Why I Love Yom Kippur

The Mishnah in Taanit says that Yom Kippur is one of the two most joyous days in our calendar (the other is Tu b’Av, a little known summer holiday). Is Yom Kippur joyous? It is the Day of Judgment when we confess our sins and communally acknowledge just how rotten we’ve been all year. Why is this a day of joy?

First, because it feels good to acknowledge your imperfections. I heard the other day on the radio a young man speaking about his depression, and he said that the turning point came when he admitted out loud what was bothering him -- the problem was the need to appear perfect in the world. It is a tremendous relief to acknowledge vulnerability and imperfection, for one day to be wholly honest about who we are. And an even greater relief to do so communally – to say – yes, I have done this wrong and that wrong, but I am not alone. Ashamnu -- we are all guilty. We all stand before God, supremely conscious of our shared imperfect humanity. This connects us to God, yes, but it also connects us to each other, reminding us that every one of us, no matter what perfect public face we put on, has struggles.

Second, there is joy in cleansing. I have been doing a lot of house cleaning lately and finding, to my surprise, that I enjoy it. There is something so satisfying about watching a dirty sink turn clean, seeing the pile of dust removed from the floor. It is a very basic human need – cleanliness and a sense of order. Yom Kippur is a Day of Atonement – a day when we see the dirt and get to watch our slates, no matter how dirty, get wiped clean. There is a feeling of catharsis – like the feeling after a good cry or a particularly intimate fight and reconciliation – the air is cleared and we feel exultant, alive, hopeful and ready to try again.

Third, there is joy in passing through a trial together with a team. Yom Kippur is hard – physically it is hard to fast and stand all day, and emotionally it is hard to concentrate and pray and think about one’s misdeeds all day. But it is this very suffering, this inui , which also makes it joyful . We suffer together with a community and so it becomes a point of connection and intimacy among us, a shared trial. And we suffer for a cause – we are involved in something meaningful and it is okay if it is hard – that’s what makes it enjoyable. People like to do hard things. They enjoy the challenge and the sense, at the end, of fulfillment and completion. The exultant kaddish at the end of a long Musaf on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur is an example of this.

Finally, and perhaps most basically, Yom Kippur is a day of joy because it is the day of greatest intimacy with God. It is a day of judgment, yes, but it is also a day of mercy and love, a day of connection, a day when we become aware of just how permanent our connection is to the Holy One. Ki anu amekha ve’atah elokeinu. That is the bottom line – We are Your nation, and you are Our God. Yom Kippur is not like Shavuot – a day of perfection when God gave the first Tablets. No, Yom Kippur is the day we celebrate God’s continuing commitment to and love of us even after we sin. It is the day when we heard that we were forgiven for the Sin of the Golden Calf and received the second tablets – a covenant built out of the fabric of our imperfection. There is great comfort and great joy in such a covenant – no matter that we can’t seem to ever get it quite right – we can move forward secure in the knowledge that we are still wrapped in God’s eternal love.