On Yom Kippur, we attain a glimpse of our lives, our choices and our relationships to HaShem from a Divine perspective that grants us a more holistic view of the larger story in which we participate.
When we experience something positive in our lives, we generally praise the Kadosh Barukh Hu by saying, “Blessed is He Who is good and does good.” Yet when faced with a seemingly negative occurrence, we say, “Blessed is the true Judge.”
Our sages teach that in the future we will say “Blessed is He Who is good and does good” even regarding the tribulations we experienced. When we look back and see the entire story from a Divine perspective, we realize that every seemingly negative situation – both in our personal lives and in our collective national life – has actually contributed to HaShem’s plan for bringing all of Creation towards a Divine goal of total good.
We will ultimately understand how every perceived misfortune and disaster that befell us was actually a necessary point on the road to the future goal in which all humankind will joyfully connect to our deepest and truest selves through the rebirth of Hebrew civilization and its influence upon the world.
This higher understanding of how even the ostensibly negative is actually a necessary component of the greater ultimate positive also holds true for every transgression an individual commits. Although we possess the free choice to do other than that which our Torah instructs, we are unable to actually oppose HaShem’s Will or undermine His plan. And while a person could understandably wonder what difference our choices actually make, the truth is that our real choice is between being HaShem’s conscious partner or His unconscious tool.
The knowledge that our transgressions are ultimately recycled back into the Divine plan and contribute to the goal towards which history is always moving could potentially be misinterpreted as a license to sin. It should therefore be understood that transgressions actually prevent us from fully actualizing our true selves in this world. They create an experience of distance from HaShem, causing painful feelings of alienation and spiritual anguish.
We can only actively choose to disobey His Will and live in conflict with our own nature when we mistakenly believe that we exist separate from Him. The erroneous belief that each of us exists as an independent entity separate from one another is itself the true punishment an offender suffers, as it causes him to feel isolated from other people, estranged from his inner self and disconnected from the context and essence of his very existence.
But when one sincerely regrets his wrongdoings and resolves never to repeat them, he is forgiven and even his past sins are then put towards future good.
Yom Kippur is a day of spiritual recharge and transformation when the light of the World-to-Come is shining into our world, turning our transgressions from the past into light. By reconnecting to the expanded consciousness of Yom Kippur through the proper thoughts, acts and tefillot prescribed for the day, we can receive and be transformed by the day’s all encompassing light.
The Mishna (Yoma 8:9) quotes Rabbi Akiva as comparing Yom Kippur to a mikva — a purifying ritual bath. Yom Kippur is essentially a mikva in time. According to halakha, when a person immerses in a mikva there can be absolutely nothing between his skin and the water. The mikva’s waters represent HaShem’s Divine Oneness and when one enters into a mikva, he is essentially immersing himself back into that all encompassing Oneness, simulating the experience of existing within the greater infinite Whole we call HaShem.
In the mikva, we become one with the waters, completely absorbed, submerged and surrounded. By immersing our bodies in the water, we express our desire to experience our souls merging back into the Oneness of HaShem. We acknowledge that He is our context and essence and that nothing at all can ever separate us from Him.
This awareness of HaShem as the infinite Whole in which we all exist allows us to appreciate not only His Divine Oneness but also our special relationship to Him. The glimpse of the Divine perspective we receive on Yom Kippur strengthens and inspires us to cleave to His Torah and its statutes as the healthiest and most natural means for expressing our inner selves and fulfilling our purpose of manifesting His Ideal in this world.
