## Rabbi Sacks on Yom Kippur Mahzor, Yom Kippur Evening, Ma'ariv for Yom Kippur

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**THE BLESSINGS OF THE SHEMA**
Morning and evening, the Shema is surrounded by three blessings, two before, one afterward (plus a supplementary blessing in the evening, a prayer for safety). Together they articulate the three fundamental principles of Jewish faith: creation, revelation and redemption. Creation: God is the Author of the universe. Revelation: God has revealed Himself to us in the form of His word, the Torah, the text of our covenant with Him and the code of our existence as a holy nation. Redemption: God brought our ancestors from slavery to freedom, leading them out of Egypt, dividing the Reed Sea for them, protecting and sustaining them for forty years in the wilderness. These paragraphs are precisely directed to these three ways through which we come to know God: through the wonders of the natural universe, the teachings of the Torah, and the miracles of Jewish history.


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אַהֲבַת עוֹלָם *With everlasting love.*Of all the ways in which God has made Himself known to us, the one that is central is revelation: God’s word as recorded in Torah. The history of the Jewish mind is in effect the story of an extended love affair between a people and a book. Heinrich Heine called the Torah “the portable homeland of the Jew.” Wherever Jews went they took Torah with them. Where Torah study was strong, Jewish life was strong. This paragraph expresses that love.


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שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל, יהוה אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ, יהוה אֶחָד *Listen, Israel: the*Lord *is our God, the*Lord*is One*. This, the single most famous declaration of faith, has many dimensions of meaning. (1) There is ultimately only one creative force that brought the universe into being. Conflict is not written into the fabric of reality. At the heart of all is the One. (2) All life has a single source, an idea given new resonance since the discovery and decoding of DNA. Diversity on earth points to unity in heaven. (3) God alone is our ultimate sovereign and our sole object of worship. (4) The love of God and God’s creations leads to unity, within and between ourselves.


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בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם *Blessed be the name.*Yom Kippur is the only time we say this sentence aloud. Normally it is said silently because it is not part of the biblical text of the Shema (Deut. 6:4–9). Three reasons are given for saying it aloud tonight: one midrashic, another mystical, the third historical. The midrashic reason is that, on his deathbed, Jacob worried that one or other of his children might have doubts about their faith. They reassured him: “Listen, Israel [Jacob’s other name], the Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” In thanks Jacob replied, “Blessed be the name” (*Pesaḥim* 56a). Tonight the synagogue is full of Jacob’s children, and like him we give thanks.
The mystical reason is that according to the sages, Moses heard the angels saying these words when he went to heaven to receive the Torah, but he was not commanded to make them part of the Torah, so he taught future generations to say them silently (*Devarim Raba* 2:36). Today however, having foresworn food and drink and other pleasures, we are like the angels, and like them we can say the words aloud.
The historical reason is that this was the congregational response said in the Temple instead of the word Amen. Throughout the year we say it silently as a reminder of the Temple. On Yom Kippur, when we collectively re-create the service of the High Priest in ancient times, it is as if we *were* in the Temple. Therefore we say it aloud as those present at the Temple service said it aloud.
Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik added a fourth reason: On Yom Kippur the reading of the Shema is a *davar shebikedusha,*a holy act requiring a *minyan* since, when the Temple stood, the High Priest said the first line using the most sacred name of God. A*davar shebikedusha* always involves a public invitation by the Leader and a public response by the congregation.


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וְהָיוּ הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵֽלֶּה…עַל־לְבָבֶֽךָ *These words…shall be on your heart*. Said Rabbi Menaḥem Mendel of Kotzk: “Why does the Torah say that these words should be “on” your heart, not “in” your heart? Because the heart is not always open. Therefore the Torah commands us to lay these words “on” our heart so that when the heart opens, they are there, ready to enter.”
וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם לְבָנֶֽיךָ *Teach them repeatedly to your children*. In Judaism, education as the conversation between the generations is a sacred task, the sole guarantor of Jewish continuity.
Civilization hangs suspended, from generation to generation, by the gossamer strand of memory. If only one cohort of mothers and fathers fails to convey to its children what it has learned from its parents, then the great chain of learning and wisdom snaps. If the guardians of human knowledge stumble only one time, in their fall collapses the entire edifice of knowledge and understanding. (Jacob Neusner)


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וְנָתַתִּי מְטַר־אַרְצְכֶם בְּעִתּוֹ *I will give rain in your land in its season.* At the end of his life, Moses told the next generation, who would enter the land, that they would find it “not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven” (Deut. 11:10–11). Unlike the Nile Valley and Delta, it did not have a constant, regular supply of water. In Egypt, the natural instinct is to look down for sustenance to the river. In Israel, dependent on rain, the natural instinct is to look up to heaven.
הִשָּׁמְרוּ לָכֶם פֶּן־יִפְתֶּה לְבַבְכֶם *Be careful lest your heart be tempted.*Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, from which this paragraph is taken, Moses warns the people that their greatest trial was not the wilderness years when they wandered without a home. It would be when they entered the land and became prosperous. The greatest challenge to faith is not poverty but affluence. It is then we are in danger of becoming complacent, forgetting why we are here.


