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From the Rabbi:
Yom Kippur is called in the Torah Shabbat-Shabbaton, a Shabbat among Shabbats. Like Shabbat is elevated in Holiness above regular weekdays, so too Yom Kippur is elevated among all Shabbats of the year as especially exalted and Holy. However, usually we mark the Holiness of Shabbat with wine, challah and and extra meal, yet on Yom Kippur we abstain from food all together. You would think that in addition to adding a prayer service (Neilah) we might also add a meal, but instead we abstain from physical pleasures including food, drink, perfumes and ointments, marital relations and leather shoes.
Now, it's not entirely true that Yom Kippur is devoid of celebratory eating and drinking. Our sages say that eating on Erev Yom Kippur is as big a spiritual accomplishment as fasting on Yom Kippur itself. So, really what we're doing is taking the Oneg Shabbos of eating, drinking and other sensual pleasures and doing them a day early. It's therefore appropriate to eat not just one celebratory meal before Kol Nidre, but to have one the prior evening and in the morning as well, so that like on Shabbat you'll have three meals erev Yom Kippur. In this way, Yom Kippur is like Rosh Hashanah, a 48 hour day. Only that here on Yom Kippur the two days are distinctly different. Shabbat is usually a day of soul and body together as one. On Yom Kippur, we giving each one it's own day. First we feed our bodies on Erev Yom Kippur. Then on Yom Kippur itself, we fully indulge our Neshamah, giving it the extra treat of a fifth prayer service and no bodily indulgences with which it must share time and attention.
There are many perspectives within our tradition which have explained this bifurcation of Body and Soul on Yom Kippur unlike any other festival. I'd like to share one with you based on the Sod Yesharim:
On the fourth day of Creation, God initially created the sun and the moon equally luminous. (Gen 1:16) "God made the two great lights. Not that the moon gave her own light, but the reflected light was equal to the light shined at it. The moon asked, "how can there be two kings with one crown?" and was instructed to make herself smaller (see Rashi there). The verse then continues, "the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars". The solution given to the moon was "separate but equal". Direct light in daytime, reflected light at night, and there's no competition.
The Jewish People are often compared to the moon. We reflect Divine Light. Sometimes we're full, sometimes less so, and we even have our fully dark moments. Our "sins and failures" for which we are forgiven on Yom Kippur express our inner darkness in which our moon is small, when we don't fully reflect the light God shines toward us. That's like our bodies' eating. Sometimes we're empty, sometimes we're full. Erev Yom Kippur.
However, the sun doesn't stop shining when the moon is small. When we sin, it doesn't darken God. Even when we fail to reflect it, His light still shines. So on Yom Kippur we let Hashem, and our Souls (which are sparks of God) fully shine with or without our bodies. We let God be fully magnanimous and untainted by our smallness. Yom Kippur is a time to recognize that our bodies don't fully reflect the light of our souls, and that that's really OK. But we do need to give them both their space and time. In Judaism we sanctify both the sun and the moon, and therefore it's fully appropriate that traditionally the very last thing we do on Yom Kippur just before breaking the fast is Kiddush Levanah, sanctifying the moon even while it's not full. Then we eat again.
Shabbat Shalom and G'mar Tov to us all,
Rabbi Shlomo
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NOTE: The Thursday evening class is paused until further notice.
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