Yom ha'Kippurim 5780: Kaparah as a Means to an End

If you've ever felt hopeless going into Yom ha'Kippurim, then perhaps this partially developed approach will be a game-changer for you as it was for me.

Oct 08, 2019

Click here for a printer-friendly version of this article.

“Come, now, let us reason together, says Hashem. If your sins are like scarlet, they will become as white as snow; if they have become red as crimson, they will become [white] as wool” (Yeshayahu 1:18)

Yom ha'Kippurim 5780: Kaparah as a Means to an End

Kaparah as a Means to Taharah

Until this year I've viewed kaparah (atonement) as the goal of Yom ha'Kippurim. This year, however, I noticed that the pasuk (verse) describing the purpose of Yom ha'Kippurim suggests otherwise. After detailing the entire Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim (the Temple Service done on Yom ha'Kippurim), the Torah states:

This shall remain for you an eternal decree: In the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and you shall not do any work, neither the native nor the convert who dwells among you. For on this day, he shall atone for you, to purify you; from your sins before Hashem shall you be purified. (Vayikra 16:29-30)

This is clearer in the Hebrew than it is in the English: "ki ba'yom ha'zeh yechapeir aleichem le'taher eschem." In other words, the kaparah is a means to the taharah (purification), which is the end.

This raises three major questions:

What is this kaparah? The pasuk cited above is referring to the kaparah brought about by the Kohen Gadol's avodah (service). What does kaparah mean in that context?
What is this taharah? Most instances of taharah in the Chumash are a reference to the detailed laws of tumah v'taharah (halachic impurity and purity). Here this is not the case, since the pasuk explicitly says "from your sins before Hashem you shall be purified." What, exactly, is this "purification from sin"? This is the only instance of such a usage in Chumash. For example, the Chumash never says that bringing a korban chatas (sin-offering) "purifies you from your sin" or that doing teshuvah "purifies you." Yom ha'Kippurim is the only time the Chumash makes reference to taharah from sins.
How does this kaparah facilitate this taharah? The same question we'd ask about any means to an end: how does it work?

I will do my best to answer these questions as best as I can before Yom ha'Kippurim starts.

Sforno's Explanation

I found only one of the classical commentators who addresses all three questions: the Sforno. Here is a translation of his commentary on the aforementioned pasuk:

for on this day he will atone - The reason that you need shevisah and inui along with this is because the Kohen with his avodah merely brings kaparah, and the concept of kaparah is the diminution of the cheit (sin) and preparing it to receive selichah (forgiveness).
before Hashem you will be purified - But the attainment of taharah and complete selichah will be "before Hashem" alone, and this is through vidui (confession) and teshuvah (repentance), for He alone knows their reality.

Let's summarize how the Sforno addresses all three of our questions, and then we'll try to understand what he means:

What is this kaparah? According to Sforno, this kaparah includes two functions: "diminution of the cheit" and "preparing it to receive selichah."
What is this taharah? Sforno doesn't explicitly define taharah, but he seems to equate it with "complete forgiveness" which is achieved through teshuvah and vidui before God.
How does this kaparah facilitate this teshuvah? Apparently, by "diminishing" and "preparing" our sins to receive selichah, in conjunction with inui and shevisah.

As you can see, the Sforno's answers require some clarification. Specifically, what does he mean by "diminution of the cheit"? What does it mean to "prepare" the cheit to receive selichah? How does the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim accomplish these two functions?

How the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim Diminishes and Prepares the Cheit for Selichah

There are two ways to diminish something: quantitatively, by reducing its size, and qualitatively, by taking an essence and reframing it merely as an accident (i.e. as a particular). I believe that the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim diminishes the cheit in this latter sense, as we shall see.

Unfortunately, the Sforno doesn't offer much of an explanation for the philosophy behind the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim. However, an explanation given by my Rosh ha’Yeshiva sheds light on the Sforno's framework. Here's an excerpt from a summary of this explanation written by a student of the yeshiva (with minor edits by me):

An understanding of the service of the scapegoat gives us insight into the essential nature of the sanctity of Yom Kippur and its function as a metaher (purifier). The seir la'azazel functioned as an atonement for all the sins of the Jews. Leviticus Chapter 16 Verses 21 and 22 tells us that Aaron placed his hands on the seir la'azazel, confessed all the sins of the Children of Israel and all their transgressions, and placed them on the head of the Azazel goat. How does this goat serve to forgive all the sins of the Jewish people? The Torah is teaching us that the sins of man are really separate and extraneous to his essential nature. Aaron was capable of removing all of man's sins and placing them on the head of the goat. The seir la'azazel as stated, represents the satan, man's evil inclination, the part of man driven by his fantasy. This service signifies that the part of man which is based upon his emotions and fueled by his fantasy is really not reflective of man's true essence, his tzelem elokim, his seichel (intellect). This part of man, his instinctual nature, is severable from his true nature. However, if man follows his fantasies and his evil inclination he is doomed as the seir la'azazel, to face a brutal and lonely death.

