Yom Kippur 2024: Repentance and the personal, collective experience

Yom Kippur and the Process of Teshuvah delves us into the depths of our soul, stripping away layers of self-deception and ego while removing our artificial masks. It forces us to confront the false narratives we create about ourselves – stories we desperately cling to as coping mechanisms.

It requires a fearless moral reckoning and an honest inventory of our spiritual lives. We stand before God, without social titles and conventions, exposed in our naked vulnerability. In a moment of existential loneliness, we confront our flaws and weaknesses, beg for mercy, and simultaneously commit to transforming ourselves into better, more authentic versions of ourselves. It is an intimate moment, a silent dialogue with ourselves and God.

Over the past year, however, our dialogues have been neither personal nor solitary. We have lived through collective trauma and felt our hearts breaking together. Our inner worlds were overshadowed by national grief and heroism. We thought more about Jewish identity and perhaps less about our own spiritual refinement.

While religious excellence rests on a strong foundation of Jewish identity, heritage and mission, it requires much more. It requires a personal relationship with God—based on observance of the commandments, fervent prayer, Torah study, and refinement of character. Over the past year, our deep investment in national Jewish identity may have diverted our attention from the inner world of religious piety.

As this great day lies ahead, we must reflect: How can we balance the deeply personal journey of Yom Kippur with the overwhelming collective experiences of the past year? How can we change frequencies and think more personally and less collectively?

A vivid image of a Torah scroll and shofar for Yom Kippur. (Source: INGIMAGE)

Reviving an old model

Historically, Yom Kippur was once far more collective than personal. When the temple stood, the day was deeply rooted in our shared experience as a people, not individual repentance.

Thousands gathered in the courtyards of the temple and turned their gaze to the high priest, who performed sacred rituals for national atonement and liberation. In a moment of deep awe, he entered the Holy of Holies, where no man dared enter all year, and reconciled our nation to our Heavenly Father. As the crimson thread turned white, joy erupted and thundered our national confidence that forgiveness had been granted from heaven.

Even those viduy The confessionals of this time were shorter and simpler. Our concerns centered on the nation’s reputation and not just our personal religious struggles.

This year, after our national tragedy, we are invited to revive this old model. We stand before God not only as individuals asking for forgiveness, but also as a people – wounded by grief, confused by His mysterious decisions, yet steadfast in our faith, waiting for His guiding hand in the days to come.

Make the change

Yet even given this collective Yom Kippur option, God still expects a personal reckoning, confession, and transformation.

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This day requires an inward turn to stand alone before God—not as part of a nation grappling with the tides of history, but as an individual soul navigating the depths of personal responsibility. Yom Kippur requires us to descend into the hidden depths of our being and face the mistakes and failures that we so often avoid during the rest of the year.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, Rabbi Akiva, the great sage and visionary, recognized the tension between personal and collective Yom Kippur. In the ashes of this catastrophe, he quoted a verse from Jeremiah (chapter 14) in which he called God “the hope of Israel.” Mikveh Israel in Hebrew.

Playing with the double meaning of Mikveh – both “hope” and “ritual bath” – Rabbi Akiva assured a devastated nation that even without the Temple, God remained their eternal source of purification. Immersing yourself in His presence for the 25 hours of Yom Kippur would provide the same purification as majestic temple rituals.

But his message wasn’t just one of reassurance; it also laid down demands. Although the collective experience of Yom Kippur without a temple diminished, individual responsibility for personal development on Yom Kippur remained fully intact. Rabbi Akiva refused to absolve us of the personal Yom Kippur journey.

The same applies to us too. Despite everything that has happened in the past year, and despite our shared national trauma, we still face the task of a personal Yom Kippur – with the inner effort of Teshuvaha heartfelt confession and the refinement of our character.

However, the heart is still restless. How can we focus on our own spiritual journey when the suffering of our people is so overwhelming? How can we turn our gaze inward for even a moment when grief still weighs so heavily on our nation’s hearts? How can we wrap ourselves in a tallit and create a private space for the personal? Teshuvahwhile creating a barrier to the national pain that echoes all around us?

Here are two solutions.

Collective “Viduy”

As well Teshuvah has both personal and collective dimensions viduy – the confession of sins. After describing our first exile, the Torah predicts that we will “confess our national sins” as the first step toward recovery and return.

Indeed, when we returned from Babylonian exile, we made a deep common confession and acknowledged the many transgressions and betrayals of God that had led to our exile. We understood with painful clarity the sins that had led to historical derailments and national trauma.

Today we no longer have the same clarity about our collective failure. As a nation, we have shown tremendous courage, bravery and dedication in defending our rights to the land God has promised to His children. True, we were in a year of bitter social unrest and national disunity, which undoubtedly fed into God’s strict ordinances.

However, it seems too simplistic and morally questionable to attribute the terrible events of October 7th solely to the social unrest of the previous year. Clearly there are deeper, unresolved sins that stand in the way of our full restoration. Tragically, we don’t know exactly what these sins are.

Fortunately, viduy is still effective even without specificity. As we make personal confessions this Yom Kippur, we ask God to accept them not only for personal shortcomings, but also as a substitute for the unknown sins of our people. If we knew them, we would articulate them; Since this is not the case, we rent our personal one viduy serve as a collective confession on behalf of these national hidden failings.

Teshuvah is part of the fight

Furthermore, we not only increase our personal piety by strengthening our relationship with God and refining our moral character. As we strive to become better people and live more fully in the presence of God, we facilitate the return of His divine presence to a world that has driven Him away in too many ways through violence and the distortion of the truth.

Our war is diverse. Our soldiers are at the front and bravely protect us on the battlefield. But there is another battle – the battle for the presence of God in this world. The more successful we are in our own spiritual endeavors, the more victorious we will be in our military battles.

Embrace the personal journey Teshuvah. Dive deep into the depths of your soul and face the truths that lie within you. But do not for a moment overlook the historical significance of this moment. Find a way to view your personal teshuvah as an integral part of our collective effort to bring God back into this broken world.

Our Teshuvah is not just an individual undertaking. It is a shared mission to restore hope in the midst of darkness and bring God into this world. 

The author is a rabbi at Hesder Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush, with ordination from Yeshiva University and a master’s degree in English literature from the City University of New York. He is the author of Dark clouds above, faith below (Kodesh Press) and will be published soon Reclaiming Redemption: Deciphering the Labyrinth of Jewish History (Mosaica Press).

Reviving an old model

Make the change

Collective “Viduy”

Teshuvah is part of the fight

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