Dvar Torah for Yom Kippur

On Rosh Hashanah it is written, on Yom Kippur it is sealed: who will live, who will die... (High Holiday Liturgy).
Teivat Noach (Noah's Ark) is Yom Kippur (Tikuney Zohar #6, p. 22a).

The beginning of the year is a time of din (judgement). How well we will perceive God's light and the kindness we hope to experience in the year that is starting to unfold, depends on how truly willing we are to give of ourselves for others.

Rebbe Nachman teaches that any time one suffers, when one is painfully subjected to din, he should focus on the ultimate goal of life, which is absolutely good (Likutey Moharan I, Lesson #65:3). The more one can "see" this goal, the more the pain–and the din–abates. This process of focusing on and "seeing" life's goal is called bitul (nullification).

The tzaddik Noach was presented with a tiding of a tsunami of din. "God said to Noach, 'The end of all flesh is has come before Me. The world is filled with crime...I Myself am bring the Flood; water will be on the earth to destroy from under the sky all flesh that has a breath of life'" (Genesis 6:13,17). Noach himself, however, was promised a refuge, the teivah (ark, box).

This box, Reb Noson writes, gave Noach the ability to focus on life's goal so that the awesome din would be mitigated at least to the degree to allow the world to survive and begin anew. Noach, though he was a tzaddik, did not reach the level of Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our master). Moshe Rabbeinu was told by God that the Jews would be utterly destroyed for their having made the golden calf. Moshe Rabbeinu responded that he was ready to give up not only his life, but even any record of his existence in order that the Jews not be destroyed (Exodus 32:10, 32).

Noach, on the other hand, needed to be boxed in. He needed the walls of the Ark to keep him sufficiently focused on the goal so that he could he nullify himself. And nullify himself he did. Noach and his family slept nary a wink in serving the animals, running from one to another, feeding and tending to each of them. His bitul made him aware that he was responsible for taking care of the planet.

The Zohar Chadash (29a) informs of the following exchange. When Noach exited the Ark, he lamented. "Master of the World! You are called the Compassionate. Why didn't You have compassion on Your creations?" The Holy One chided him. "Silly shepherd. Now you speak up?! Where were you when I told you that your contemporaries were in danger, that you were capable of praying for them and that salvation was possible?!"

Where will we be Yom Kippur? Yom Kippur is a day of bitul. We nullify ourselves by not eating, not wearing leather footwear, etc. Yom Kippur is a day of prayer–we pray more on Yom Kippur than on any other day. God may not speak directly to any one of us as He did to Noach, but He speaks to all of us in many ways. When we read in newspapers of sabre-rattling, or hear of the threat of biological/chemical warfare or other types of painful din, God forbid, it is not by accident. We are being told to pray.

Just like Noach and the animals, and Jonah with the Ishmaelites and the descendants of Esau (Zohar Chadash 26a), we're all in the same boat. The animals came to Noach two-by-two and he was able to care for all of them. None of us, however, can be everywhere or do everything to save the world. Each of us CAN focus on the absolutely good goal of life, if only on Yom Kippur, by "boxing out" and minimizing earthy distractions. Each of us CAN pray for the planet's denizens so that the din be minimized to the greatest extent possible. Amen.

A happy, healthy and sweet year to all of us.