Yom Kippur: Regrounding and Rolling Onward

I have often described Judaism like a wagon wheel on a road. The wheel turns, and so in a sense, we are going through a cycle each and every day, and each and every year. A wheel in a wheel, as the gospel song goes.

The difference between Judaism and classic circular religions (basically all religions that model themselves after the natural world with its seasons), is that our wheel is not suspended in space. Instead, we are bouncing along a road. We have an origin, and we have a destination. And it is the touchpoints of the road that give us continuity and a sense of belonging. It is why we sing familiar melodies. We reground at the very same time as we look forward.

That is true both within the Jewish people as a whole, as well as each community, each family, and each and every person.

I personally feel that the touchpoints of our year – from Shabbos to each Festival, and especially Yom Kippur, allow and encourage us to meditate on who we are, who we ought to be, and how to get there.

Because, as we know all too well, our time is short. There is much to do and never enough time in which to get it all done. Which is also partially why Judaism is inherently a multi-generational religion: we are links in the chain. What our ancestors started, we perpetuate and grow, and hopefully those who survive us will continue our efforts as well.

But we are also the farthest thing from a monolithic people. Each of us has our own soul, neshama, our own relationship to other people, and our own unique relationship to Hashem.

On top of this, we need to always keep in mind that our lives truly matter. Jews are a mere 0.2% of the world’s population, and yet we are the people who drive change and growth in practically every way. Our awareness of our potency makes us even more powerful.

Because unlike the fatalists that dominate the rest of the world, we know that we can change our own lives. We know that our choices can not only improve and affect ourselves and the world around us – but that we are even capable of changing G-d’s mind! We have the power to influence the future of the world.

And because we have that power, we also have that responsibility.

This is why on Yom Kippur we read of Jonah and the whale. Jonah had his own calling – and it mattered that he stepped up and did it. Each of us has something we need to be doing, and we need to be listening to that call, and responding to it. Jonah’s is a cautionary tale: we can do better.

If we run away from what G-d wants from us, then we are, like Jonah on the ship, denying our potential to improve the world. If we deny our destiny, then at the same time we reject a special relationship with G-d.

And this is also why on Yom Kippur mincha we read the Torah's commandments on forbidden relationships: Because G-d wants to remind us that our choices matter. That what we do with our bodies affects our souls. That if we do not reach for difficult relationships, then we cannot properly learn how to relate to G-d and grow to our full potential.

By Mincha of Yom Kippur we have made our peace with fellow man, and we have made our peace with G-d. United in prayer, we have also formed a union, as Yeshurun, with all our fellow Jews. Late in the afternoon of Yom Kippur is when we begin to prepare to exit the national cocoon, and assert our individuality.

On this day, we have to recognize that it is not enough that we fulfill biblical commandments and meekly serve G-d. We must consciously decide that we are going to bend our will towards serving the creator, by focusing all of our individual energies on our unique and holy potential to make the world a better place. The time is for us to decide to harness our creative powers at both ends of the spectrum – the sexual powers of the body, as well as the mental powers of the soul – in our individually unique and beautiful service to G-d.

This day is all about learning to grow and stretch, understanding who we are and where we need to go. To the extent we focus on our sins, it is to find a way to move past them, to grow forward, to reconnect with vitality and positive will, with G-d and each other and our own neshamas.

Our time is short. The task of Jews in this world is substantial. But each and every one of us can, as we roll down this road, make it happen.