Yom Kippur: The 7 Secrets

yom kippur the seven secrets in this video we're going to learn seven deep and impactful secrets about this amazing Yom Tov the most holy most unique day on the Jewish calendar and if you watch all the way to the end we're actually going to have a bonus secret in fact there are two bonuses on this video that relate to this amazing Yom Tov so stick with us Shalom and welcome I'm rabbi mordechai Griffin welcome again to our page into our channel into another insightful teaching I'm glad you're here if you're new to our Channel please click the subscribe button below and be sure and click the bell icon so that you can stay up to date on all the wonderful content that we have coming out your support is greatly appreciated and your involvement with our Channel is a huge blessing and makes a real difference so thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being here Yom Kippur the seven secrets this is the most unique day on the entire Jewish calendar in fact it's the holiest day on the Jewish calendar it's the only day of the year than in antiquity when the temple existed that the high priest was able to go into the Holy of Holies and make atonement for all of Israel we're going to get into these seven secrets of seven deep inside to this amazing holiday and as I said there's going to be two bonuses at the end so be sure and stick with us now many people know that Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement that it's a fast day that there are certain things that we as Jews do and more importantly don't do on this important day as we seek God to forgive us of our sins but that's really just the surface level that's just a minor understanding of the importance of this day now I'm going to give you the scriptural references here but for the sake of time we're not going to read through them I'm going to leave that up to you I'm just gonna give them to you as a resource the first scriptural reference for Yom Kippur comes from the book of ie chram otherwise known as Leviticus chapter 23 verses 26 through 32 another source is the book of numbers chapter 29 verses 7 through 11 and one of the best sources is also from the book of Agra let's Leviticus chapter 16 verses 1 through 34 now in chapter 16 is where we find God telling us how to keep and celebrate Yom Kippur and most importantly how the priest is supposed to do so but it is also the place where God tells us that this is an eternal decree for all time we are to celebrate Yom Kippur now on Yom Kippur there are certain things that we avoid one of the most noted is that we we fast which means we have a complete fast no food or no drink now there are exceptions for nursing mothers or women who are pregnant or people who are are ill or maybe if you have to take medication or something along those lines there are exceptions to that rule but generally if you are in good health and you can do so without any harm to your body or to another person then we fast from all of the food all the water for the entire 25 hour period we also don't wear leather shoes we don't bathe or wash we don't anoint ourselves with perfume or lotions or makeup or any of those types of things and we don't have marital relationships those are the five things that we avoid on Yom Kippur as a part of the way in which we and commemorate the holiday and subject ourselves as it were to a form of suffering if you will to bring ourselves to teshuva but we're gonna come back to that in a minute about the importance of those five things but I want to start out with secret number one I just got through saying that one of the most well known things about Yom Kippur is that we're supposed to afflict ourselves as I just said with those five ways in which we have licked ourselves the number one way in which we do so is to fast everybody knows that about Yom Kippur it's a day of fasting and a day of prayer but the first secret of Yom Kippur is that Yom Kippur begins with food that's right Yom Kippur begins with food in order to keep the holiday of Yom Kippur with the moe intense kedusha is to first eat its should be noted by the way that yom kippur is the only commanded fast and yet there's a mitzvah to enjoy a festive meal right before the fast begins so if we turn and look at some insights from cephus AMS it gives us a real clear picture of what is so significant about eating on Yom Kippur or I should say just before Yom Kippur so we read it says whoever eats and drinks on the ninth of Tishrei that's Erev Yom Kippur scripture considers it as if he fasted for both days the ninth and the tenth that is Yom Kippur itself this comes from the Talmud youma 81 B so in other words as we're beginning Yom Kippur right before the holiday begins your family is supposed to have a festive meal and when you have that festive meal it is considered as if you have fasted the entire 25 hour period now there's a reason for this there's a deep secret as to why we eat the way we do right before the fast and here it is cephus M s brings down he says it is an established tradition that by eating on Arab Yom Kippur we rectify any sins that may have arisen as a result of eating improperly that is eating improperly from the entire year previous that means eating without a Baraka maybe we ate something we forgot to pray we forgot to say the bear cut Tamas own the blessing after after we eat that we god forbid eight non kosher food or that we ate in an irreverent manner we or what have you it says this statement is based on the realization that food and drink can often be involved in in or inordinate excess and many times is the root cause of sin as it says in Devoran 8:14 and your hearts will become haughty and you will forget I don't know your gods so they write