PARASHAT
HASHAVUA
PARASHAT ACHREI MOT
The Yom Kippur
Service
By Rav Yair
Kahn
I.
In a Cloud I Shall Appear upon the
Kaporet
The Yom Kippur service is unique in many
ways. One of its features is the special offering of the ketoret
(incense), which was normally burnt on the golden altar, but on Yom Kippur was
placed on a pan in the Holy of Holies. The Torah is explicit regarding the
central role played by this ketoret
as a factor that enables Aharon to enter the Holy of Holies:
Speak to Aharon your brother, that he
should not enter into the holy place within the partition at any time… rather in
a cloud I shall appear upon kaporet. (16:2)
The cloud in this pasuk is a reference to the ketoret, as it says:
And he shall put the incense upon the fire
before Hashem, that the
cloud of the incense may cover the kaporet that is upon the testimony, so
that he should not die. (16:13)
Aharon’s entrance into the Kodesh Ha-Kodashim is contrasted with
the catastrophic entry of Nadav and Avihu. In our shiur on Parashat Tazria, we suggested that Nadav and
Avihu thought that man was capable of deserving a divine encounter through human
efforts. They failed to realize that man can only achieve revelation by virtue
of Hashem’s chesed, and they therefore entered the
kodesh without being invited by Hashem. After that tragedy, Hashem tells Aharon that he can enter
the Kodesh only through submission to
Hashem’s will; man can never be
deserving of an encounter with Hashem through human efforts
alone.
In the context of the Mishkan, this idea is symbolized by the
ketoret, which forms a cloud or
smokescreen separating man and God. In our shiur on Parashat Vayakhel, we used this idea to explain
why the incense altar is only mentioned after the Mishkan, its vessels, and the priestly
garments. We suggested that building the Mishkan and its vessels reflect the
closeness, as it were, between the Shekhina and Am Yisrael. The golden altar upon which the incense
is offered, on the other hand, symbolizes the abyss that separates the Shekhina from Yisrael.
Thus, there are two aspects to the
religious experience. On the one hand, there is the thirsting of the soul for
the living God, but on the other hand, there is the awareness that "no man shall
see Me and live." Only after we have internalized the mistake of Aharon's sons,
only once we have understood the two aspects of the religious experience, is it
possible to return to the instructions concerning the entry into the Kodesh, beyond the parokhet: "By this shall Aharon come to
the Kodesh…." Once it has become
clear that one cannot come into the Kodesh whenever one chooses, the Torah
can then inform us that God will nevertheless appear above the kaporet – but only by means of the cloud
of incense.
II. Entering the
Cloud
The specific use of
the cloud of ketoret to introduce
this idea is rooted in the experience at Sinai. The gemara in the
beginning of masekhet Yoma
notes that the Kohen Gadol is required to separate himself
for seven days prior to Yom Kippur. According to Reish Lakish, the source for
this halakha is the description of Matan Torah:
And the glory of Hashem abode upon
Reish Lakish
comments:
Once it says, “And He called to Moshe on
the seventh day,” why [does it mention] six days? This serves as a paradigm that
anyone who enters the domain of the Shekhina requires a six day separation.
(The ensuing gemara explains why
the kohen gadol was separated for seven days not
six.) According to Reish Lakish, there is an intrinsic connection between
Moshe’s ascent to Har Sinai and the entry of the Kohen Gadol to the kodesh on Yom Kippur.
This relationship is reflected in the idea developed by the Ramban, that
the Mishkan is a continuation of the
revelation at Sinai. We therefore find striking similarities between Moshe
entering the cloud on Har Sinai and his entering the Mishkan at the end of Sefer
Shemot:
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of Hashem filled the Mishkan. And Moshe was
not able to enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode thereon, and the
glory of Hashem filled the Mishkan. (Shemot 40:34-35)
Moshe is unable to enter the
cloud covered Mishkan because it was
filled with Hashem’s glory, just as he was incapable of entering the cloud
covered mountain. Eventually, Hashem called to Moshe, and he is
able to enter the cloud at Sinai.
This parallels what took place in the Mishkan, as we read in the opening line of
Sefer Vayikra:
And Hashem called
unto Moshe, and spoke unto him out of the tent of meeting... (Vayikra 1:1)
Although this pasuk is found in a different
sefer, it is written only four pasukim after the Torah mentions Moshe’s
inability to enter the Mishkan. When
read in continuity, Moshe’s entry into the cloud enveloping the Mishkan is a repeat of his entry into
the cloud on Har Sinai.
On Yom Kippur, the
Kohen Gadol is required to enter the inner
sanctum in order to achieve atonement for Yisrael. Since the Mikdash is a
continuation of Sinai, Reish Lakish modeled the preparations of the Kohen Gadol after those of Moshe. The Kohen Gadol begins with a period of
separation, similar to that of Moshe. He is then called into the Mikdash
by virtue of the mitzva of the Yom Kippur service. Before his entry,
however, he is required to bring the ketoret, which forms a cloud similar to
the cloud at Sinai and the cloud that enveloped the Mishkan. Only then may the Kohen Gadol enter the Kodesh.