This same perspective on human nature was beautifully expressed by Richard Mitchell in the excerpt from The Gift of Fire which I every year before Yom ha'Kippurim:

I imagine some well-informed and largely wise visitor from another world who comes to Earth to study us. He begins by choosing two people at random, and, since time and place are of no importance to him, but only the single fact of humanity, he chooses Socrates and me, leaving aside for the moment every other human being. He begins with an understanding of the single but tremendous attribute that distinguishes us both from all other creatures of Earth. We are capable of Reason. Capable. We can know ourselves, unlike the foxes and the oaks, and can know that we know ourselves. He knows that while we have appetites and urges just like all the other creatures, we have the astonishing power of seeing them not simply as the necessary attributes of what we are, but as separate from us in a strange way, so that we can hold them at arm's length, turning them this way and that, and make judgment of them, and even put them aside, saying, Yes, that is "me," in a way, but, when I choose, it is just a thing, not truly me, but only mine. He sees, in short, what "human" means in "human beings."

It is in this sense that the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim "diminishes" our sins, thereby "preparing" them for forgiveness. Without the perspective embedded in this avodah, each sin stands as its own essential entity. The task of doing teshuvah on our multitude of sins looms large, and can be quite daunting. Is there anyone who can do complete teshuvah on every single sin, making an honest commitment never to repeat that sin, genuinely regretting the fact that he did it, and transforming himself to the point where he won't do it again? "Who can say, 'I have cleansed my heart; I have purified myself from my sin'?" (Mishlei 20:9). That is a tall order indeed. Theoretically, this might be possible over the course of a long lifetime, but is certainly impossible to accomplish on demand every year at Yom ha'Kippurim for every single Jew in the nation.

But when we view our sins through the lens of the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim, we recognize that they all stem from one underlying source: the instinctual part of human nature. This paradigm shift results in a "diminution" our sins by reducing them from essential entities to particular expressions of a single aspect of human nature. Rather than seeing each sin in isolation, we view them all as instances in which our yetzer ha'ra (evil inclination) propelled us towards fantasy and away from reality.

From this angle, the task of teshuvah on Yom ha'Kippurim becomes far more manageable and realistic. Rather than attempting to do full teshuvah on each and every cheit, the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim allows us to do a generalized teshuvah on this part of our human nature. We do this not by committing ourselves to never giving in to this part of our nature again - which would be inherently impossible - but by acknowledging that "this part of my nature is not the real me." We express remorse for those times we have given in to this part of our nature - a remorse built on the recognition that this path leads to harm and destruction, as symbolized by the seir la'azazel.

My Rosh ha’Yeshiva expanded on this concept by differentiating the kaparah brought about by an ordinary korban chatas from the taharah brought about by the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim:

The kaparah of the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim is unique because it atones for many sins, kalos ve'chamuros (lenient and stringent sins). Whereas a korban chatas is brought for a particular maaseh aveirah (act of transgression), and atones for that particular sin, on Yom ha'Kippurim "lifnei Hashem titharu" - we are purified before Hashem. The essential character of the day brings atonement. This is a different type of forgiveness than a specific korban chatas. Yom Kippur is related to the state of the gavra (individual). The day brings atonement for the individual. A person who appreciates the sanctity of the day demonstrates that he, as an individual, is worthy of forgiveness. Consequently, this new status results in the removal of the particular sins.

This is how the kaparah of the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim "prepares" our sins to receive the taharah lifnei Hashem (purification before God). But mere recognition of this idea isn't sufficient. In order to attain that taharah, we must do teshuvah and vidui - NOT on every single sin, but our fundamental error of giving in to the instinctual part of man.

Support from the Rambam

In the first chapter of Hilchos Teshuvah the Rambam enumerates all of the various requirements for different types of kaparah. He underscores the point that in most cases, kaparah can only be attained if a person did teshuvah. When a person brings a korban on a cheit, he only gets kaparah for that cheit if he did teshuvah. When a person receives the penalties of malkos (whiplashes) or misah (death), he only gets kaparah if he did teshuvah. After expounding on the kaparah of the Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim, the Rambam discusses the state of things in the present era:

During the time when the Beis ha’Mikdash does not exist and we do not have a mizbach kaparah (an altar of atonement), the only thing we have is teshuvah. The teshuvah brings kaparah for all transgressions. Even if someone is a rasha (evil person) for his entire life and he does teshuvah at the end – his evil name will not be mentioned to him, as it is stated: “The wickedness of the evil one will not cause him to stumble on the day he does teshuvah from his wickedness” (Yechezkel 33:12). The day of Yom ha’Kippurim itself brings kaparah for shavim (those who have done teshuvah), as it is stated: “For on this day He will atone for you” (Vayikra 16:30).

