A shiur delivered on Erev Yom Kippur
Opening: Standing Before the Day
Shalom to the entire holy community. We stand here on Erev Yom Kippur — the eve of the Day of Atonement — with a year behind us and a new year waiting ahead.
We have passed another year: a year of holiness, of self-sacrifice (mesirat nefesh), of mitzvot, of a deep and powerful love of Hashem. As a community we have taken real steps upward, drawn close to the Creator with devekut — clinging — in love, in awe, in submission. And now we ask of the Holy One, blessed be He: as Yom Kippur approaches, may He inscribe us in the book of the righteous, the pious, the upright, the sincere. May He give each one of us the strength to serve Him, and may He fill every genuine lack in the heart of whoever truly feels it.
We begin by blessing the dear and beloved Abrami family — Gili and Dudi — righteous people whose lives are full of kindness, mitzvot, good deeds, and self-sacrifice, who are first to every matter of a mitzvah. And with them, the righteous women of the family, and the holy parents who raised such children. Our love for you is immense.
May the Holy One bless you, and may the words of our Sages be fulfilled in you: “A tree, a tree — with what shall I bless you? That all your offshoots be like you.” May your dear children walk in your path — the path of kindness, of mitzvot, of sincerity, of the love of Hashem, and of faith in the Sages. This family’s righteousness, its devotion, its love of Hashem has no equal. May we all be like you: people of kindness, of mitzvot, of good deeds.
And with the permission of the dear sons, the beloved young men — may they be blessed among all who are loved and cherished.
The Heart of the Day: Seder HaAvodah
We are on Erev Yom Kippur, and we want to enter into the essence of the day.
A central part of the Yom Kippur prayer is the Seder HaAvodah — the “Order of the Service” — said during the Mussaf prayer. What is the Seder HaAvodah? It describes what the Kohen Gadol — the High Priest — would do in the Temple on Yom Kippur: the sacred service performed in the Holy of Holies. This is the core of the day; the essence of Yom Kippur’s prayer is the Seder HaAvodah.
We have spoken of this several times this last month, so let us go back to the beginning.
What Is Yom Kippur, Really?
Yom Kippur is the day of atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf.
The Jewish people had made the golden calf — a grave transgression. They took the gold and said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” At that moment, so to speak, God wanted to erase the Jewish people.
Then Moshe Rabbeinu prayed to the Holy One, blessed be He. He asked for forgiveness, he asked for atonement — and the Holy One gave the Jewish people, gave Moshe, a chance to be forgiven.
Moshe ascended to the heavens and remained forty days and forty nights, seeking forgiveness from the Holy One. Our Sages teach (in the name of the great ones) that on each of those forty days, from Rosh Chodesh Elul until the tenth of Tishrei, the shofar was sounded — they prepared themselves, they asked for forgiveness, they sought atonement.
On the fortieth day — the tenth of Tishrei, Yom Kippur — Moshe came down with the second tablets: the Torah. The first tablets had been broken by Moshe; the second tablets were given to us on Yom Kippur. As the verse says: “For on this day he shall atone for you, to purify you from all your sins.”
So Yom Kippur is the day of atonement, of forgiveness, of pardon for sins — and the day the second tablets, the second giving of the Torah, came down from Heaven. The first tablets were shattered; the second were given on Yom Kippur.
From this we learn: the second giving of the Torah — the receiving of the Tablets of the Covenant — happened on Yom Kippur. It is a day of atonement, of pardon, of forgiveness of sins.
The Work of the Kohen Gadol
And the essence of this day’s service — who performs it? The Kohen Gadol. The High Priest performs the service of Yom Kippur, the Seder HaAvodah.
What did the Kohen Gadol do on Yom Kippur?
Our Sages say: the Kohen Gadol would wash his hands and feet ten times on Yom Kippur, and he would immerse in the mikvah five times. This is part of the service of the High Priest on Yom Kippur.
He begins the day by changing his garments. Five times he immerses in the mikvah, sanctifying himself. Ten times he washes his hands and feet.
The Dispute of Rebbi Meir and Rebbi Yehuda
There is a dispute between Rebbi Meir and Rebbi Yehuda about the order of these washings.
Our Sages record: when the Kohen Gadol would put on the golden garments, he would wash his hands and feet — that is the first time. He would dress in the golden garments and begin to serve in the Temple.
Rebbi Meir and Rebbi Yehuda debate: did he wash his hands before he removed the garments, or after? — whether he washed while still dressed or once the garments were removed.
In any case, the pattern of the day runs like this:
- In the golden garments, he washes his hands and feet.
- He removes the golden garments and puts on the white garments to enter the Holy of Holies, to offer the incense, to perform all the service of the day.
- Again he washes his hands and feet.
- He goes out from the Holy of Holies, puts on the golden garments, and continues the service of the day.
