel be the best it can be?

What is one thing, one mitzvah, one act of tikkun olam, one act of gemilut hasadim – lovingkindness, you can do tomorrow to make the world a better place?

Are you more concerned about doing things right or doing the right thing?

What do you need to forgive yourself for?

Are you doing all you can to honor the values and memories of loved ones you’ve lost?

What are you going to do better this year? 

What are you passionate about?

Rabbi Schacter who I quoted earlier, once shared a story his father Rabbi Herschel Schacter had told him “about the early years of Communism when many religious Jews became caught up in the ideals of that movement and rejected their own tradition; when thousands of yeshiva boys closed their Gemaras drawn by the utopian promise of this new society.  Once, a number of Hasidim were sitting with their Rebbe, and in a sad and despondent mood, asked him, “Rebbe, tell us.  Why is it that the Communists are so successful and we are on the defensive?  After all, what we have is emes (truth) and what they have is sheker (falsehood)?”  Said the Rebbe, “Yes, my children, you are right.  We have emes and they have sheker.  But there is also another significant difference between us.  You see, they fight for their sheker with emes while we fight for our emes with sheker.  They fight for their falsehood, but they do so with conviction, with feeling, with passion, convinced of the certainty of their position.  We, on the other hand, fight for our truth, but we do so halfheartedly, in a matter of fact way, in a haphazard and perfunctory manner.  We have the emes, no doubt about it, but in order to win the battle we need to fight for the emes WITH emes.”

As we examine ourselves today, as we examine our relationship to God, to Israel, to Jewish tradition, to our fellow human beings, may we each take the words of that long deceased rebbe to heart, as we find the passion in our lives and in our souls, and act with passion for all we believe, all we wish to become, and all we wish for the world to be.

G’mar hatimah tovah.

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784