BS”D
DIVINE FRAGRANCE: YOM KIPPUR
Shira Smiles shiur – 2016/5777
Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein
“All chet … bechillul Hashem -And for the sin … through
desecrating God’s Name.” It is logical to assume that the opposite of this sin
is the mitzvah of kiddush Hashem, sanctifying God’s Name. If we
understand the word chillul as creating a vacuum and emptiness and not
just an act of desecration proper, we can perhaps gain a better understanding
of the scope of this sin. In this context, Rabbi Meislish points out,
transgression is on a sliding scale. The more righteous a person is, the more
strictly he will be judged for not giving proper intent and weight of mitzvah
performance or prayer and recitation of brachot, for example.
How does this idea translate into living our lives? As Rabbi Kluger points our
in My Sole Desire, among others, our entire lives are meant to be
dedicated to sanctity and to Hashem’s service. Naturally, we are human and
cannot focus on this goal at every moment. Many of us therefore tend to serve
Hashem piecemeal, doing a mitzvah here, saying a bracha there, without
an overall plan. While we can take breaks, enjoy leisure and rest for any
number of reasons, we should realize that we are using these breaks as a means
of recharging for the main goal of living our lives as sanctifying God’s name,
just as any traveler will rest along the way toward his destination.
The source for this mitzvah is in Parshat Emor where the Torah says, “Velo
techallilu et Shem Kodshi – And you shall not desecrate My holy Name.”
Given our previous understanding, the mitzvah and its reverse are in effect not
only in public, but also in the privacy of our own homes and in the personal
relationship each of us has with Hakodosh Boruch Hu. As Rabbi Mordechai Ezrachi
notes, the purpose for which we were created was to glorify God’s Name. If we
claim that kiddush Hashem is only for others, for people greater than
ourselves, we are desecrating our very essence and cheapening ourselves while
we are minimizing His importance.
The Slonimer Rebbe, the Netivot Shalom gives further depth to our discussion.
Basing his ideas on Rambam’s Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah in Yad
Hachazakah, he writes that kiddush Hashem, sanctifying God’s Name,
is not just a public expression of dying to preserve the sanctity of His Name
in the face of an edict from non - Jews, but rather it is the very basis of
Jewish life. It is our responsibility to sanctify God every time we do a
mitzvah by acknowledging that our motivation is purely because Hashem so
commanded. Every time I struggle with my yetzer horo, I am fighting to
sanctify God. Every time I restrain myself from speaking negatively at someone
else’s expense, I am sanctifying God. Every time I restrain myself from self -
indulgence in the privacy of my own home, I am sanctifying God. The reverse is
a desecration of God. All this has nothing to do with the outside world or with
non - Jews. It is all about overcoming my personal yetzer horo, and it
is the hardest mitzvah of all.
When Avraham brought his son as an akeidah, an offering to Hashem, he
faced this battle. [Akeida”H is an acronym
for Al Kiddush Hashem.] But the
struggle was not totally over when Hashem stopped him and Avraham sacrificed
the ran instead. The Torah writes that there was another ram caught by its
thorns (bekarnov) in the thicket. This is the struggle we
face daily in the thicket of life. Every time we succeed, we create a ray of
light and shine, as Moshe’s face shone (keren)
with light when he brought God’s glory down to earth with the luchot.
Therefore each day upon arising, we wash our hands to dedicate ourselves to His
service as the Priests did before their service in the Beit Hamikdosh. Each day
we struggle to bring the glory of God down to earth, to recreate the sanctity
of ancient Jerusalem. This mitzvah, says the Rambam, is on a par with love of
God and awe (fear) of God.
But it is not only when we sin that we are minimizing Hashem’s glory. When we
do a mitzvah without proper intent, without investing ourselves and without
beautifying it we are also minimizing it and making Hashem’s Name hollow, cites
Letitcha Elyon of the writings of Rav Doniel Moscowitz of Kelm. That
explains why Sukkot comes after Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, for Sukkot is the
ultimate mitzvah for hiddur, for beautification. As Rabbi Imanuel
Bernstein writes, Yom Kippur puts ourselves into perspective and balance with
our true purpose, and Sukkot does the same for our possessions. Through
beautifying the mitzvoth, we are in fact beautifying ourselves before God,
explains Rabbi Bernstein by way of explaining a gemarrah.
How many opportunities do we have each day to sanctify His Name, and how many
times do we squander the opportunity? Do we remember to recite the appropriate
blessing for different things? Equally important, when we recite a blessing, do
we have the proper intent and think about the meaning of the words even once?
Rabbi Meislish offers some insight into the profound meaning behind the words
we recite, for Hashem does not need our gratitude, but we need to understand
our connection. For example, the word beracha does not mean “blessing”
in the usual sense. It is rather an acknowledgment that Hashem is the
Wellspring and Source of all. When we say Hashem’s four lettered Name, we are
acknowledging Him as both Master of all and as He Who is transcendent of time,
of past, present and future. Another important idea is that while all creation
seems to have taken place in the past, the verb we use in the bracha is
in the present tense, indicating that creation is an ongoing process; if it
were not, all creation would disappear. We are no longer three-year-olds
learning to recite a bracha. Let us try, at least once a day, to recite
a bracha with the proper intent.
Returning to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we coronate Hashem as our King on
Rosh Hashanah, thereby restoring the glory and sanctity we neglected to give
Him. When we accept Him as our King and subjugate our will to His will, we can
ask for forgiveness on Yom Kippur, writes Rabbi Rothberg in Moda Labinah.
We ask that He forgive us not just for the neglect of the mitzvah, but also for
the void of sanctity we created within ourselves.
However, we do not live in an isolated bubble, not as individuals nor as a
nation. How we interact with others, especially with the non - Jewish world, is
a reflection on Judaism and has the ability to sanctify or desecrate God’s
Name, writes Rabbi Munk in The Call of Torah.
Rabbi Ochion expands on this idea. Every one of us is an ambassador for Judaism
everywhere we go, especially if we look Jewish. Therefore, it is important that
our talk and our actions reflect an exalted moral standard in the workplace, in
public, and in our homes. Our behavior has the ability to create sanctification
or desecration of His Holy Name. Further, we may not know who looks to us an
example of proper behavior or mitzvah observance. While our rabbis and teachers
should obviously be scrupulous in all they do and say, our neighbor may look to
us as someone who would be more scrupulous than they are. (It is not just
children who say, “But Yussie is doing it, so it must be OK.” We may use
different words, but the reasoning is the same.) When we give license to
ourselves to act inappropriately, we enable others to do the same, and potentially
can create a great chilllul Hashem. Therefore, this type if chillul
Hashem is the severest of all sins.
It is not only the action that has to change, but the person himself needs to
change, writes Moda Labinah. For men, this can be achieved through
learning Torah and integrating its lessons, and for women it can be
accomplished by training oneself to work on changing our middos.
The sin of chillul Hashem is so severe that the angels say there can be
no forgiveness, as cited in Sichot Eliyahu. However, as night approaches
on Yom Kippur, and the gates of heaven begin to close, the angels who would
accuse us and testify against us are barred from entering. We ask Hashem at the
time of Neilah that He open the gates for us, His children, writes Rabbi
Schorr in Halekach Vehalebuv. We want the opportunity to atone for
desecrating His Name and again sanctify His Name, to declare Him as King over
the entire universe. Let us not lose this opportunity by focusing on mundane
and trivial things during Neilah.
May we, in the coming year, be given and take many opportunities to sanctify
God’s Name by living our lives as Hashem expects from each of us.examples of
the high moral standards Hashem expects of us as His children.