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Last week, students in our Middle School Chagim class were bothered by the last Mishna in Masechta Taanit, which lists Yom Kippur as one of the two happiest days of the Jewish year. Fasting, talking about all of our sins, wearing a kittel (which is a death shroud), and saying tefilot like ונתנה תוקף made a number of our students look at Yom Kippur as a day to dread rather than embrace. What is the intent of this Mishna?
Although it’s true that many Yom Kippur minhagim and halachot focus on the mortality of man, the one piece of liturgy that perhaps highlights this theme the most is our recital of the final three lines of Neilah – Shema Yisrael, Baruch Sheim, and Hashem Hu Ha’Elokim. Those three lines are recited together in only one other context – at the viduy recited when one is about to pass from this world. Morbid Indeed.
However, my colleague Rabbi Yosie Levine, rabbi at the Jewish Center in Manhattan, once pointed out to me a simple insight that makes the biggest difference. Although it’s true that these three lines are said at viduy when a person passes away, on Yom Kippur we see the verses in reverse order.
In other words, Yom Kippur is a day that, by its end, blows life back into our lifeless selves. This is most dramatically depicted by our blowing the shofar, which is an allusion to the Shofar blowing that will occur at the time of Techiyat Hameitim - quite literally a revival! The reason, then, for fasting, talking about our sins, wearing a kittel, and saying tefilot like ונתנה תוקף is to help us notice the lifeless aspects of our lives, and by so doing, breathe life back into ourselves by Yom Kippur’s end!
Although some of our students would still have preferred experiencing life’s renewal while also being able to eat, everyone agreed that in truth, there is no greater joy than the rush we experience when we return to life.
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