by focusing on the cause and seeking to elevate food and drink to a higher purpose through involvement in a mitzvah immediately prior to teshuva on yom kippur it says we're not merely repeating but also rectifying the very fact that led us to the sin in other words when we have that meal right before Yom Kippur a day of fasting were actually making teshuva for all the meals that we had that year previous in which we did not truly bless God or we didn't do it with the right attitude or we didn't do it with the right prayers and so on so right off the bat we learned the first secret to Yom Kippur is that you have to eat and when you eat you are actually making teshuva for all the times of which you didn't eat properly isn't that amazing I guarantee right now there's many people watching who never in a million years would have thought that eating had something significant to do on Yom Kippur but it does here's the second secret the second secret is that Yom Kippur is a celebration of renewed covenant that's right what happened when we were in the wilderness after we left Mitzrayim after we went through the waters of the mick front otherwise known as this splitting of the Red Sea God took us to Mount Sinai mul Shea went up to the top of the mountain he brought down to holy divine tablets cut from the throne of God and as he was coming down the mountain we unfortunately were dancing around the Golden Calf and those tablets were broken because of our sin of rebellion later Moses goes back up the mountain and spends another 40 days on top of that holy mountain and God gives him a second set of tablets although this time those tablets are of a lesser quality a lesser stature same content but not the same substance instead of being made from the throne of God they're made from from natural rock nevertheless Moses brought those tablets down and presented them to the community on Yom Kippur so Yom Kippur becomes a day in which we celebrate new covenant or as better said renewed covenant so the second secret of Yom Kippur is just that it is a celebration of new covenant many people have asked me rabbi as believers in Messiah Yeshua why do we need yom kippur and my answer to them is because it's a celebration of the very covenant that we have in the messiah today it is a celebration of rebirth and renewal here's the third secret secret number three is the renewed covenant in Yeshua renews our status and mission I'm going to read another insight from Cephas ms cephus ed makes breaks down brings down that when the first tablets were given and they were given in full public view everybody saw it in fact the whole world saw it and as a result it carried with it a challenge to Israel that they should use the Torah that they're receiving is divine Torah to inspire the rest of mankind because Hashem had said to us and the book of Chaumont the book of exodus 19:5 you shall be to me the most beloved treasure of all peoples for mine is the entire world so I want you to think about something when those first divine set of tablets came down the ones that were cut from the throne of God God intended that that should be an episode in which the whole wide world would see the Torah and that Israel would be the emissaries the missionaries if you will to bring that message to the whole world but as cephus ms brings down tragically we failed in that mission and the dream was dashed against the rocks instead of being the ones that would carry that torch that Lapita world we unfortunately before we even had the tablets come to us we're dancing around the Golden Calf so cephus ms says this started as spiritual roshun that may well have contributed to our entire demise it says as a result of the Jewish people's decline and ultimate sin their mission was sharply redefined to focus now on in turn self-improvement rather than on perfecting mankind we became inwardly focused when we had the lesser tablets thank God that covenant was renewed but now it's all about just making us Israel better and we forgot about the rest of the world it says it follows naturally that the second tablet should have had a lower profile therefore reflecting on the new inward direction orientation in other words what cephus Emes is saying is that when the first tablets were given it was given with great fanfare so that all mankind could see it and when the second tablets were given it was just Moses in God because it now it he required Israel to be uplifted not just all of mankind now why is this important because when Yeshua restored and renewed that original covenant he said now go into all the world and preach this gospel teaching the nations to obey the commandments of God he restored not only our covenant but our mission that's the third secret of Yom Kippur then at Yom Kippur we are reinvigorated not just to be in covenant to but to be Hashem shalyah him to go into all the world and spread this gospel here's the fourth secret secret number four is that Yom Kippur is a mikvah Yom Kippur itself is a mikvah again we go to cephus M s so many wonderful insights from cephus M s this is what he says he brings down youma eight nine he says rabbi akiva said praiseworthy are you O Israel before whom you clinton for whom do cleanses you he says who cleanses you your father in heaven as it says I will cast pure waters upon you and you shall be cleansed as it says in Ezekiel 36 25 and he also says the mikveh of Israel is out on I Jeremiah 17 13 just as a mikvah purifies the contaminated so does the Holy One blessed be he purify Israel so the mikveh is a pool of water that is used for spiritual purification for version family purity preparation for the holidays and other things ultimately Hashem is our mikvah but yom kippur itself is a mikvah for