- Again he washes his hands and feet, puts on the white garments and enters to bring out the fire-pans and everything used in the Holy of Holies.
So: five immersions in the mikvah, entering the Temple; and ten washings of hands and feet as he performs the day’s service.
What Does It All Mean?
Everything the Kohen Gadol wore and did outside — the golden garments — follows one rule: he must wash his hands and feet. Always. Why specifically ten times? Why specifically five immersions in the mikvah?
Let us understand this. Everything on Yom Kippur — everything that happens — the sealing (chatimah) — is the most sanctified matter. Yom Kippur is a great day, a holy day, an awesome day. Who can grasp and describe the power of Yom Kippur?
There is a dispute in the Gemara: does one need to do teshuvah, or does the essence of the day itself atone for a person’s sins? This day is the most sanctified of days, and what we recite — the Seder HaAvodah — is written on our lips.
The ten washings of hands and feet correspond to י-ה — the first letters of Hashem’s holy Name. And the five immersions correspond to ה-י (the second part of the Name).
The Golden Garments = Physicality
What are the garments the Kohen Gadol wears outside? The golden garments.
Our Sages call gold the color red. And what does red signify? Red represents all the “doings of the weekday” — the physical (gashmi), the adam — eating, drinking, and all the ordinary matters of daily life. Red represents the physicality of a person.
The washing of the hands and feet is meant to remove the physicality of the person.
Entering Yom Kippur
We are entering Yom Kippur. What is all the physicality we carried through the year? The unnecessary food, the unnecessary sleep, the unnecessary speech, the unnecessary things we truly did not need.
A person needs to know: a person should really live simply. Twenty percent of what he eats — and eighty percent of the excess. Much of our appetite is simply attraction to things a person does not need. We must refine this and sanctify it.
The washing of hands and feet is to refine the adam — the physical garments, the golden garments, the garments that come to represent physicality, the life of the material.
The Mikvah = Returning to the Source
What is the mikvah? The mikvah is returning to the source — returning to the womb, to the most sanctified place.
The white garments are garments of simplicity. There is nothing in them, no concern, no pursuit — plain white clothes. After the Kohen refines, on Yom Kippur, the “sweat” and the adam, the red, all the physicality a person carried through the whole year — and washes his hands and performs the service outside the Temple — then he immerses in the mikvah. Like returning to his mother’s womb. He sanctifies himself, refines himself, returns to the source — to his essence, his soul — in the mikvah. The mikvah is a return to the womb. So the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur: he refines and returns to the womb, returns to his root, his origin.
And then the Kohen wears white garments — white, simple, plain clothes, without chasing after anything of this world. Returning to the source, without any pursuit. This is the service of Yom Kippur.
What Is the Work of Yom Kippur?
The entire work of Yom Kippur is to return us to the source.
The Jewish people are holy; the Jewish people are pure; the Jewish people’s root is kadosh — holy; and their root is tahor — pure.
We stand on Erev Yom Kippur, as last year, and the year before. We say to the Holy One, blessed be He: Ribbono shel Olam — Master of the Universe — look upon us. Thousands of people, here in this moshav, at the Abrami family, tens of thousands everywhere, standing in fear and awe of the Day of Atonement — between life and death, between abundance and captivity, between plenty and plunder, between comfort and affliction.
For this day is like Rosh Hashanah: on Rosh Hashanah they are written, and on Yom Kippur they are sealed. Fear and awe. All the heavenly hosts tremble. The angels fear. The whole of creation fears the Day of Judgment, the great and awesome day — Yom Kippur.
The work of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur is to describe the prayer of all of Israel — to describe teshuvah, to describe closeness to the Holy One, to describe our detachment from all physicality, from all the material, from all this world.
For this world is material — and the more the years pass, the more we are sunk in, and pulled into, the material.
The Pull of the Material World
Look at how much “material” there is today. In our communities, there are people enormously close to the Holy One. Who would have said forty years ago that there would be selichot in this moshav with so many thousands? How many people here are righteous, who cover their heads, who are meticulous in mikvah and in Shabbat candles; how many go to Torah classes — “the earth will be filled with knowledge of Hashem.”
The words of the prophet are being fulfilled in this generation: “Behold, days are coming, says Hashem, when I will send a famine in the land — not a famine for bread, nor a thirst for water, but for hearing the words of Hashem.” People prefer, instead of eating and drinking, to go hear words of Torah, to go to selichot — “and they will come to seek Hashem.”
But on the other hand, there is a great war of the material. The physical world, as it were, pulls a person toward things that did not exist in earlier generations. In earlier generations there was not the “material” there is today. People are drawn into physicality, into materialism.
There is Torah, there are mitzvot, there are kindnesses, there is charity, there are Torah classes — but people are also pulled into the material in the harshest way. This generation has more Torah and mitzvot than any before — and it also has more “tail,” more material and physicality than any before.
