There is a prayer that is printed in your machzorim called Tefilah Zakah that some people recite before Yom Kippur begins. The culmination of the prayer is a poignant recognition that even the power of Yom Kippur itself cannot effect atonement for sins between people. We must ask forgiveness of those whom we have hurt or harmed directly; only they can help us. But how do we know all of the people whom we have hurt or harmed? The author of this prayer suggests that we take this despair and turn it outwards and declare that we unequivocally and unilaterally forgive every individual who has harmed us in the past year, whether or not they have asked our forgiveness, and whether or not they know that they harmed us. And, if we, reciting that prayer, forgive others, maybe the people we have harme, will forgive us. And as this circle of mutually-assured forgiveness spreads, perhaps God will treat any of us who fall through the cracks us as though we have been forgiven by those whom we have wronged.
And so, I would like to ask, as I have done in the past, that everyone here now, as this awesome and intimidating day begins, to commit in their hearts to forgive anyone who has harmed you, in the hope that those whom we have harmed will forgive us.
I also want to wish you all an easy fast. I know that some people prefer to wish one another a “meaningful fast” but I’ve come to see that as a problematic thing to wish on another person.
Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, one of the great spiritual heroes of Yom Kippur, taught that “my ruchniyut” – meaning my spirituality and spiritual advancement is obtained through concern for your “gashmiut” your physical comfort and well being. I may want for myself to have a meaningful fast. But my wish for you is that you should have an easy fast and this is truly the only appropriate wish to have for another.
The haftarah tomorrow will expand this idea from the scale of simple wishes to the scale of an entire community. The form of fasting which God desires, Yeshayahu will tell us, is to make sure that the poor and all who are hungry have enough to eat. Their feasting makes our fasting meaningful.
Our prayers tonight and tomorrow night contain Selichot, the penitential prayers that many of us have been saying since the week before Rosh Hashannah. These selichot are constructed of elaborate and beautiful poetry that can give voice to our religious yearnings, and they are built upon communal recitations of the “13 attributes of Divine Mercy.” The Talmud explains that when Moshe begged God to forgive us for worshipping the golden calf, God relented and then taught Moshe the Selichot service, saying in the words of the Talmud:
אלמלא מקרא כתוב אי אפשר לאומרו מלמד שנתעטף הקב”ה כשליח צבור והראה לו למשה סדר תפלה אמר לו כל זמן שישראל חוטאין יעשו לפני כסדר הזה ואני מוחל להם.
Were it not explicitly written in the verse, it would be impossible to say this, The verse teaches that the Holy Blessed One wrapped up in a prayer shawl like a prayer leader and showed Moshe the structure of the order of the prayer. God said to Moshe: Whenever the Jewish people sin, let them act before Me in accordance with this order. Let the prayer leader wrap himself in a prayer shawl and publicly recite the thirteen attributes of mercy, and I will forgive them.
And following that example, we will cry out the 13 attributes of mercy, lead by a shaliach tzibbur, a prayer leader who is wrapped in a tallit just as God taught Moshe.
But the Torah actually says something else, and my teachers have emphasized this added layer, and we have even spoken about it before. The phrase יעשו לפני כסדר הזה can mean that we should act out the attributes and not just recite them.
How do we act out God’s attributes of mercy? By being that same source of mercy in the world that God represents.
The Talmud continues:
ה’ ה’ אני הוא קודם שיחטא האדם ואני הוא לאחר שיחטא האדם ויעשה תשובה.
The Lord, the Lord,” and it should be understood as follows: I am God before a person sins, and I am the same God after a person sins and performs repentance.
If God reveals to us that God allows for teshuvah and is available for relationship with us, just as before we sinned, we need to provide that forgiveness to others.
Each attribute of God that is revealed in the Torah is an instruction to us on an added nuance of how we can live a holy life through emulating God.
We are meant to be a source of kindness and forgiveness and reliability and stable support to those with whom we are close. Our emulation of God’s attributes of mercy and not just our recitation of those attributes can bring mercy and kindness and forgiveness into our homes as we provide it one another and show God that we deserve forgiveness.
I blessing for you all is that you, and your families, Klal Yisrael, and the entire world, be sealed for a good year. This community stands ready to be a framework in which we can provide hessed to one another, study Torah together, and bring God’s blessings to ourselves, our families, and to our community.
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 