israel s FSMs brings down the analogy drawn between out of the mikveh regarding the purification of israel placed at the conclusion of tractate youma which deals with yom kippur tells us a great deal about the nature of yom kippur he writes consider one of the most important properties of the mikveh to be effective one must be totally immersed in the mikveh that means even if you're a lady and you have long hair every strand of your hair must go beneath the water in order for you to fully benefit from those spiritual waters similarly he writes divine service requires complete self negation in favor of a Shem this laudable objective is primarily achieved by the Jewish soul upon its departure from the body and the Hereafter however ok however how do we have total self negation without dying how do we have total self negation right now and the answer to that is Yom Kippur when we set all of our material desires and needs aside we're not bathing we're not putting on makeup we're not enjoying marital relationships we're not putting on leather shoes we're dressing in all white we are we are subjugating our soul to God and as a result we are completely and totally immersing in him and as a result receiving that make for like atonement in our life but wait as they say there is more not only are we a mikvah or excuse me not only is Hashem a mikvah but we become a mikvah as well we become the pool that holds the water of Torah this is what it says Yom Kippur had already been designated as a day on which Israel becomes a receptacle of Torah as the Zohar states so harsh States Hashem and the Torah are one when we immerse in Hashem he in effect immerses us in other words when we go into the waters of Hashem which is the Torah he fills us up with his Torah so you and I leave Yom Kippur as Holy make fulfilled to the brim of God's holy word ready to be able to immerse others in it now you might be asking yourself where in the world is that and the idea of Yeshua and the answer is John chapter 7 37 to 38 where Yeshua says on the last and greatest day to the feast of Sukkot yushua stood up and cried out in a loud voice and said if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink whoever believes in me as the scripture says out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water you and I my friends when we come to yom kippur we are becoming a mikvah we are diving into a mikvah now it gets even better than that until Halim 2071 telling the part some tale in are telling means some excuse me telling twenty-seven we read during this time and the first verse it says Hashem is my light Ori and my salvation ye she now many commentators say that Rosh Hashanah is that my light of that verse and yom kippur is the my salvation of that verse now stick with me for a second the Midrash brings down that the Exodus is my light and the Red Sea is as is my salvation how does this correlate well on Rosh Hashanah it says that Yosef was let out of prison and brought before Pharaoh and he soon became the Viceroy of Egypt when that happened that's when the exodus began for the Jewish people so Rosh Hashanah does in fact represent the Exodus which represents the light that's when the light started to dawn and the Red Sea does in fact represent the mikveh even caifa brought this down and said that we we've all passed through the sea Paul said the same thing and therefore Yom Kippur which is a mikvah also represents my salvation because as the sages have said the Exodus represents Messiah ben yosef that is Joseph who suffered for our sins and the Red Sea represents Messiah ben david the final redemption so when we come to the High Holy Days we're actually celebrating so many things and one of them is that two messiahs when we come to Rosh Hashanah we are celebrating Messiah ben Yosef who suffered and died for our sins that's why we talk about the ikeda on Rosh Hashanah and then when we come to yom kippur we're celebrating messiah Ben David who is my salvation who is going to lead us into the final redemption maybe soon in our time which is one of the reasons why we talk about Jonah during that holiday secret number five Yom Kippur needs the Tzadik the book of of he knew teaches us a very viable lesson about Yom Kippur Yom Kippur has a great deal of power for atonement but in order to achieve the fullest atonement it requires a Tzadik so let's just read a couple of lines from this effigy nook it says that God by His grace gave us Yom Kippur why because he knew that if the man's sins were allowed to accumulate year after year after year without there being any opportunity for them to wipe the slate clean and start over it would just be too much humanity couldn't handle it so God in His grace gave us a whoa we have all year long to make teshuva but this is a unique period to Shiva he gave us a special day where we can come and get completely immersed and purified so it says in Yom Kippur atones which is to say that the day itself has a degree of power in effect in the atonement for sins that are relatively minor now in the footnotes it brings down a Gomorrah from youma 86a and it says this teaches that there are four levels of sins visa vie the requirements for atonement number one the for a violation of a mitzvah obligation repentance alone wipes thus in number two French transgression of a mitzvah prohibition full atonement is achieved through repentance coupled with the power of Yom Kippur so for the first two sins repentance and or repentance in Yom Kippur were okay if we had a mitzvah obligation we fail to do it we can just say Hashem I'm sorry I'll do better next time and a Shem says bucha Shem if we have something we did did did what we weren't supposed to do Hashem says you need to Shuba but she also Nene