III. The Sin
Offerings
Another unique feature of the Yom Kippur
service is the sin offerings (korban chatat). The blood of the standard
chatat is sprinkled on the altar situated in the courtyard. On Yom
Kippur, two korbanot chatat are offered – a bull brought as the Kohen Gadol's sin offering and a goat that
serves as the nation's sin offering – and their blood is sprinkled in the Kodesh Ha-Kodashim (inner
sanctum), on the parokhet and the
golden altar normally used for incense. Usually, the sections of the
korban that are not offered on the altar are eaten by the kohanim,
but on Yom Kippur, these sections are burnt. (These unique korbanot are
therefore known as “burnt sin offerings.”)
There are other korbanot chatat
that are similar to those of Yom Kippur. When a Kohen Gadol or the entire nation sins
inadvertently, the required chatat is a bull, whose blood is sprinkled on
the parokhet and the golden altar and
whose meat is burnt. When the
inadvertent transgression of the entire nation is avoda zara, then the
bull is replaced with a goat.
It is thus reasonable to assume that the
chatat brought by the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur, which is a bull, is
patterned after the chatat that a Kohen Gadol offers to atone for his
transgression. The national chatat,
on the other hand, is modeled after the goat that the nation brings as a result
of avoda zara.
In order to appreciate the rationale for
this, recall that the original Yom Kippur service occurred one year after Moshe
descended Har Sinai with the second luchot on that day. As we noted in
our shiur on Parashat Shemini, that the
building of the Mishkan, which began
after the second luchot were given, was a continuation of the process of
atonement for the egel, and the eighth inaugural day, when Hashem appeared to Yisrael, signaled
the next stage of atonement. However, there is an additional stage in the
process. Aharon is permitted entry into the Kodesh only on Yom Kippur. It
is on this second Yom Kippur that Aharon brings a bull into the Kodesh as a chatat to atone for his role in the egel, which was unrelated to avoda zara. It is also on this day that
a goat is brought into the Kodesh as
a national chatat to atone for the
idolatry of Yisrael.
Yom Kippur, then, is a day of atonement
for the sin of the egel – first because the second luchot were
given on this day, but also because of the following year, when Yom Kippur was
chosen as the day on which Aharon was finally allowed to enter the Kodesh to achieve both personal and
communal atonement for the egel. Thus, Yom Kippur, as observed for
generations, has two independent historical roots.
In the Beit Ha-Mikdash, the Kohen Gadol who succeeds Aharon achieves
atonement by connecting to this meta-historical moment of atonement – by
reenacting the service of Aharon in the Mishkan.
IV. White
Garments
We will conclude by
briefly discussing another unique aspect of the Yom Kippur service. The Kohen Gadol normally wears eight garments,
which are referred to as the “golden garments;” the four garments that he wears
beyond the four of a normal kohen all
contain gold. However, on Yom Kippur, when the Kohen Gadol enters the Heichal, he
wears special white garments. The gemara questions:
For what reason does the Kohen Gadol not wear the golden garments when
he enters the Kodesh Kodashim
to do service? Because a prosecutor cannot act as a defense attorney. (Rosh
Hashana 26a)
Since the egel was made of gold,
gold is considered an argument for the prosecution and cannot be enlisted to
achieve atonement. This gemara may support our contention that the Yom
Kippur service is rooted in the atonement process for the egel.
According to this
gemara, one may question why Aharon was allowed to participate in the Yom
Kippur service at all. After all, Aharon was personally involved in the
production of the egel. Shouldn’t the
presence of a sinner be more incriminatory that that of inanimate objects? The
solution to this problem is simple – Aharon went through a lengthy process of
repentance, and at the end of that process, his presence no longer supports the
prosecution. However, teshuva is
meaningless with regard to inanimate objects, and gold is thus barred from the
heichal during the entire Yom Kippur
service.
However, we do find
the limitation of “a prosecutor cannot act as a defense attorney” applied even
to people. In his commentary on Parashat Chukat, Rashi quotes R.
Moshe Ha-Darshan’s metaphorical interpretation of the para aduma (red
heifer):
It is like the son of a maidservant that
dirtied the palace of the king. They said: “Let his mother come and clean up the
mess.” So too, let the cow (para) come and atone for the egel.
Rashi continues to explain why Elazar,
Aharon’s son, was chosen to perform the service of the para aduma, and
not Aharon himself: “Since Aharon fashioned the egel, this service was not awarded to
him, since a prosecutor cannot act as a defense attorney.” If this rule is
applied to Aharon in this context, why is Aharon invited to serve on Yom Kippur,
while the golden garments are barred so as not to aid the
prosecution?
An additional
problem is posed by R. Moshe Ha-Darshan’s interpretation. If we are correct that the Yom Kippur
service comes to atone for the egel,
why is the para aduma needed as well?
Isn’t this redundant?
The answer is that
the red heifer and the Yom Kippur service deal with two independent problems.
Yom Kippur focuses on the transgressions that the worshippers of the egel violated. Atonement is therefore
achieved through vidduy and the sin offerings. The para aduma, on the other hand, deals
with tum’a and tahara. In fact, the metaphor compares the egel to dirt in the king’s palace, which
must now be cleansed. By virtue of his teshuva, Aharon was eligible for the Yom
Kippur service, which absolves and atones. However, the catastrophic effects of
the egel episode are not limited to
the transgression; the egel is not
only sin, but filth. The