Up until this year I thought that when the Rambam says "the day of Yom ha'Kippurim itself brings kaparah for shavim" he meant this in the same way as he did when talking about korbanos, malkos, and misah - namely, that on Yom ha'Kippurim we only receive kaparah on those sins for which we have done teshuvah, but for those sins on which we have NOT done teshuvah, we do NOT receive kaparah.

This always made me view Yom ha'Kippurim in a somewhat bleak manner. Sure, maybe I succeeded in doing a little bit of teshuvah on a handful of sins, but the vast majority of my sins were untouched, so Yom ha'Kippurim didn't do much for me. All it did was remind me of my exceedingly low level.

This year, after encountering the Sforno's explanation in conjunction with my Rosh Yeshiva's idea, my view has changed. Yes, it is true that kaparah on a specific sin is only possible if one does teshuvah on that specific sin - but this is only true for the kaparah brought about through teshuvah, which applies year-round. The kaparah of Yom ha'Kippurim is a different phenomenon altogether. In order to attain that kaparah, there is only one requirement: you must be a shav - someone who has done teshuvah.

[Disclaimer reminder: this is where the idea isn't 100% finished!]

What does the Rambam mean by shav? I can think of two possibilities. One is that you've done teshuvah on ANY cheit whatsoever. For example, let's say I've done 100 chataim, but I only enter Yom ha'Kippurim having done teshuvah on one of them. Previously I thought this would mean that Yom ha'Kippurim would only bring kaparah on that one cheit that I did teshuvah on. Now, however, I think that by doing teshuvah on that one cheit, I have the status of being a shav, and I will receive the general kaparah (or, in Sforno's terms, the taharah) of Yom ha'Kippurim as a whole. The other possibility is that when the Rambam says shav, he means someone who has done this fundamental teshuvah on the instinctual part of human nature. Either way, the Rambam states that the kaparah of Yom ha'Kippurim is contingent on being a shav - not on doing teshuvah for every cheit.

My rebbi pointed out a similar idea in Hilchos Teshuvah Chapter 3. The Rambam begins the chapter by defining "tzadik" (righteous person) as someone whose zechuyos (merits) outweigh their avonos (iniquities), a "rasha" (wicked person) as someone whose avonos outweigh their zechuyos, and a "beinoni" (middle person) as someone whose zechuyos and avonos are equal. Later in the chapter, the Rambam explains the mechanics of the judgment which takes place on Rosh ha'Shanah and Yom ha'Kippurim:

Just as the avonos and zechuyos of man are weighed at the time of his death, so too on each and every year the avonos of each and every member of mankind is weighed with his zechuyos on the Yom Tov of Rosh Ha'Shanah. One who is found to be a tzadik is sealed for life; one who is found to be a rasha is sealed for death; and the beinoni hangs [in the balance] until Yom Ha'Kipurim ...

Now, if we paused here and asked: "What does the beinoni need to do in order to be sealed for life on Yom ha'Kippurim?" You would expect the Rambam to say: "If the beinoni accumulates enough zechuyos or removes enough avonos so that his zechuyos outweigh his avonos, then he is sealed for life, but if not, then he is sealed for death." But no! Instead, the Rambam writes:

and the beinoni hangs [in the balance] until Yom Ha'Kipurim: if he did teshuvah, then he is sealed for life, and if he didn't, then he is sealed for death.

In other words, the sealing in the book of life on Rosh ha'Shanah is based on the weighing of our zechuyos and avonos, but the sealing of our judgment on Yom ha'Kippurim is dependent on one thing, and one thing only: whether or not we did teshuvah - period. Not "whether or not we did teshuvah on ALL of our sins." Not "whether or not we did teshuvah on enough sins to change the balance in our favor." Simply on whether we did teshuvah or not.

Now I realize that the Rambam here is talking about the judgment aspect of Yom ha'Kippurim rather than the kaparah (or taharah), but I would like to suggest that perhaps this is what he means when he says that Yom ha'Kippurim only brings kaparah for a shav. I think it's reasonable to say that just as any teshuvah is enough to seal a person for life on Yom ha'Kippurim, so too, ANY teshuvah is enough to bring the special kaparah of Yom ha'Kippurim.