I'm Kippur so that's good but now we run into a problem the next two sins Yom Kippur doesn't atone for and repentance doesn't atone for we need the Tzadik and here it is for a violation of a mitzvah that carries the penalty of caress or excision or capital punishment repentance and Yom Kippur served to ward off punishment but one must also serve it suffer affliction so in other words it just kicks the can down the road but it doesn't actually want to slate clean and fourthly desecration of a Shems name is fully forgiven only upon the demise of the person in other words only at our death so my friends we see here that if we want full forgiveness we require the death of the Tzadik coupled with our teshuva coupled with yom kippur to bring about the full forgiveness that we require now to highlight that i'm going to turn now to the Midrash Tanguma and share a couple of thoughts related to the atonement of the Tzadik so this comes from Midrash Tanguma vyi Kragh a carny mode and this is what it says rabbi aabib Aravena said why does the death of Miriam juxtapose a section dealing with the ashes of the red heifer this teaches us that just as the rashes of the red heifer atone for sin so too does the death of Miriam act as an atonement now it says next Aaron's sons died on the 1st of Nisan why then is there death mentioned in yom kippur in Leviticus chapter 16 it talks about the death of Aaron's son so the sages are asking the question why is the death of Aaron's sons priests mentioned along with yom kippur and here's the answer this teaches that just as yom kippur serves as atonement for sins so too does their deaths act as an atonement and finally it says where do we learn that the death of the righteous provide atonement for it is stated they buried the bones of Sheol in his son Yonatan and the land of bin yamim and xyla and the grave of his father keish they did all that the king commanded and God answered the prayers of their land after that so we find here in the ancient writings that the death of the Tzadik brings atonement and thereby we can understand now why you schewe who is the Tzadik above all tzadikim can provide that atonement necessary to couple with our teshuva and REM Kippur to bring about all the atonement that we need I don't know about you my friends but I can say that there's been times in my life where I've committed sins that require the death penalty and there have been times in my life where I've committed sins unfortunately that have desecrated God's name and so I need that Tzadik coupled with my teshuva and yom kippur to bring about the full redemption and I pray that you join me in that secret number 6 Hashem takes back the adulterous wife now this is a very important insight because people ask me all the time they say doesn't the Torah say you're not allowed to take back a bride that you have divorced so how can the hashem divorce us and then take us back and they have real problems with that well through the power of teshuva and yom kippur god takes back his divorce bride this comes again from the Talmud youma 86 be rabbi Onan said great is repentance as it overrides even prohibitions of the Torah how so did you hear that that great is repentance because it overrides even a prohibition of the Torah how so it says that God said saying if a man sends away his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife may he return to her again will not that land be greatly polluted but you have committed adultery with many lovers and would you yet return to me says the Lord Jeremiah 3:1 indeed the Torah states her former husband who sent her away may not take her back again to be his wife after she's been made in pure Deuteronomy 24 for the relationship between the Jewish people it says in the Talmud and the Holy One blessed be he is compared to that between a husband and a wife just as it is prohibited for an adulterous wife to return to her husband it should be prohibited for the Jewish people to return to God after their sins yet repentance overrides this prohibition the sixth secret of Yom Kippur is that it eliminates it tears up that get that written code of divorce against us and allows us to remarry our husband as it were now how is this made possible I just mentioned the Tzadik and there might be somebody watching who says ok that's the ADI but how do you tie this back to your schewe there's been many Sonic's well I'm glad you asked that so it says how does this happen it says one man's the Shiva can save the world it was thought an abrasion that Rabbi Meir would say great is repentance because the entire world is forgiving on account of one individual who repents as it says I will here the pill their backsliding and I will love them freely for my anger has turned away from him Hosea 14 5 it does not say from them but it says from the sinners or I'm sorry does not say from them but it says from him that is from the individual because he repented everyone will be healed it uses a singular form so by the teshuva of one man the whole world could be saved secret number 7 the Kohen Gadol had to relate to in order for the Mitzvah of atonement to be effective it was a requirement that the Kohen Gadol had to be on our level he had to walk in I want you to think about this the holiest man on the planet at the time walking into the holiest place at the holiest time of the year had to do so only being able to relate to us otherwise his atonement was ineffectual this idea is expressed in the book orchards of delights by rabbi Truman who writes he says this idea is expressed in pure Kaval 2:5 do not judge your fellow man until you have been in his position as we discussed earlier the importance of empathy also explains at least on a superficial level why aaron had