“The Rock — perfect is His work, for all His ways are just.” (Devarim 32:4)
Many times on Yom Kippur we ask Hashem to forgive us and cleanse us. Why the double lashon?
The Ohr Gedalyahu explains that if someone did something improper and asks for mechilah, he’s forgiven. But he’s still not the same person he was before he sinned. Then Hashem promises us that if we do teshuvah, we get both forgiveness and purity. We’re essentially better people than before we sinned. (Rabbi Yisroel Reisman)
“IFyou could be any animal in the world, which would you be?”
Oh, the topics we dissected at teenage sleepovers, or at midnight at camp, piled up on the top bunk, sleep the farthest thing from our minds. Personally, I’d always wanted to be a cat. A sleek, regal feline, quiet but sharp.
Once Yom Kippur’s over, hopefully we’re forgiven. But purity has yet to be achieved; that’s the avodah of Succos. Yom Kippur is like going into a mikveh. He’s forgiven while he’s in there. But only when he comes out of that mikveh has he achieved taharah — that’s Succos.
Now it was Yitzy posing the question, glancing at all the fauna in our succah that had come to join us for Yom Tov.
“I want to be a bee!” shouted Shloime. “That way everyone will be scared of me!”