Another support from the Rambam can be seen in his formulation of the vidui of Yom ha'Kippurim, which I wrote about a couple of years ago (and as was pointed out by another one of my rabbeim - the same one whose insights contributed to the ideas I wrote about there). There I noted that unlike the formula for regular vidui, which includes the phrase "and I will never return to this [sin] again," the vidui of Yom ha'Kippurim doesn't include any resolutions never to repeat these sins. I gave another answer there, but perhaps this year's insight provides a different answer. For regular sins, teshuvah requires a person to commit to never doing the sin again. The teshuvah of Yom ha'Kippurim, however, is on human nature - not a particular human error - and it would be ludicrous to say that we will never succumb to human nature ever again. Rather, the essential teshuvah of Yom ha'Kippurim is primarily hakaras ha'cheit (recognition of the sin) and charatah (regret) for the harm it caused - NOT a commitment never to return to the sin. This supports the idea that the kaparah of Yom ha'Kippurim is of a different nature than the kaparah of ordinary teshuvah.

Yom ha'Kippurim as a Day of Hope and Joy

Lastly, I'd like to point out that I never understood how Chazal and the Baalei Mesorah could be so (for lack of a better term) optimistic about the kaparah on Yom ha'Kippurim. There are numerous statements which reflect this positive outlook.

Consider, for example, the mishnah in Taanis 4:8 says: "There are no days more joyous in Israel than Tu b'Av and Yom ha'Kippurim." The Gemara there explains that the joy of Yom ha'Kippurim is "because it contains pardon and forgiveness." Vayikra Rabbah 30:2 explains that one of the reasons why we pick up a lulav and esrog on Sukkos is to demonstrate that we emerged victorious in the Divine judgment. The Sefer ha'Chinuch (on Avodas Yom ha'Kippurim) explains that if our sins accumulated from year to year, they would prove to be too much and the world would be destroyed. For this reason, Hashem - out of His chesed (kindness) - gave us Yom ha'Kippurim, so that once a year we could achieve kaparah for our sins, and wouldn't be deserving of destruction. I recall another source saying that the joy of Sukkos itself is on the fact that we received kaparah on Yom ha'Kippurim, as indicated by the fact that we encircle the mizbach kaparah (altar of atonement) throughout the holiday of Sukkos. And many more (which I don't have time to list right now).

If we assume that we only get kaparah on Yom ha'Kippurim for the sins that we did teshuvah on, then none of these glowing statements about Yom ha'Kippurim make sense. It would be sheer naivete to assume that Chazal and the Baalei Mesorah assumed that all of Klal Yisrael would do complete teshuvah every year on all of their sins.

But in light of this year's insight, then these statements DO make sense. Yes, there is still a lot of work we need to do on our individual sins, but the kaparah of Yom ha'Kippurim is well within the reach of every Jew. All we need to do is recognize that our instinctual nature is not our true nature, express genuine remorse over our perpetual tendency to be ensnared by this part of our nature, and enter Yom ha'Kippurim having done SOME teshuvah. Indeed, it can be argued that simply by participating in the observance of Yom ha'Kippurim with the rest of Klal Yisrael, it is a virtual certainty that everyone who participates will attain the kaparah and taharah lifnei Hashem.

In this sense, Yom ha'Kippurim is an optimistic and joyous day. It is a day when we remind ourselves of what it means to be human, and rededicate ourselves towards that end.

To Be Continued ...

There is far more to explore here. We still haven't attempted a full explanation of what the taharah of Yom ha'Kippurim is. I also have a theory about how the Yud Gimmel Middos ha'Rachamim fit in, and why they are the centerpiece of the Yom ha'Kippurim davening.

But alas! Time has run out, as it is wont to do. I hope that this year brings us more learning and more teshuvah, and that we are all sealed in the Book of Life.

Addendum [9/27/2020]

Shortly after writing this article last year – on Yom ha’Kippurim, in fact – I came across a Tanchuma (Chukas 19) cited by the Abudurham in his commentary on the Vidui Yom ha’Kippurim which I believe supports this approach. It states that “once the people said, ‘we have sinned,’ they immediately received [Divine] favor.” This makes no sense if it’s talking about vidui in the framework of ordinary teshuvah, but in light of everything we’ve said about the special teshuvah, kaparah, and taharah of Yom ha’Kippurim, it makes perfect sense.

Since writing this article, I’ve developed my understanding of teshuvah even further - according to both the Rambam AND the Sforno. If you see other steps I can take or problems with what I’ve written, please let me know!

The Rabbi Schneeweiss Substack

Discussion about this post