to go the humiliating experience of being partly responsible for the golden calf aaron who was to be the high priest needed to experience this sense of sin to some degree so that he would be able to truly relate to those who he was going to to make atonement for at the tabernacle the BAL shem tov made this one of his central ideas when he said that he taught that in order to evaluate others one must risk lowering oneself to their level in taking this mission upon oneself the righteous individual endeavors to redeem all the fallen sparks and fulfill the Jewish people's very purpose in the world so Yeshua some people say why did you have to come and manifest in a human form because in order to effectual or to be effectual in our atonement in the original tabernacle he had to be able to know what it was like to be tempted with sin to suffer as we suffer he had to come on our level in order to raise us up Rabbi Shmuel who was the fourth Rebbe of Chabad he used to change into the clothing that people were wearing that were coming to him for counseling and he used to do this because he wanted to understand the situation of those then he needed to counsel and he did that by dressing like they dressed he became like them so that he would know how to minister to them now it says in a letter to the Hebrews therefore since we have a great Kohen Gadol who has passed through the heavens Yeshua been eloheem let us hold firmly to our confessed allegiance for we do not have a calling the dole who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who had been tempted in all ways yet without sin therefore let us draw near to the throne of grace of Bowness so we might receive mercy and find grace in our time of need there's a famous dictum and judaism that says in the place of about two of us stands that's one who's come to repent that even the totally righteous cannot stand bear coat 34b there's a comment to that it says all year long even on shabbat and yom tov the Kohen Gadol may not enter the holy of holies only on yom kippur representing the Penta tents those who return to a Shem it's that at that point that he merits the stand in the place where only they can stand only the truly pin tenant can stand in the Holy of Holies and the high priest had to lower himself to know if that was like so that he could stand in their place for them Wow that's all seven but wait we have a bonus okay we have two bonuses so here's the first bonus you're coming to Yom Kippur you're wondering I don't understand exactly but I know that this is what God's wants so I've heard all those seven and they're amazing but but what else is there and here it is Yom Kippur is a season of grafting and REE grafting it says in one of the comments of yom kippur worm it says let the jew however deny any of the three indispensable ingredients of his attachment to god that is his basic faith Torah or even the Covenant and he is no longer a part of the unit he's no longer part of the unit if you're a Jew and you don't have faith Torah and covenant all three not one but all three then you're no longer a part of the nation you are no you've been broken-off this is a Jewish idea it says he is severed fruit and no matter how healthy he may be he is doomed when that happens according to the rabbi's Yom Kippur itself cannot automatically give atonement but even there there's hope teshuva teshuva is the Jews return to his source his reunification with his creator and this is what the comment says he regrets himself to the tree of life and atonement becomes his reward so the bonus for yom kippur for us is that we we get to be grafted or regretted depending on where you're coming from the point is we're all broken branches and on yom kippur this is a time that we get to come back to the tree of life and be grafted back in and bear fruit and here's the second bonus i mentioned earlier when we first started the five things that we do to commemorate this time that the five prohibitions and there's an insight that talks about the fact that these five prohibitions correspond to our census here's the inside it says that on the day of Yom Kippur we are restricted from anointing ourselves from eating and drinking from wearing leather shoes from bathing or washing and from marital relationships but in fact we're encouraged to smell pleasant fragrances it's actually considered a mitzvah to anoint the shul with spices and have good fragrance in the shul why it says the reading of the third chapter of Genesis will show that there were only four of the five senses that we use when mankind fell it says that when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit it says and the woman saw that's the sense of sight and she took its fruit the sense of touch and she ate the sense of taste and they heard the sense of hearing however it says the sense of smell is not mentioned in that passage for it is this reason the sense of smell remains a spiritual pleasure on Yom Kippur according to Talmud borracho 243 B so we're able to enjoy the sense of smell on Yom Kippur because we didn't sin with the sense of smell which is why the sages say that when Messiah returns he's going to judge us not on how he looked not on how we feel but on how we smell he's going to judge us with the sense of smell because that's the only sense it was not corrupted may you smell the beautiful spices on Yom Kippur and made all the secrets of this wonderful holiday be yours I wish you all the best may you be inscribed and sealed for a good life for holiness and for atonement and the merit of Messiah Yeshua thank you so much for joining us today

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Length: 33min 47sec (2027 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 05 2019