Q&A: Yom Kippur as the Day of Judgment
Yom Kippur as the Day of Judgment
Question
In Book 2, page 274, you note that "just as the Torah's prophecy passages lost some of their significance in times when there are no prophets, so too conceptions regarding the Holy One's intervention in the world and days of judgment as determining fates can lose their significance over the course of history and in our time"—
A. Which passages lost some of their significance regarding prophecy?
B. On page 278 you speak about Rosh Hashanah, and rightly note that it is not only the Day of Judgment but also the day of crowning the Holy One as King. But what about Yom Kippur? It is clearly a day of judgment. What is its significance?
Answer
A. The obligation to heed a prophet, the prohibition against suppressing his prophecy, and the other laws that pertain to a prophet.
B. A day of atonement. I did not question that. These things are written explicitly in the Torah. Only Rosh Hashanah is a later invention.
Discussion on Answer
I don't understand the question, or how it connects to what I wrote in the book.
This is a day on which we repent and receive atonement. It is very reasonable to designate a day for atonement rather than require it all year long. It has no connection to active providence, only to passive providence.
What I mean is that if there is no answer to prayers (except in unusual cases), what is the point of Yom Kippur as a day that cleanses sins and as a day of judgment?
To claim that this whole day is only for us is not enough. After all, the whole prayer service is about Him forgiving our sins and pardoning us. And if He is not listening—what is the point of all this?
Either I lost you or you lost me. Who said He isn't listening? On the contrary, passive providence definitely exists in my view. Active involvement in the world does not.
Sorry for butting in,
so He does listen, just doesn't act directly?
Something like: listens, nods, misses us, and goes on with His other business?
Maybe He responds in the World to Come, or in some indirect way. But in principle, yes.
By the way, what's the point of asking forgiveness if there is no World to Come? Or is that too part of our moral intuition toward Him?
What connection is there between asking forgiveness and the World to Come? If you did something wrong, ask forgiveness. Do you ask forgiveness from someone you hurt only if he might take revenge on you?
If I understand correctly, the whole essence of Yom Kippur as the Day of Judgment and as a day of forgiveness exists only in the World to Come?
If the answer is yes—
1. That seems to me to diminish Yom Kippur, and it creates a problem with the verse, "For on this day He shall atone for them," etc. It doesn't make much sense to say that this refers to forgiveness in the World to Come and not now, on this very day.
2. It seems to contradict everything that appears in the prayer text, and the High Priest's prayer in the Temple (unless the answer to that would be: in the prayer service—the wording was instituted by the Sages and they misunderstood it; in the Temple—that fit a situation in which God walked in the world more than He does today).
The answer is no. It is a spiritual cleansing of the person. Like psychological treatment. And that can happen here and now.
B. What is the meaning of a day of atonement in our time? That is, what am I supposed to understand/think on Yom Kippur—that God is closer than usual and therefore this is indeed a day on which He can listen to me? Does He really "erase" the sins and we start a new page? What is the essence of the day, and what is the relationship on this day between God and the world and providence?