Yom Kippur 5772 - English

Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky
B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica

On the Path to God is Man

It is said that Rabbi Jonathan was once forced to spend a Yom Kippur away from home.  Without saying who he was, he arrived on the evening of Kol Nidre at a small village synagogue, and looked around for a proper place for him to pray.  In the center of the synagogue, he saw a man zealously davening and crying while he prayed.  Seated beside that man, Rabbi Jonathan heard him speak as he sobbed:  “I am before You, Lord, as a weak pot; how much more weak will I be at the time of my death!”  Rabbi Jonathan was impressed, while he thanked God for having found such a pious Jew, who instilled in him God’s fear.

The following morning, Rabbi Jonathan joyfully went to the synagogue, looked for the praying man, and again sat beside him.  He was anxious to get inspired by his reverent praying, so sensitive and humble.  He again felt moved by seeing how this man fully gave himself over to the prayers.

When the Torah reading came up, another man was called to the Torah.  At that exact moment, his prayer companion dropped his Machzor, rose from his seat in a rage, and to Rabbi Jonathan’s surprise, exclaimed:  “Him before me?!  I am much wiser than him!  My family is more distinguished than his!  I give more money to the synagogue than him!  How is it possible that he be called to the Torah before I am?”  Silence encroached upon the sanctuary.  Rabbi Jonathan, who could not believe what he had seen, could not contain himself and asked the man:  “I cannot understand what is happening!  A few minutes ago, you were crying for the frailty of your existence.  And now you’re fighting for honors?  How is that possible?”  “But what are you saying, how dare you?!!  The man shouted back.  “Compared to God, I’m no one; my life just depends on His grace…  But not compared to that man!  He is worth nothing, he is less than I am!”  Rabbi Jonathan held his face between his hands, bewailed his having been fooled, and finally asked God to forgive that haughty and conceited man, who ultimately was just another ignorant soul.

Yom Kippur is a favorable day to try to get closer to God.  We have reflected for several days, we have spiritually prepared ourselves to accept our faults, we are in an empty stomach, more defenseless than usual… it would seem the ideal day for us to communicate with God.  However, the Mishnah clearly establishes that in Yom Kippur, the sins committed against God are forgiven, but the sins committed against other people can only be forgiven by them.  That is why, in our path toward God, our fellow neighbors are bound to appear.

According to our sages, it is not possible to love God without loving our neighbors.  The famous verse in Leviticus (19:18), “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, I am the Lord”, shows that in our path to God’s love, we must first love man.

It is not possible for us to be religious without feeling compassion toward others; it is not possible to be kind without trying to help others, loving them, forgiving them.  A person who claims to love God but who do not loves flesh and blood people, is just a fraud, a deceiver.

An old popular saying says that “we all love humanity, but loving our neighbor is harder”.  To love Him is to love and respect His creatures.

Yom Kippur challenges us to try and communicate with God, but at the same time it teaches us that, if we want to get closer to Him, we must first approach our fellow men and women.  And of course, that is difficult… very difficult.  A small comment, a glance when we were not expecting it, a honor granted “to another one instead of me”, a place we expected to own but ended in someone else’s hands… in short, there is no lack of opportunities to get annoyed with those around us.  How hard it is for us to truly love our neighbor!

But if we want to reach God, man is our first stop.  We will then have to swallow our envy and pride, our disdain and grudges.  We will have to bathe ourselves in humility, step down from the pedestal we usually occupy, and be willing to see our fellow men and women with love and understanding, ready to accept that just like us, those we face are human, and thus, may blunder.

That there are people who would do anything just for a bit of honor, who would be capable of harming us just to achieve some fame?  Yes, they exist… but in truth, they are not so many.  Most people are like us, with our good and bad days, with our moments of envy and anger.  We must be compassionate and try to discover the real human being hidden behind every person.

Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Hassidic teacher, used to say that it was a good custom to recite, each morning before praying, “hareini mekabel alai et mitzvat haboreh: veahaabta le reacha kamocha”, “I accept upon me the mitzvah demanded of us by the Creator: love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Before opening the Siddur and confronting God face to face, the sage always remembered he must first love his fellow partners in life.

The rabbi and professor Abraham Joshuah Heschel, as a young and unknown student in Vilna, joined a group of poets.  Among them, he wrote his first book, perhaps the least known, devoted to the memory of his father.  He called it “Der Shem Hamefoyrosh: Mentsch”, which in Yiddish means, “The Sacred Name of God:  Man”.  In the ineffable name of God, that name of which we have lost the knowledge of its true nature, that name which the mystics of Israel eagerly seek to know, in that name that represents God’s essence itself, in that name is found, according to Heschel, man.  When we search for God, we must first encounter man.

It may be that someday, we may enter a synagogue in a faraway place, where no one knows us.  We will gaze around, looking for a free place where we may pray to God with calmness of spirit.  And who knows?  Perhaps we will have the luck to sit beside a really pious and humble person, who acknowledges his/her mistakes and tries to rectify them.  And then, in a magical moment, as we listen to the beautiful melodies of Yom Kippur, we may be able to relinquish our pride, envy and conceit, and by looking into the eyes of our fellow sister or brother, into the depth of their eyes, perhaps we may find a divine glow.

 

Gmar Chatimah Tovah and Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky
B’nei Israel Congregation, Costa Rica