This will be my final post before Yom Kippur. I am off to Israel to spend Yom Tov with my family in Ramat Bet Shemesh. We have always experienced the most wonderful of Yomim Tovim in this small suburban town. It has a spiritual beauty found in few places on earth. And it has physical beauty to match... both natural and man-made. The people I’ve encountered there are mostly Charedi. And they have been more than warm and welcoming.Each time I visit I have felt a warm sense of family that seems to exude from this community. Whether Charedi or Dati, people there seem to get along quite well. At least that has been my experience thus far.
My son’s condo and Shul are good examples of that. The multi unit building consists entirely of religious Jews from all perspectives of Judaism. My son’s immediate neighbor is in the IDF and wears a Kipa Seruga. My son’s Shul is very Charedi but one can on any given day find a number of Daatim learning or Davening there as well.
Over the course of last year there were some horror stories coming out of this town… or more precisely it’s ‘twin’ across the road, Ramat Bet Shemesh B. The behavior of its residents that was reported in the media ...and here on this blog... was atrocious. It really upset me. The reported descriptions of behavior was unlike anything I had ever experienced ….some of it spilling over into Ramat Bet Shemesh A. I truly pray that it never happens again. I hope and pray that the peace and beauty I experienced in the past there still exists. I am really looking forward to that.
* The Gemarah tells us that Yom Kippur is transformational. The day itself atones for our sins. The relationship between man and God that has been strained or even fractured throughout the year is restored; a personality that has been sullied by sin is cleansed.
* The Rav, Rabbi Joseph Solveitchik tells us, the level of Kapparah (atonement) that this day provides is proportional to the degree to which a person relates to and internalizes its awe inspiring capacity. Thus the Kapparah is referred to in the Machzor in the plural form: Yom HaKippurim. The Kapparah available on this holy day depends on the lengths to which one goes in order to experience the Kedushas HaYom… the holiness of the day.
I will be having internet access while in Israel and hope to be posting regularly from the holy land after Yom Kippur. Until then I wish to use this opportunity to ask Mechila for any wrong I have done or said to anyone whether directly or indirectly. My primary intent on this blog is to seek the beauty and truth of Torah and rid the Torah world of Chilul Hashem… whether real or potential. It is also my purpose to promote the ideals of moderation… that elusive Midah HaEmtzais of the Rambam. I know I don’t always succeed and sometimes I fail miserably. But I do try. And so I ask for your forgiveness. And I hereby declare my forgiveness to all.
I wish all of my readers and commenters a Gmar Chasima Tova. May all of us be signed and sealed into the book of life, health, and happiness. And may we all have a blessed year 5768.
* Adapted from the introductory essay by Rabbi Menachem Genack and Rabbi Hershel Shachter in the Machzor Mesoras HaRav L’Yom Kippur, edited by Dr. Arnold Lustiger.
