The Joint Process of Purification
By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah
In Yoma (85b), Rabbi Akiva states about the purification of the Jewish People on Yom Kippur: “Fortunate are you, Yisrael, before Whom you purify yourselves and Who purifies you!” The sages offer verses to support both of the ideas Rabbi Akiva mentioned: “I shall pour pure water on you and purify you, of all your contaminations and all your abominations I will purify you” (Yechezkel 36:25) and “Hashem is the ‘Mikveh’ of Yisrael” (Yechezkel 17:13).
Rabbi Akiva seems to be making the same statement twice. Yisrael purifies themselves before Hashem, Who purifies them. Isn’t this repetitive? Also, why do the sages bring two verses, both of which seem to express the idea that Hashem is purifying us.
Rav Chaim Friedlander explains that both Rabbi Akiva’s statements and the verses that are brought express two separate steps of the purification process. “Before Whom you purify yourselves” reflects our role in the process. “Who purifies you” refers to a later step, in which Hashem does the purification entirely by Himself.
What is our step in the purification process?
First, we do teshuva as much as we are capable, and resolve never to return to our errant ways. Secondly, we have the five afflictions on Yom Kippur, mainly not eating and drinking, and trying to separate as much as we can from the material world, which is what led us to sin. Thirdly, we spend the entire day of Yom Kippur engaged in prayer and singing praises to Hashem. Rabbi Akiva refers to these efforts with the words “before Whom you purify yourselves.” We are actively involved in the purification process at this stage.
All these efforts are intended to bring us to a state of deveikus, of clinging to Hashem, Who is the source of all purity. Through clinging to Hashem, He in turn extends His purity to us.
The result is that He can now cleanse us in ways that we would be unable to do through our teshuva alone. We can gain Hashem’s forgiveness, but ultimately, the sin will not be erased. By clinging to Hashem, He now reaches places that we cannot. He can erase our sins, and even more, He can cleanse us of the spiritual contamination that our sins caused. We alone would have no access to this contamination, so deeply it is entrenched in our very being. This part of the purification process is done by Hashem alone. This was Rabbi Akiva’s intent in his second statement, “… and Who purifies you!”
This also explains why the sages cited two verses. Hashem is the “Mikveh of Yisrael,” but a mikveh requires that the Jew go into it. Moreover, tevila in a mikveh is only effective if one has no separations between himself and the water, and he must immerse himself in the waters entirely. The mikveh symbolizes purification in which the Jew has an active role, as he endeavors to achieve total deveikus to Hashem. After this step comes the step of “I shall pour pure water on you and purify you.” Now, only Hashem is doing the purifying, while the Jew is passive.
Harav Leib Mintzberg notes that the efforts we make to cling to Hashem on Yom Kippur should reach the level of mesirus nefesh. This is what the five afflictions of Yom Kippur express: Since on this is a day I can regain purity, how can I even think about eating? I have much more important things to do! If purity and forgiveness are in my reach, nothing else interests me. I want no part of the material world until I gain Hashem’s forgiveness.
Rav Mintzberg adds that this mesirus nefesh also finds expression in the special form of bowing we do only on Yom Kippur, during the chazzan’s repetition of Mussaf. We prostrate ourselves on the floor, as was done in the Beis Hamikdash, expressing our total self-nullification before Hashem. Rashi (Yoma 21a) says that in the times of the Beis Hamikdash, when Jews prostrated themselves on Yom Kippur, they would say vidui and beg Hashem for forgiveness. This self-nullification together with vidui expresses the feeling that: “Hashem, I have no life if I can’t have purity.”
Every year on Hoshana Rabba, the Alter of Kelm would accept upon himself to keep the memory of Yom Kippur before him throughout the year. Rav Yerucham Olshin explains that there were two parts to this resolution. First, the Alter intended to remember all of his resolutions for the new year and fulfill them. Second, he intended to keep alive within him the sense of deveikus to Hashem that he had developed on Yom Kippur.
We too must try to hold on to the level of deveikus we reach on Yom Kippur. This is a challenge, but it is possible. When the fast is over, we can eat, but what will we eat? If we want to hold on to our deveikus, we will eat only what is healthy, and surely not over-eat. After the fast, we return to our homes and resume our daily lives, but if we want to maintain the deveikus of Yom Kippur, we will make sure that Torah and mitzvos remain the mainstay of our lives, with all else secondary. All mitzvos, and especially Torah study, bring kedusha, and this helps us to cling to Hashem.
Gedolei Yisrael would try to hold on to the deveikus of Yom Kippur after the fast ended. Once, after Yom Kippur, a man needed to ask Harav Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky (the Steipler Gaon) a question. He waited until an hour after nightfall, assuming that by then the Steipler had made havdala. He found the Steipler learning with such concentration that he did not even notice him. Not wanting to disturb him, the questioner sat near the Steipler and opened a sefer himself. Three hours went by before the Steipler even lifted his head from the sefer and noticed that someone was waiting to speak to him.
The Chasam Sofer was once asked when it was that he found the time to compose elaborate poems of praise to Hashem. He answered that in the days following Yom Kippur, he would channel the deveikus that remained with him into these poems.
May we reach deveikus and purity on Yom Kippur, and maintain it throughout the year!