Following the sin of the Golden Calf, Moses pleaded with God to forgive the people. Finally on Yom Kippur, atonement was achieved and Moses brought the second set of Tablets down from Mount Sinai.
Angel for a Day
On Yom Kippur, every Jew becomes like an angel. What are “angels?” Angels are completely spiritual beings, whose sole focus is to serve their Creator. The Maharal of Prague explains:
“All of the mitzvot that God commanded us on [Yom Kippur] are designed to remove, as much as possible, a person’s relationship to physicality, until he is completely like an angel.”
Just as angels (so to speak) stand upright, so too we spend most of Yom Kippur standing in the synagogue. And just as angels (so to speak) wear white, so too we are accustomed to wear white on Yom Kippur. Just as angels do not eat or drink, so too, we do not eat or drink.
This idea even has a practical application in Jewish law: typically, the second verse of the Shema, Baruch Shem, is recited quietly. But on Yom Kippur, it is proclaimed out loud — just like the angels do.
Five Aspects
There are five areas of physical involvement from which we remove ourselves on Yom Kippur:
- Eating and drinking
- Washing
- Applying oils or lotions to the skin
- Marital relations
- Wearing leather shoes
Throughout the year, many people spend their days focusing on food, work, material possessions (symbolized by shoes) and superficial pleasures (symbolized by anointing). On Yom Kippur, we restore our priorities to what really counts in life.
by Rabbi Shraga Simmons, www.aish.com
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