The path to greatness runs through our mistakes
I’d like to embrace the purity and holiness of Yom Kippur, but I’ve been through a Yom Kippur every single year, and I’m never very different at the end of it. We’re told the day itself brings us to a high place. But isn’t that just a tease? We get to a place that’s impossible to sustain. How does this translate into everyday life?
The nusach of the tefillos seems to send conflicting messages. On the one hand, we have the 13 Middos of Rachamim, the niggunim that uplift us. On the other hand, again and again and again we say Vidui. I don’t find it easy to recite a litany of everything I’ve done wrong (as well as many things I haven’t done wrong and I say anyway). It drags me down. How can I reconcile the two aspects of the day and the davening?
Said Rabi Akiva: Fortunate are you, Yisrael. Before Whom are you purified and Who purifies you? Your Father in Heaven, as it say, “I will sprinkle on you pure waters and you will be purified.” And it says, “Yisrael’s hope (mikveh) is Hashem.” Just as a mikveh purifies those who are impure, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu purifies Yisrael. (Mishnah Yoma 8:9)
Yom Kippur is our hope and our mikveh. What does this mean?
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