Yom Kippur Torah
Can we hold back the waves of the sea?
Reflection by Ariel Dominique Hendelman, the Or HaLev Team
"The words `Yom Kippur` literally mean `Day of Atonement,` or, as some have cleverly pointed out, `Day of At-One-Ment`. Okay, but what are we really doing? There is so much going on, so much liturgy, so many haunting melodies & also so many things we don't do - no eating, no physical intimacy, no bathing. What is this day really about?
In Rabbi Alan Lew's incredible book on the Days of Awe, This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared, he writes about the opening of Yom Kippur:
`The tragic pain of the soul -- the pain we hear in those first grieving notes of Kol Nidre -- is the pain of loss, the pain of impermanence. This is the first hurdle the soul must clear as it makes its way through the world, the first disappointment it must come to grips with. Everything passes...we try to hold on as hard as we can...to our strength and our youth, we try to hold on to each other. But we may as well try to hold back the waves of the sea. So this is the first note that is sounded in the song of the soul, and many of us never get past it.`
Yom Kippur is an incredibly mindful day. `Wake up!` it says. `Stop denying the truth of your circumstances! ` Yes, everything changes all the time and change is the sacred rhythm from chrysalis to conifer. No, there is nothing solid to hold on to except this very stable, very loving awareness at the center of our beings & at the center of Life itself.
For one day, we stop engaging in life-affirming activities like food and sex and instead turn to the other side, to the unknown that awaits us all. We acknowledge it and welcome it. In the process, we may realize that it is not so terrifying. Just as meditation continually shows us, it is the resisting that causes suffering more than the thing itself.
This Yom Kippur, when those first melancholy notes of Kol Nidrei ring out, may we take a deep breath and welcome the sacred cycles of life & death."