The Torah shares that on the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur, the holiest person alive (the kohen gadol, the high priest), would enter the holiest place on earth (the Kodesh HaKodashim – the Holy of Holies in the Temple), and the confessions he made at that time in that space would earn atonement for all Israel.
It sounds beautiful. It sounds ideal. And we will hear it described with austere simplicity in the Torah reading tomorrow morning and then we will reenact that ritual during the Avodah portion of the Mussaf prayers accompanied by beautiful and ornate poetry.
But when the Mishnah, the foundation of the Oral Torah, described how the high priest was instructed in the tasks that he would perform over the course of Yom Kippur, the Mishnah tells a story of distrust and alienation and tragedy.
The very chapter of the Mishnah in tractate Yoma explains that the high priest was sequestered for seven days prior to Yom Kippur to prepare himself for the day and to receive instructions in precisely what he was supposed to do. The Mishnah explains that the Sages would impress an oath upon the high priest and make him pledge to perform the rituals precisely how he was instructed:
אִישִׁי כֹהֵן גָּדוֹל, אָנוּ שְׁלוּחֵי בֵית דִּין, וְאַתָּה שְׁלוּחֵנוּ וּשְׁלִיחַ בֵּית דִּין, מַשְׁבִּיעִין אָנוּ עָלֶיךָ בְּמִי שֶׁשִּׁכֵּן שְׁמוֹ בַבַּיִת הַזֶּה, שֶׁלֹּא תְשַׁנֶּה דָבָר מִכָּל מַה שֶּׁאָמַרְנוּ לָךְ.
My Master, High Priest. We are agents of the court, and you are our agent and the agent of the court. We administer an oath to you in the name of the One whose Name resides in this House, that you will not change even one matter from all that we have said to you.
And then the Mishnah concludes that both the high priest and the Sages who had been tutoring him would separate one from another in tears. The high priest cried because he was not trusted. He knew that he was suspected of having a radical agenda to undermine the Yom Kippur rituals. And the sages would cry too over the tragedy that the fate of the Jewish people depended on a man whom they did not trust.
The Mishnah begins with distrust and alienation and ends with forgiveness and reconciliation.
The final Mishnah in Tractate Yoma (8:9) states:
עֲבֵרוֹת שֶׁבֵּין אָדָם לַמָּקוֹם, יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים מְכַפֵּר. עֲבֵרוֹת שֶׁבֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ, אֵין יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים מְכַפֵּר, עַד שֶׁיְּרַצֶּה אֶת חֲבֵרוֹ. אֶת זוֹ דָּרַשׁ רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן עֲזַרְיָה, מִכֹּל חַטֹּאתֵיכֶם לִפְנֵי יְיָ תִּטְהָרוּ (ויקרא טז), עֲבֵרוֹת שֶׁבֵּין אָדָם לַמָּקוֹם, יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים מְכַפֵּר. עֲבֵרוֹת שֶׁבֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ, אֵין יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים מְכַפֵּר, עַד שֶׁיְּרַצֶּה אֶת חֲבֵרוֹ.
For transgressions between a person and God, Yom Kippur atones; however, for transgressions between a person and another, Yom Kippur does not atone until he appeases the other person. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya taught that point from the verse: “From all your sins you shall be cleansed before the Lord” (Leviticus 16:30). For transgressions between a person and God, Yom Kippur atones; however, for transgressions between a person and another, Yom Kippur does not atone until the individual appeases the other person.
There is a curious redundancy in this Mishnah. What, precisely, is Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya adding? Rabbi Yoshiya Pinto, author of a 17th century Turkish commentary to the Ein Yaakov explains that the Rabbi Elazer ben Azarya is actually articulating a unique and distinct position. He claims that since the very same Torah that commands us to serve God is the same Torah that contains ethical guidance for how we interact with other people, Yom Kippur is not effective for any sin unless and until we appease the other people whom we have harmed.
Writing in the 18th century in Amsterdam, Rabbi Lowenstaam added a further wrinkle. It isn’t the act of seeking forgiveness from other people that causes God to grant us forgiveness but it is precisely the opposite. When God sees that we forgive those who have harmed us, we are then granted forgiveness.
This is an incredibly radical theological statement. Normally we follow an ethical code of virtue inspired by an ethose of והלכת בדרכיו the command “and you shall walk in God’s ways” which means that we are meant, to the best of our abilities, to mimic God’s actions and to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and bury the dead. But, on Yom Kippur, God follows our actions, as it were, and forgives us just as we forgive others. And in this way, the Mishnah in Yoma, which begins with alienation and distrust and tragedy, ends in reconciliation and forgiveness and purity.
There is a prayer called Tefilah Zakah that is printed in the machzorim and which many recite just prior to Yom Kippur. It is a frank confession of our missed potential and it culminates in a mutual forgiveness pact wherein we pledge to forgive anyone and everyone who harmed us, even if they don’t deserve it and even if they have not asked for our forgiveness. If everyone makes such a declaration, then we too are protected from the resentment and guilt incurred by the large and small slights we have not tried to rectify and about which we may not even know. And may God be inspired by this noble example of reconciliation and care for one another and, as it were, act towards us with that same generosity that we show to one another.
Rabbi David Wolkenfeld 