Rabbi Chanan Feld, longtime San Francisco Bay Area mohel and a Torah teacher based at Beit Midrash Ohr HaChaim in Berkeley, has been seriously ill with oral cancer. According to an email I just received from the Beit Midrash, "Though he cannot speak he can write, and he wanted this to go out…for people to read and think about as they prepare for Yom Kippur."
(This teaching is adapted from the sefer "Ohr Gedalyahu.")
Kapparah, Tahara — Atonement, Purification
"Ki biyom hazeh yichaper alaychem litaher etchem mikol chatateichem lifnei HaShem titharu." (VaYikra 16:30)
"For on this day he shall provide atonement for you to purify you from all your sins before HaShem you shall be purified." (Leviticus 16:30)
When one sins they require atonement and purification. Even if one has received atonement, they still need what is called purification. For at the moment one sins, besides the punishment for transgressing the will of HaShem, the unfortunate person also blemishes their nefesh and neshama, and desentisizes their heart. It is as if they, so to speak, "stuff up" their heart.
This is why the sages say, "aveirah goreret aveirah," or "one sin causes or leads to another." The first offense one does "mitame"s [spiritually defiles] and "chatum"s [spiritually seals off] the heart. That is, it desensitizes it and then seals it off. This desensitizing leads to a second time, etc. The end result is that one becomes distanced from HaShem.
In a person’s tshuva, therefore, one requires Kapparah (atonement) to avoid the punishment, and then Taharah (purificiation), to fill in (fix) the blemish done to the soul; to remove the desensitization and the sealing off that has happened in the heart.
Like the statement in Scripture that says, "oomaltem et arlat livavchem," (and they will circumcise the foreskin of their heart), one must peel away the foreskin on the heart, the cover and seal which were a result of the transgression. This is the Tahara or Purification. This is a kind of self-cleansing of the sin’s shmutz, in combination with Kapparah or Atonement on the punishment.
After both steps or stages have been accomplished, then once again, we can draw closer to HaShem. That is why the original pasuk concludes: "lifnei HaShem titharu" or "before HaShem you shall be purified" — so that you can draw close to HaShem.
In the Talmud (Yuma 85) Rebbi said, "all the sins in the Torah, whether you’ve done tshuva on them or not, the day of Yom Kippur itself brings atonement, Kapparah." Like the Sefer HaChinuch (Mitzvah 185) which says, "The day receives Kedusha (holiness) from HaKadosh Baruch Hu (the Holy One, Blessed be He) to the point that it aids in Kapparah (atonement)."
Yes, the day aids in Kapparah or atonement, but it doesn’t have the power to bring Taharah or Purification. That strength lies in the hands of each and every one of us. Yom Kippur can take you part of the way, but only one’s tshuva, on that day, in addition to what the day itself brings, can help us reach the purification level beyond the atonement. That’s the special mitzvah of the day of Yom Kippur.
Rabbi Akiva in the mishnah of Yuma 85 says, "Fortunate are Israel. Before Whom do you become purified, and Who is the One who purifies? Your Father in Heaven." Just as a mikvah brings purification and renewal or newness, so "HaShem brings purification, Taharah."
We must remember, we do the tshuva and the effort or action for Tahara, but it is HaShem that purifies. It is a partnering or unification.
May we all merit higher and higher levels of Tahara and drawing ever closer to our Father in Heaven!
