Dvar Torah for Yom Kippur

Based on Likutey Halakhot, Hilkhot Gittin 3

When a Jewish couple gets married, part of their becoming united involves a sepher (book), most commonly the ketubah (marriage contract). Similarly, if a Jewish couple divorces, they do so by means of a different sepher, the get (bill of divorce). The word SePheR has the same root as the word SiPuR, story. As people come together or separate, the stories of their lives, and of human history, are being written. What is the inner meaning of sepher such that it can create or rend asunder the most powerful connection two human beings can share?

The giving of the Torah is called a chatunah (wedding). It was revelation of Seikhel HaElyon, the wisdom with which the universe was created. The holy Torah is the ultimate sepher, and it is the sepher which God the Groom gave to His bride, the people of Israel. Thus, every sepher the Torah has us write, is itself rooted in that wisdom, giving it the power to effect what it is supposed to.

Each Jew is rooted in Seikhel HaElyon. This is what gives him the ability to take a vow to forbid himself from doing something that the Torah permits. Vis-a-vis the person who took the vow, the vow has the status of a Torah prohibition. The prohibition can be removed, but only if the person confesses regret for having made it. This confession has to be made in the presence of an exceptional Torah scholar, or in the presence of three laymen.

Many times in life people face machloket. The word machloket means argument, contention, strife. Rebbe Nachman also defines machloket as any time a situation in life is not according to one's liking. Certainly, no one likes to be embroiled in controversy or to spend time and energy fighting. Nonetheless, there is an upside to machloket, and that is, that it can be a catalyst to teshuvah (repentance). What is it that the person was missing most, which led him to be involved in quarrel, and what is it that he regains by repenting? Emunat chakhamim (faith in Torah sages).

“Would it be that my opponent wrote a sepher” (Job 31:35). When a person does something wrong (i.e., he sins) it indicates a number of flaws: a flaw in his faith in Hashem (God); a flaw in his faith in Hashem's emissaries (the Sages); and a flaw in the person's own seikhel (intellect). As a result of his wrongdoing he cannot access the Seikhel HaElyon. When a person does teshuvah and rebuilds his faith, he can again draw the seikhel and “write” a new sepher, a new story.

The Seikhel HaElyon is also called the Seikhel HaKollel, the All-Inclusive Intellect. The Seikhel HaKollel includes each and every seikhel prati (individuated intellect), as well as each and every tzimtzum (literally, constriction; in our context, tool). For any given tzimtzum there is only one seikhel prati that can be used to make it work properly. A husband and wife are, respectively, one example of seikhel prati and tzimtzum. In the Seikhel HaKollel, however, there is no distinction between seikhel prati and tzimtzum. Thus, a sepher is necessary to define such a pair. If and when a time comes when the seikhel prati can no longer be effective with a tzimtzum the other sepher, the get, has to be used to re-meld them into the Seikhel HaKollel and dissolve their connection. At that point they can be “re-assigned.” On occasion, a couple’s talk about divorce is enough to connect them to the Seikhel HaKollel and instead of getting divorced they re-unite.

Yom Kippur is also an aspect of the Seikhel HaElyon. This is evidenced by the fact that the Second Tablets were given to Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses our Teacher) on Yom Kippur. This is one of the reasons we start Yom Kippur with Kol Nidrei, a declaration annulling our vows. The Heavenly Groom and His earthly bride who were wed at Sinai are now separated from one another. Are they divorced? God promised us that that would never happen (for examples, see Leviticus 22:44 and Jeremiah 33:20-21).

If so, why do we find that Hashem often speaks as if He wishes to be rid of us? Reb Noson refers us to Rashi's analogy (Hosea 2:1): A king once became so angry at his queen that he called for a scribe to come and write a bill of divorce. While the scribe was on his way, the royal couple reconciled. When the scribe arrived the king said to him, “It won't do to have you write nothing. Write that I am giving her double the gift mentioned in the marriage contract.” Whenever we find Hashem pushing us away, we must realize that He is in fact shining onto us some of the light of the Seikhel HaKollel in order that we become reconciled and receive even greater gifts from Him.

So, we begin Yom Kippur, a temporal revelation of Seikhel HaKollel, with Kol Nidrei. We access the Seikhel HaKollel, the source of vows, to undo them. At the same time we are attempting to have Hashem undo His vow of keeping us in exile so that both He and we may be reunited (see Tikuney Zohar #5, p. 143a).

Have an easy fast!