Yom Kippur / Keter Elyon
On each Yom Tov, a special light of meheimnusa / faith is shining. On Yom Kippur, it is erech apayim / slow to anger, patient, forgiving, atoning.
In the Yishmiru Daat DVD, Reb Zalman says:
And do you remember at Neilah / the locking of the gates (final section of the Yom Kippur service), instead of having the long Al Chet / enumeration of sins, it says, ata notein yad laposh’im / you extend a hand to transgressors. That sense of, (Psalm 73:22-23), “you have given me a hand.”
Please click here, to hear Reb Zalman sing the melody for this Psalm.
There is this immense patience on God’s part.
When someone once chided Heinrich Heine, the poet replied, “God will forgive.”
“How do you know?”
Heine answered, “c’est son métier / it’s his business to forgive. He’s in the forgiving business!”
The following is Reb Zalman’s excerpt on Yom Kippur from Yishmiru Daat (You can click here to open pdf of Hebrew/English version).
What aspect of “Faith in God” is emphasized on Yom Kippur? My reality says: “I believe with perfect faith that hashem yitbarach, in supernal Keter
[Note: That’s raising up the situation to a place beyond good and evil, and beyond true and false; a place where God can see the whole situation and the humanity of it, not to mention God’s own responsibility for how it happened. Keter / Crown is a Sefirah even above the world of Atzilut. It is associated with Adam Kadmon and is divided between Atik Yamin / Ancient of Days and Arich Anpin / the long face. Gabbai Seth]
(Exodus 34:6) and in “Slow to anger,” God waits for our teshuvah / turning to God so that we will have forgiveness, pardoning and atonement for all our errors, wrongs and transgressions. For God, yisbarach, gives a hand to us transgressors, when we open ourselves to God in the slightest, (even as the eye of a needle). God, yisborach says (Numbers 14:20) “I have forgiven according to your word.”
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
It’s always a joy to hear Reb Zalman sing. Thank you for sharing the audio file! Wishing a gmar chatima tova to all.
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:52 pm
It strikes me that when we focus on our own human ability to forgive, or lack thereof, that we are operating from the personal point of view — from the ego self that separates itself from the Creator-Source. If one invokes the Name ‘The Forgiver’ and makes an accommodation for The Forgiver to reside in our own heart, stepping aside, so-to-say, thus allowing Itself to be Itself — forgiving as is its métier, then we truly carry forward a sense of ourselves being accepted and forgiven so that this very acceptance and forgiveness can flow forth (as if) from us to others. The shaykh, Ibn al-‘Arabi says that every place is a locus for the Divine Names.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Thank you Seth!
May you be renewed with a happy & sweet new year and blessings from Shekhinah to continue your great work on behalf of our Rebbe shlitah.
Gemar Tov
September 27th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Such a delight and a surprise this morning before YK to have such a song out of the webspace from Reb Zalman’s own studio! Thank you! May such things remain sealed with us always, with a special sealing.