Acharei Mos-Kedoshim 5772

This week’s Parsha gives us an opportunity for a five-month head start on our preparations for next Yom Kippur; of course, Teshuvah, which is the essence of Yom Kippur, is always in-season.

Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the Yom Kippur ritual is its requirement that the Kohen Gadol enter the innermost chamber of the Bais Hamikdosh – the Kodesh HaKodoshim – four times. What is the significance of this fact? We may suggest two possibilities:

First, it symbolizes the esteem in which the genuinely penitent are held. Chazal (Berachos 34b) teach, “In the place where Ba’alei Teshuvah stand, the absolutely righteous cannot stand.” On Yom Kippur we present ourselves before Hashem as Ba’alei Teshuvah. Accordingly, our representative – the Kohen Gadol – can stand in a spot which is so holy and so close to the Divine Presence that it is off limits in any other circumstance.

Second, it symbolizes an important element in the process of Teshuvah. To understand this fully, we may use an analogy:

The law of the Nazir grants an individual the ability to make a vow of self-sanctification. In that state he must avoid drinking wine, cutting his hair, and defiling himself by contact with the dead. These laws express three different aspects of the Nazir’s holiness: total rationality (avoiding intoxicants), selflessness (inattention to personal grooming), and purity (non-defilement). Why would a person become a Nazir? In the Torah, the law of the Nazir is juxtaposed to the law of the Sotah, the suspected adulteress. Says the Talmud (Sotah 2a): “A person who sees the ruination of the Sotah should take the vow of the Nazir.” Presumably the downfall of the Sotah was rooted in a drunken loss of control; becoming a Nazir addresses the problem.

But is it necessary? If our only concern is maintaining rational control, why is it not sufficient to make a vow to forbid wine? Being a Nazir entails so much more!

Chazal may have something else in mind. The value of becoming a Nazir is not just the resulting avoidance of alcohol. Becoming a Nazir raises one to a new spiritual plane at which the temptations of the past are simply unimaginable. The Nazir has “outgrown” them much in the same way that a ten-year old outgrows the antics of a toddler. Making a vow to avoid wine would be perhaps a band-aid solution; becoming a Nazir is a genuine transformation.

(Interestingly, it would not be necessary to become a Nazir forever. An unspecified vow of Nazir lasts for only 30 days. But that may be enough. The impression left on the psyche of the Nazir lasts beyond the expiration of his vow.)

In doing Teshuvah, we are not looking for the band-aid solutions for sin-avoidance. We are seeking ways to raise our overall spirituality and elevate ourselves above and beyond temptation. Our Torah study, prayers, and spiritual experiences may never directly address the sins we have committed. Yet, they will be the building blocks of our Teshuvah. What we really are trying to do is to follow the Kohen Gadol into the Kodesh HaKodoshim. If we can go there, we will happily leave our old baggage behind.