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צִיצִת *Tassels*. The command of tzitzit appears in the Torah after the episode of the spies (Num. 13–14). The connection between the two has to do with seeing. The spies saw, but fear distorted what they saw, so they concluded that the land was unconquerable, its cities invincible, its population giants. The tzitzit, whose blue thread is a reminder of heaven, were intended to ensure that we should not “stray after your heart and after your eyes.” Faith allows us to see what is really there, not what we fear.


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אֱמֶת *True.*The Hebrew word *Emet* means more than “truth” in the conventional Western sense of fact as opposed to falsehood. *Emet* also means “being truthful,” keeping your word, honoring your commitments. Hence the importance here of connecting past redemption to future deliverance. As the Shema segues into the blessing of redemption, we base our faith in God’s future redemption on the basis of the history of the past when He brought us out of Egypt as He said He would. God honors His word. His truth is the basis of our hope.


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**THE AMIDA**
The Amida, the “Standing Prayer,” is the prayer par excellence. We take three steps forward and bow, for we are entering the presence of a king, the Supreme King of kings. Tongue-tied, we ask God to open our lips. We stand, head bowed in the face of majesty. We explain by what right we claim the attention of the King: we are the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the first to heed God’s call and make His name known in the world. Next, in the second paragraph, we explain why we have come before Him: because He is no earthly king, merely exercising power. He is the Giver of life itself.


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וּבְכֵן תֵּן פַּחְדְּךָ *And so place the fear of You.*A three-paragraph insertion into the Amida specifically on Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. It begins with a note of universality not found in the prayers of Pesaḥ, Shavuot and Sukkot, which emphasize Jewish differentness. The latter are festivals of history, and Jewish history is unique. Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur are about the human condition as such under the sovereignty of God, Creator and Judge of the universe and all humanity. So we speak of “all Your works” and “all You have created” before we turn to the specific fate and destiny of the Jewish people.
We begin by asking God to inspire us all in awe and fear, for it is lack of trepidation that leads people to sin. Hubris leads to nemesis. When humans aspire to be more than human they become less than human. Evil happens when people see themselves as the measure of all things.
פַּחְדְּךָ, וְאֵימָתְךָ, וְיִירָאֽוּךָ *Fear, terror, awe.* A progression from inarticulate fear to reflective awe in the presence of the Infinite.
וְיֵעָשׂוּ כֻלָּם אֲגֻדָּה אֶחָת *And they will be bound all together as one.* The ultimate hope of the prophets, that by recognizing that “we have one Father” in heaven (see Malachi 2:10) we will become one family on earth.


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כָּבוֹד…לְעַמֶּֽךָ *Honor…upon Your people.* Honor *because* they are Your people. We seek no honor other than to serve as Your witnesses, Your covenant-partners, Your ambassadors.
וַעֲרִיכַת נֵר לְבֶן יִשַׁי *A lamp laid out for his descendant*. This means the Messiah, who will be a light to his people (see Psalms 132:17).
צַדִּיקִים, וִישָׁרִים, וַחֲסִידִים *Righteous, upright, pious*. Righteous in what they do, upright in what they are, pious in going beyond the requirements of the law. Note the progression in these three paragraphs: from all humanity, to Your people, to the righteous and pious. Unlike Greek thought, the Jewish mind moves from the universal to the particular.


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וְכָל הָרִשְׁעָה כֻּלָּהּ כְּעָשָׁן תִּכְלֶה *And all wickedness will fade away like smoke*. Wickedness rather than the wicked: we pray for the disappearance of the sin not the sinner (*Berakhot* 10a).


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נִקְדַּשׁ בִּצְדָקָה *Made holy in righteousness*. This phrase, from Isaiah 5:16, is a rare juxtaposition of two concepts from different spheres of thought. “Holy” is a religious idea meaning, “set apart.” “Righteousness” is an ethical idea meaning, giving everything its due. By joining these two words, Isaiah summarizes the essential prophetic message that religious faith is inseparable from ethical conduct, and that we learn this from God Himself.
הַמֶּֽלֶךְ הַקָּדוֹשׁ *The holy King:* During the Ten Days of Repentance we substitute this phrase for “the holy God,” to emphasize that these are days of judgment in which we are especially conscious of divine sovereignty over all humanity. For this reason too, in the eleventh paragraph we substitute “the King of justice” for the usual ending.


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אַתָּה בְחַרְתָּֽנוּ *You have chosen us*. This is the beginning of the central blessing of the Amida, dedicated to the specific sanctity of the day. Note the definition here and throughout Judaism of what it is to be a chosen people. It means to live the life of the commandments, to serve God, and to carry His name. There is nothing here about ethnicity or superiority. What makes us chosen is not what we are but what we are called on to be.
מִכָּל הַלְּשׁוֹנוֹת *Above all tongues*. Not everything is translatable from one language to another. Robert Frost said: “Poetry is what is lost in translation.” The holiness of Hebrew as the language of revelation is not fully reproducible in other tongues, and the long history of misunderstanding of Judaism has often been the result of the untranslatability of its most distinctive concepts.


