Drasha – Yom Kippur Yizkor – Out of Time – 9.28.20

One of the details we’ve had to contend with as we work on coming back to synagogue is the signage. We want to make sure that, as different as things are, everyone knows where to go and where not to go, what to do and what not to do. We have signs with arrows pointing us in the right direction, we have signs with rules about COVID safety protocols, and we have signs telling not to go beyond this point.

The Torah has a similar sign in the form of a verse in the Book of Leviticus. It says (Vayikra 16:2) V’Al Yavo B’Chol Eit El HaKodesh – And don’t come at any time into the [Inner] Sanctum. Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz, author of the biblical commentary Kli Yakar, explains the verse as saying that the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) couldn’t go to the Kodesh Kadoshim (Temple Inner Sanctum) on any day of the year related to time. He was only allowed to go there on the day of the year that is beyond time, which is Yom Kippur.

Time is a creation. This is the reason time has limitations, such as before and after. There is one day a year that is above time: Yom Kippur. On this day, we don’t eat or drink; we become like angels, heavenly beings, beyond the boundaries of the physical world.

The Kodesh Kadoshim itself was beyond time and space. As the Talmud (Megillah 10b) says “We received the tradition from our forefathers: The Ark of the Covenant didn't take up any room." The Kohen Gadol went to this heavenly place on Yom Kippur because they are both beyond the boundaries of this world.

The Talmud (Pesachim 54a) states, “Seven things were created before the world was created. They are Torah, Teshuvah/Repentance, The Garden of Eden, Gehinom/Hell, G-d’s Throne of Glory, the Temple, and the name of the Messiah." So, Teshuvah was created before creation. When one does Teshuvah, they enter a sphere that is beyond time.

Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Spira, in his work the Bnei Yissaschar (Tishrei 8), notes that "Yom not and day"" ,יומא called is Kippur Yom discusses that tractate Talmudic the Kippur." There are other tractates named after the holidays, such as Shabbat, Succah, Rosh Hashanah, Pesachim. But the tractate on Yom Kippur is called day." It seems that we refrain from saying its name.

This tendency to refrain from saying "Yom Kippur" is also seen in the verses in the Torah. In the section that discusses the Yom Kippur Temple Service, it doesn’t say that we are talking about Yom Kippur, and it doesn’t even tell the date when these offerings are brought, until towards the end of the discussion.

When the Torah discusses the Jewish holidays, it first tells the date, and then it tells the specific Mitzvot of the holiday. For example, about Rosh Hashanah the Torah begins (Bamidbar 29:1) “The seventh month on the first day of the month..." and then it goes through the laws. The exception is Yom Kippur. The Torah (Vayikra 16:1-28) writes twenty-eight verses discussing the offerings that are brought on Yom Kippur, but it doesn’t say when they are brought. And then, it says (Vayikra 16:29-30), "In the seventh month, on the tenth day, you shall fast and not work... because on this day, you will be atoned...”

So the Torah and the Talmud don’t want to utter the name Yom Kippur. Rabbi Spira explains why this might be:

“Yom Kippur comes from a concealed place; therefore, it is proper to conceal it...We hide its name to show that it comes from a hidden world, beyond time.”

I believe this is one of the reasons why we recite Yizkor on Yom Kippur. In fact, our tradition teaches that Yom Kippur is the primary day for Yizkor and all the other Yizkors of the year may stem from this one. The general explanation is that Yom Kippur is not just a day of forgiveness and atonement for the living, but it is also for those who passed on. Through Yizkor we, the living, help them in that process. Based on what we are suggesting here, and perhaps a deeper meaning behind the idea just mentioned, I think that considering that Yom Kippur is a day out of time it is a day for the prayers of everyone – past, present, and future.

I’ve often wondered about when we should say the blessing of Shehechiyanu for Yom Kippur. For all of the other holidays we recite this blessing with the evening Kiddush, but there is no Kiddush on Yom Kippur – so what do we do? We recite this special blessing over the very prayers we say on this holiest of days. What can we do to a more meaningful experience over Yom Kippur? One answer is to put all our efforts into the prayers of the day. That demonstrates that this day is vital. The first step, however, is awareness, to know about the uniqueness of this day – a day beyond the rules of time and space.

This year in particular, I think that we need such a day. So many of us are so stuck in time with all that has been going on. To be able to have a day, no matter where we find ourselves – at home, indoors, outdoors – that takes us out of where we are, like the High Priest in the Temple, is something so many of us desperately need. We need a moment, this year more than most, to take a step out and look in, to take stock of where we have come in the last several months and where we plan on going moving forward. Yom Kippur provides us with that opportunity, separating ourselves in a serious way from our daily lives to really look at who we are and what we want for ourselves, our loved ones, our community, and our world.

About Yom Kippur, the prophet Yoel (Yoel 2:11) says, “For Hashem's day is great and extremely awesome; who can sustain it?" This is a very special and holy day. Let us, therefore, take advantage of each moment, for, as 18th century Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth says, “If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.”