Q&A: The Meaning of Yom Kippur
The Meaning of Yom Kippur
Question
Hello Rabbi. Over the past year I’ve grown close to Judaism again. You could say I had been an atheist (not with great pleasure… I do connect to the religious and ethical way of being, only I was driven by logical conclusions about what is true), until I encountered several philosophical issues that gave me no rest. Among other things, I found a great deal of sense in the Rabbi’s ideas, and as a result I’m in a different place now.
The issue of free will is one of those questions. I find it very hard to adopt the traditional religious view regarding the reconciliation of free will and divine providence, because in my opinion there is no real reconciliation here. So Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are holidays that are very difficult for me. I do not believe that my fate is written and sealed and that all the events of the coming year are determined for me today, because in my eyes that drains the essence of free will of its meaning.
I wanted to ask how the Rabbi understands the essence of Yom Kippur, and how he directs his intention in prayer, if at all.
Thank you in advance, and an easy fast,
Tair
Answer
Hello Tair.
First of all, thank you. Letters like this make it worth investing the time and effort and getting into all the exhausting arguments here.
As for your actual point, my claim is that there is no problem whatsoever with free will, neither scientifically nor theologically. Scientifically, see my book The Science of Freedom or the article here on the site:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%91%D7%98-%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%98%D7%AA%D7%99-%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%97%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%A9-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%A6%D7%95%D7%9F/
As for theological considerations (the question of divine knowledge and free choice), my view is that it is clear that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not know in advance what we will choose. There is a simple logical proof for this from Newcomb’s paradox (see there and there). I have written quite a bit about this on the site as well, both about divine knowledge and certainly about His involvement in the world. In my estimation there is very little involvement, if any.
By the way, I don’t think the difficulty is specifically with free will. It is entirely possible to act out of completely free will, and nevertheless for the Holy One, blessed be He, to be involved in what happens to me (not determining everything, but involved and guiding and setting a framework in light of the High Holy Days and in light of my deeds). But, as I said, none of this seems plausible to me either, though for other reasons.
Therefore, for me Rosh Hashanah is a day of accepting the yoke of Heaven (crowning God as king), that is, creating commitment to the word of God. And Yom Kippur is a day of personal soul-searching about my path, my thoughts, and my character traits, and not necessarily a Day of Judgment in the sense that the Holy One, blessed be He, determines what will happen to me this year (perhaps with respect to the World to Come. I do not know).
See also here:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%A8%D7%9E%D7%96%D7%99-%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9C-%D7%90%D7%95-%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%9C-%D7%91%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%98%D7%90-%D7%98%D7%95/
May you be sealed for a good year,
Discussion on Answer
Thank you very much for the quick response. Your answer made me realize that before I approach clarifying my intentions for Yom Kippur, there are basic issues I need to make up my mind about, such as commitment to Jewish law and accepting the yoke of the commandments, for example.
In a certain sense I’m still on the bridge between deism and theism. So maybe I got ahead of myself a bit.
Still, I very much appreciate the detailed reply. The way you relate to these days sounds reasonable, but of course it depends on accepting premises that I have not yet accepted.
May you be sealed for a good year.
The question whether there is providence matters mainly for Rosh Hashanah, which is the Day of Judgment. If there is no providence, then only the judgment after death (or at the end of days) matters, and an annual day of judgment seemingly has no meaning.
But specifically for Yom Kippur as a day of forgiveness, it doesn’t matter. After all, forgiveness has to be sought regardless of judgment.
Hi Tair. If you’re already a deist, then see the fifth notebook on the path from the philosophical God to the God of Judaism:
https://mikyab.net/Writings/Notebooks on Matters of Faith/Notebook-5-From Deism to Theism/
Yishai,
Not necessarily. There is also significance to the processes of how we conduct ourselves. It may be that a person is judged at the end of his life also on what each year looked like and whether he corrected things on an ongoing basis, and not only according to his final state. The Sages say that a penitent is preferable to a completely righteous person, and from this it is proven that the path also has importance and not only the final outcome.
The question is whether such a thing can be defined as a day of judgment. I understand that you’re suggesting it’s a kind of midterm exam…
Since this is the kind of news that will make you happy, I won’t withhold good from its owner.
This week an atheist (formerly religious) became convinced of the existence of God (deistic, at least for the moment), after long discussions I had with him (which included breaks of many weeks during which he thought things over) based on your third notebook.
He is the only intellectually serious atheist I know who changed his mind from firm atheism to firm deism, and now holds that it is irrational not to believe in God.
A meaningful fast, and thank you for an enlightening year thanks to this site.
That is indeed encouraging. Thank you, and may your final sealing be for good.
Following this question, I added a short column (no. 94):
https://mikyab.net/%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%90%D7%99%D7%97%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9C%D7%A7%D7%95/