We say on Rosh Hashanah in the simanim: “May it be Your will that we be head and not tail” — Yehi ratzon she’nihyeh l’rosh v’lo l’zanav. We ask to be only head — only Torah, mitzvot, and the service of Hashem — and not tail, not also transgressions. We ask: may we be head, not tail — not both, a head of Torah and a tail of sin.
Clinging to the Material Binds Us
The prayer of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur, in the Seder HaAvodah — to wash hands and feet ten times — is against the red, against the material, against lust, against the world’s grip.
Afterward, immerse in the mikvah — to return to the source, to return to the origin of our being. Afterward, put on white garments — simple garments, white, with no gold, no material, no vanity — to cling to the Holy One.
The difficult war of people today is in the spirit — in anxiety and fear, in all the things they live through: much good and suddenly much bad, closeness to Hashem and the confusion of this world’s life. People live this in a mixture, all at once — and when a person lives it as a mixture, he has no stability in life. One moment up, one moment down; happy, then sad; no stability.
A person must work on himself — a great work — to stabilize his soul (yitzivut hanefesh). Forwards and backwards, everything is thrown at us — but on the path of Hashem, a person must stabilize his soul firmly. And when his soul is stable, things are easier for him.
We are entering Yom Kippur, and after it a long year — a year with two Adar months, a long year.
We must know one of the works of Yom Kippur: as we enter Yom Kippur, what must we prepare? We must prepare to know what is permitted and what is desired — and to set it aside. It is permitted to enjoy all that there is; but the da’at — the knowledge, the mindset — must be to enjoy it correctly, truthfully, so that it does not take over our lives, does not seize our lives, does not bind our lives.
The Story of the Tzaddik’s Coat
There was a great tzaddik who had something precious — and it was stolen from him. He went out wearing the simplest coat — a plain coat. They asked him: Why? You could buy another expensive coat. He answered: The expensive coat was stolen — a sign that I was too attached to it. He understood: the more I am attached to the things of this world, the harder it will be for me to detach and ascend to the World to Come lightly.
The more a person is bound to the desires of this world — even permitted desires, eating and drinking — the harder it will be for him to detach from this world.
A person must do everything that is permitted — but not use it as a cover to become attached to things in a way that binds him. Rather, to be with them truly and correctly.
Conclusion: Head, Not Tail
On Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol washes hands and feet ten times — over the appetite, over physicality, over the adam, over the red, over the foods we eat, over the drinks we drink. We remove ourselves from this and immerse, returning like a child to the womb of his mother. And then we wear white garments — that we may remain with no bond at all to the physicality of this world. This is the Seder HaAvodah.
When we enter Yom Kippur, and the cantor reads the Seder HaAvodah, this is what we should be thinking: how do we detach from the material and bind ourselves to the spirit — binding ourselves more to the Holy One, blessed be He?
For the more a person is bound to desires, the more he will have anxiety, fear, thoughts — fearful thoughts: “maybe I will lose this,” “maybe it won’t remain for me.” But the more a person is bound to the amud — to the Holy One, to purity, to uprightness and honesty — the healthier his soul will be, the stronger his soul will be, and the more truly connected to the Holy One.
We pray to the Holy One, blessed be He: may He, with His help, pour His great abundance upon us all. May we all enter a new year — a year of light, a year of joy, a year of blessing, a year of love, a year of salvation, a year of health, a year of charity, a year of clinging strongly to the Holy One, blessed be He.
Thank God, in our holy community of Shuvah Yisrael — how much Torah, how much kindness, how many mitzvot, how many good deeds! We are certain that on this Yom Kippur we will all be inscribed for a good life, in the book of the righteous and the pious. Everyone in our community, we ask of the Holy One:
Ribbono shel Olam — Master of the Universe — on the eve of Yom Kippur: is there another community in the world as special as Shuvah Yisrael? If there is not — then give us even more blessing, even more abundance. For we will do for the will of Hashem what no one else will do.
May it be His will to open for us the gates of Heaven. May He give us, with His help, great righteousness, blessing, joy and good fortune — and may each one see the desires of his heart, for good and for blessing.
A good year. A great blessing. Much success. A year of light, of joy, and of great salvation. Amen.
Key terms
Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement · Seder HaAvodah — the “Order of the Service” recited in Mussaf · Kohen Gadol — the High Priest · Mikvah — ritual immersion bath · Teshuvah — repentance/return · Gashmiut — physicality/materialism · Mesirat nefesh — self-sacrifice · Devekut — cleaving to G-d · Shuvah Yisrael — the community name · Rebbi Meir & Rebbi Yehuda — Tannaim whose dispute is cited · Moshe Rabbeinu — Moses our teacher · Ribbono shel Olam — Master of the Universe.
Blessings extended to the Abrami family — Gili and Dudi — and the righteous women and children of the family.