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יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים הַזֶּה This Day of Atonement. Literally, “Day of Atonements” in the plural. This is the biblical name of the day, the plural referring to the multiple atonements of the High Priest on this day (for himself and his family, his fellow priests, and the nation as a whole), as well as the two dimensions of the day itself, atoning as it does for individuals as individuals, and for the community as a collective entity (see Maimonides, Laws of Repentance, 2:7).
לִמְחִילָה וְלִסְלִיחָה וּלְכַפָּרָה For pardon and forgiveness and atonement. These are three different acts. Pardon, *meḥila*, means that though wrong has been done, punishment is withheld. It is a judicial act of clemency. Forgiveness, *seliḥa*, means that the injured party feels no ill will. It belongs to the domain of I–Thou relationship. A judge may pardon but a judge cannot forgive: only the offended party can do so. Atonement, *kapara*, means that the offense is stricken from the record. It is “covered over, erased,” the root meaning of *k-p-r*. We pray for God to pardon in His role as Judge, forgive in His role as Father, and atone by allowing us to begin again, freed from the burden of an unredeemed past.


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יַעֲלֶה וְיָבוֹא וְיַגִּֽיעַ *Rise, come, reach*… A crescendo of eight verbs, signifying the seven heavenly realms, with God above them all – a spatial metaphor meaning, may our prayers reach the innermost heart of God.


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אָנֹכִי אָנֹכִי הוּא מֹחֶה פְשָׁעֶֽיךָ לְמַעֲנִי *I, I am the One who shall wipe out your transgressions for My sake*. *Pesha* signifies a sin committed knowingly and rebelliously. I wipe this away, says God, for My sake not yours, for such sins do not deserve to be forgiven (Rashi).
כָעָב *Like a cloud*. Just as a cloud separates us from the light of the sun so sin separates us from the light of the Divine Presence, but God, like a wind, will disperse the clouds (Malbim).
כִּי־בַיּוֹם הַזֶּה יְכַפֵּר עֲלֵיכֶם לְטַהֵר אֶתְכֶם *For on this day you will be atoned and made pure*. Sin has two aspects. First is the act itself, the deed that should not have been done. Second is the trace it leaves in the sinner. It defiles, degrades, demeans; it leaves a blemish on the soul. The first needs *atonement*, the second needs *purifying*. God does both. The Mishna teaches in the name of Rabbi Akiva: “Happy are you, Israel: before whom do you purify yourselves, and who purifies you? – Your Father in heaven, as it is said, ‘I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean,’ [Ezek. 36:25] and ‘God is the hope of Israel’ [Jeremiah 17:13]” (Mishna *Yoma* 8:9). Quoting Jeremiah, Rabbi Akiva is making a daring play on the similar sounding words *mikvei* (hope) and *mikveh* (ritual bath). God, he intimates, is not just the hope of Israel but the purifying waters in which we immerse ourselves and thereby become cleansed.
סָלְחָן, מָחֳלָן *The Forgiver, the Pardoner.* By turning verbs (forgive, pardon) into nouns, the prayer suggests that forgiving and pardoning are not simply what God does; they are part of what He is. They are constant rather than occasional features of His dealings with us.
יְשֻׁרוּן *Yeshurun.* An alternative biblical name for Israel, signifying *yashar*, “upright” (Ibn Ezra, Deut. 32:15).


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מוֹדִים *We give thanks.* The start of the last three blessings of the Amida, known collectively as *Hoda’a*. This word has two meanings, (1) thanks, and (2) admission, confession. On other days of the year the first is to the fore, but on Yom Kippur the second comes to dominate, for it will be at the end of these three blessings that we will perform *Viduy*, admitting and confessing our sins.


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בְּסֵֽפֶר חַיִּים, בְּרָכָה וְשָׁלוֹם, וּפַרְנָסָה טוֹבָה *In the book of life, blessing, peace and prosperity.*The last of the four special insertions for the Ten Days of Repentance. Hence the four requests, three of which we have saved to this point: for life itself, for life filled with the energy of the Divine, for life in harmony with other lives, and for sustenance, the ability to earn a dignified living.


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**BERAKHA ME’EIN SHEVA – THE SEVENFOLD BLESSING**
The practice of saying these extra blessings on Friday evening was for the sake of latecomers, and to ensure that everyone was able to leave the synagogue together (Tur, *Oḥ* 268). Traveling to and from the synagogue at night was often dangerous, and more people came on Friday nights than during the other nights of the week, so it was important to make provision for latecomers so that they would not have to walk home alone.


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מָגֵן אָבוֹת *Shield of our ancestors.* A one-paragraph summary of the entire Friday night Amida, using single phrases in place of complete blessings.