Torah portion

the process of confession that gives verbal expression to the deep internal process of personal change and repentance.

The words of the viduy help us articulate and concretize the deep feelings of regret for the past and resolve for the future. By vocalizing our misdeeds, we reinforce — and give shape and form to — the processes taking place deep beneath the surface.

WE NEED TO PREPARE

Ultimately, we cannot just walk into the Yom Kippur experience without preparation. When we recite the various confessions before God on Yom Kippur, we need to have done the necessary spiritual and physical work beforehand. That is why Yom Kippur does not appear in the calendar in isolation. It is part of the Ten Days of Repentance, which begin with Rosh Hashanah and culminate with Yom Kippur. The hard work of teshuvah begins, in fact, from the beginning of the month of Elul, the month preceding Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

One of the confessions we say on Yom Kippur is to acknowledge that sometimes we say a confession without meaning and intention, and this is something we have to be aware of and guard against. To merely mouth the words and assume it’s an automatic pass to forgiveness and atonement is a critical mistake. Yom Kippur is the happiest day of the year because of its powers of forgiveness, atonement and spiritual cleansing — but it is a gift which is accessed through the real work of personal transformation.

Confession also catalyzes another dynamic, and that is self-transcendence. Rav Chaim Friedlander explains the source of most personality faults and wrongdoing in the world is selfishness and self-absorption. Egotism. Our sages call on us to transcend our ego, to concern ourselves with the well-being of others. The Gemara says we will find forgiveness and compassion from God when we are able to be compassionate and forgiving toward others. On a simple level, the Gemara is saying God deals with us measure for measure. If we show understanding, forgiveness and compassion to others, then He will do the same for us in return.

Rav Friedlander says it goes deeper. The capacity to show understanding, forgiveness and compassion to other people is derived from a capacity to transcend our ego. This self-transcendence imbues us with a holiness and purity and greatness, and it is this that brings about the Divine forgiveness.

So, Yom Kippur is a day of achieving self-transcendence. We do so through our confessions, where we take a step back from our ego and look at ourselves objectively, acknowledging where we have made mistakes and where we can improve and how we can become better people. Doing so verbally and sincerely before God is a very powerful act of self-transcendence.

The other dimension of self-transcendence on Yom Kippur is to transcend the physical world by not partaking in food and drink, not wearing leather shoes, not washing or anointing with oils or engaging in marital relations. That, too, is an act of transcendence — of transcending the pursuit of personal physical gratification that can sometimes weigh us down and can distract us from the task of self-mastery that the day of Yom Kippur is all about.

Above all, Yom Kippur is a day of Divine forgiveness, a day of redemption and liberation from our mistakes and misdeeds. It is, in short, the happiest day of the year.

Rabbi Warren Goldstein is the chief rabbi of South Africa.

Facing Fear and Doubt

As we are about to enter the High Holiday season and begin the new Jewish year of 5782, we are full of hopes and dreams for ourselves and our families; and at the same time, due to the Coronavirus variant, we also approach this year with some fear and doubt. What will this year look like with the new variant? When will young children get vaccinated? How will this virus continue to affect our lives? When will we return to a “normal” life? A year full of excitement also begins with a year of some uncertainty, fear and doubt.

Reading this week’s portion, we learn that doubt and uncertainty are not new to the Jewish people. In the parshah, as the great Jewish leader Moshe tells the Jewish people he will not cross the Jordan and enter the Land of Israel, the Jewish people feel fear and uncertainty about their future. We know this because Moshe tells them, “Do not fear.” There is fear in the new leader, Yehoshua, as Moshe reminds him not to fear. Actually, three times in this week’s reading, the Torah uses some variation of “be strong and have courage.”

The Torah emphasizes strength and courage because it knows that doubt is part of human nature. We all have

doubts at some time in our lives, whether about our own health, job, other personal matters or worrying about our larger world. God even tells the Jewish people there will be times when he will hide his face from us Rabbi David (Deuteronomy 31:17),

Fain “Then My anger will flare up against them,

Parshat and I will abandon them

Vayelekh: and hide My counteDeuteronomy 31:1-30; Hosea 14:2nance from them.” God himself acknowl10; Micah edges there are times 7:18-20; when we do not feel His Joel 2:15-27. presence, times of lone(Shabbat liness, fear and doubt. At

Shuvah) times, God is hiding and at times God is with us. And He charged Joshua, son of Nun: “Be strong and resolute; for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them on oath, and I will be with you.” Just as Jews needed to face their fear and doubt then, we must also face our doubts and fears today. We must remember the message of this parshah: to have strength and courage. And we must also remember at the times of most doubt when God feels far that there will be times when God will also feel close. May we begin this new year, a year full of hope, fear and doubt, also Chazak V’Amatz, Be strong and have courage. Rabbi David Fain is rabbi at Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit in Farmington Hills.