I find the time spent in the synagogue during the Yom Kippur “break” between morning prayers and the start of the afternoon service exceedingly contemplative. I opt to remain in shul – usually in solitude – when I could otherwise return home and rest prior to coming back for the concluding prayer services of the day. I find this period soothing and settling especially after the exhilarating and often exhausting intensity of prayers that preceded the break and that promises to pick up once again when services resume.
Due to COVID-19, this past Yom Kippur I participated in a minyan that took place on two sides of a street. Ironically, the need to be distanced from people and in the open air did not allow me, for practical reasons, to remain during the break in the “synagogue” in quiet isolation.
Isolation, separation and social distancing contribute, in part, to a group of items that make up one of two themes that I focus on during Yom Kippur. These two themes are – atonement and communion with the Almighty.
In the first chapter of his book, For I will Appear in the Cloud, Rabbi Yonatan Feintuch discusses the Talmudic discussion on the law stated in the first Mishna requiring the High Priest to separate in a Temple-chamber seven days prior to Yom Kippur.
Feintuch points out that two Talmudic rabbis explain the need for this week-long separation period in two very different paradigmatic ways. According to Rabbi Yohanan (Israel, 2nd century CE), the High Priest’s seven-day separation each Yom Kippur is modeled after the section in the Torah about the dedication of the desert Tabernacle.
Aaron, the High-Priest-elect, separated for one week prior to their inauguration and the dedication of the Tabernacle. Rabbi Yohanan points out through common words and phrases that achieving atonement is common in both Torah sections. Rabbi Yohanan asserts that the Yom Kippur service borrows from the Tabernacle dedication section with its emphasis on the sacrificial rites as a means for achieving purity and atonement.
AARON REQUIRED separation for seven days prior to his inauguration and that of the Tabernacle. In a similar manner, the High-Priest in every subsequent year must separate for a week prior to Yom Kippur and carry out the sacrificial rites, the purpose of which is to achieve atonement for the people of Israel.
Rabbi Feintuch points out that Reish Lakish, the younger contemporary of Rabbi Yohanan, draws from a different Torah source to understand the need to segregate from family and community the week leading up to Yom Kippur. Reish Lakish draws upon analogies found at Sinai with the giving of the Torah. After God descended upon the mountain in a cloud of glory and after Moses had been separated from his colleagues for six days, on the seventh God called upon him to enter within His realm. In Reish Lakish’s paradigm, the Yom Kippur seven-day separation period models that of Moses prior to his communion with God.
The High-Priest on Yom Kippur enters the Holy-of-Holies with fire pan and coals and upon pouring incense there creates a cloud reenacting the communion between Moses and the Almighty at Sinai. During this ritual, no other person aside from the High-Priest is permitted in the sanctum or inner sanctum of the Temple. To be in the right frame of mind to encounter God, the High-Priest, like Moses, needed to be separated, socially distanced, and entirely isolated.
These two themes – atonement and communion – with God on this holiest of days on the Jewish Calendar are what occupies my attention on Yom Kippur. The isolation experienced by so many of us during the pandemic, if reflected upon in religious terms, may serve as a means to help us contemplate our encounter with the Almighty.
The writer made aliyah in July 2020 and currently serves as coordinator of English-speaking countries for UnitED – a project of the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs implemented at Herzog College.