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Yom Kippur 5781 בס"ד CEREMONY & CELEBRATION FAMILY EDITION WITH RABBI LORD JONATHAN SACKS YOM KIPPUR 5781 Yom Kippur in a Nutshell YOM KIPPUR is the holy of holies of Jewish who knew from their history that sin could be time, when we give an account of our lives. We punished by catastrophe. reflect on what has happened to us and what After the destruction of the Second Temple, we plan to do in the coming year. The single everything changed. There was no longer a most important lesson of Yom Kippur is that High Priest, no sacrifice, no Divine fire, no it’s never too late to change, start again, and Levites singing praises or crowds thronging the live differently from the way we’ve done in the precincts of Jerusalem and filling the Temple past. God forgives every mistake we’ve made as Mount. Above all, there was no Yom Kippur Points to long as we are honest in regretting it and doing ritual through which the people could find our best to put it right. Even if there’s nothing forgiveness. Ponder we regret, Yom Kippur makes us think about how to use the coming year in such a way as to It was then that a transformation took place How does Yom Kip- bring blessings into the lives of others by way of that must constitute one of the great creative 1pur help us focus on the future and on thanking God for all He has given us. responses to tragedy in history. Yom Kippur was transferred from the Temple in Jerusalem making a change? In ancient times Yom Kippur was celebrated to every synagogue in the world. Instead of How did Yom in the form of a massive public ceremony set the High Priest acting as a representative, God Kippur change in the Temple in Jerusalem. The holiest man 2 Himself would purify His people without the after thechurban in Israel, the High Priest, entered the most need for an intermediary. Even ordinary Jews (destruction of the sacred space, the Holy of Holies, confessed the could, as it were, come face to face with the Temple)? What are sins of the nation using God’s holiest name, Shechinah, the Divine presence. They needed the advantages of each and secured atonement for all Israel. It was a no one else to apologise for them. The drama approach? moment of intense drama in the life of a people that once took place in the Temple could now who believed that their fate depended on their take place in the human heart. Yom Kippur was How did this tran- relationship with God, who knew that there saved, and it is not too much to say that Jewish 3sition “save Jewish is no life, let alone a nation, without sin, and faith was also saved. faith”? How Yom Kippur Changes Us TO THOSE WHO fully open themselves to it, No religion has held such a high view of human Yom Kippur is a life-transforming experience. possibility. It tells us that God, who created the universe in The God who created us in His image gave us freedom. We are not tainted by original sin, love and forgiveness, reaches out to us in love Adapted from the destined to fail, caught in the grip of an evil only and forgiveness, asking us to love and forgive introduction to the Divine grace can defeat. others. God never asked us not to make mis- Koren Yom Kippur takes. All He asks is that we acknowledge our To the contrary, we have within us the power Machzor with com- mistakes, learn from them, grow through them to choose life. Together we have the power to mentary and transla- and make amends where we can. change the world. tion by Rabbi Sacks The following five concepts, all central to Yom blame no one and take full responsibility for Kippur, contain core Jewish values and ideas our actions. Knowing God will forgive us al- that mould us as Jews and human beings. lows us to be completely honest with ourselves. 1. Shame and guilt REFLECT: What do you want to change in yourself today to be a better you tomorrow? Judaism is the world’s greatest example of a guilt-and-repentance culture as opposed to the shame-and-honour culture of the ancient 2. The growth mindset Greeks. Yom Kippur also allows us to grow. We owe In a shame culture a debt to cognitive behavioural therapy for such as that of Greek reminding us of a classic element of Jewish tragedy, evil attaches faith: that when we change the way we think, to the person. It is we change the way we feel. And when we feel a kind of indelible differently, we live differently. What we believe stain. There is no way shapes what we become. back for one who At the heart of teshuvah is the belief that we can has done a shameful change. We are not destined to be forever what deed. They become we were. In the Torah we see Yehudah grow, a pariah and the best from an envious brother prepared to sell Yosef they can hope for as a slave, to a man with the conscience and is to die in a noble courage to offer himself as a slave so that his cause. Conversely, in a guilt culture like that of Judaism, evil is an brother Binyamin can go free. attribute of the act, not the agent. Even one who We know that some people relish a challenge has done wrong has a sacred self that remains and take risks, while others, no less gifted, play intact. They may have to undergo punishment. it safe and ultimately underachieve. Psycholo- They certainly have to make amends. But there gists tell us that the crucial difference lies in remains a core of worth that can never be lost. whether you think of your ability as fixed or as Teshuvah A guilt culture hates the sin, not the sinner. Re- something developed through effort and expe- means I can pentance, rehabilitation and return are always rience. Teshuvah is essentially about effort and possible. experience. It assumes we can grow. take risks, A guilt culture is a culture of responsibility. We Teshuvah means I can take risks, knowing that knowing that do not blame anyone else for the wrong we do. I may fail but knowing that failure is not final. It is always tempting to blame others – it wasn’t It means that if I get things wrong and make I may fail but me, it was my parents, my upbringing, my mistakes, God does not lose faith in me even friends, my genes, my social class, the media, knowing that though I may lose faith in myself. God be- the system, “them.” That was what the first failure is not two humans did in the Garden of Eden. When lieves in us, even if we do not. That alone is a challenged by God for eating the forbidden life-changing fact if we fully open ourselves to final. It means its implications. fruit, the man blamed the woman. The woman that if I get blamed the serpent. The result was paradise Teshuvah means that the past is not irredeem- lost. able. It means that from every mistake, I grow. things wrong Blaming others for our failings is as old as There is no failure I experience that does not and make humanity, but it is disastrous. It means that we make me a deeper human being; no challenge I define ourselves as victims. A culture of victim- accept, however much I fall short, that does not mistakes, God hood wins the compassion of others but at too develop in me strengths I would not otherwise high a cost. It incubates feelings of resentment, have had. does not lose humiliation, grievance and grudge. It leads peo- That is the rstfi transformation of Yom Kippur: faith in me ple to rage against the world instead of taking a renewed relationship with myself. steps to mend it. Jews have suffered much, but even though I Yom Kippur prevents us from ever defining REFLECT: What failure in your life have ourselves as victims. As we confess our sins, we you grown from? may lose faith in myself. 2 3. Our relationships with others life to have come into existence by chance. The more we understand of the sheer improbability The second transformation is a renewed rela- of the existence of the universe, the emergence tionship with others. We know that Yom Kippur of life from inanimate matter, and the equally atones only for sins between us and God, but mysterious appearance of Homo sapiens, the that does not mean that these are the only sins only life-form capable of asking the question for which we need to seek atonement. To the “Why?”, the more the line from Tehillim rings contrary: many, even most, of the sins we con- true: “How numerous are Your works, Lord; fess on Yom Kippur are about our relationships You made them all in wisdom” (Tehillim with other people. Throughout the prophetic There has 104:24). and rabbinic literature, it is assumed that as never been we act to others, so God acts to us. Those who Through revelation: the words of God as forgive are forgiven. Those who condemn are recorded in the Torah. There is nothing in a drama re- condemned. history to compare to the fact that Jews spent a thousand years (from Moshe to the last of motely like The Ten Days of Repentence between Rosh the Prophets) compiling a commentary to the Hashanah to Yom Kippur are a time when we this in its ups Torah in the form of the prophetic, historical try to mend relationships that have broken.
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