Q&A: Atonement of Yom Kippur
Atonement of Yom Kippur
Question
Hello Rabbi, it is written in this week’s Torah portion: “For on this day He shall atone for you, to purify you; from all your sins, before the Lord, you shall be purified” (16:30). And in Yoma (85b) it says: Rabbi says, for all transgressions in the Torah, whether one repented or did not repent, Yom Kippur atones, etc. And I cannot understand this, for it is difficult: how can it be that Rabbi holds that Yom Kippur atones even for those who do not repent, when the Sages said (Bava Kamma 50a): Rabbi Hanina said, whoever says that the Holy One, blessed be He, is lax [to overlook all sins — Rashi], his life will be overlooked [his life and body will be forfeit, because this teaches people to sin — Rashi]. Also, this requires clarification: according to Rabbi, why was the Temple destroyed because of the sins of Israel? After all, Yom Kippur would atone for all the sins.
Answer
The atonement of Yom Kippur works as atonement for the community (see at the beginning of On Repentance, by Rabbi Soloveitchik). Therefore, even if a person has not repented, he is included in the community and is atoned together with it. In fact, based on this, someone who separates himself from the ways of the community, the atonement of Yom Kippur presumably will not help him (and Maimonides discusses this at length in the Laws of Repentance, I believe in chapter 4).
Regarding “the Holy One, blessed be He, is lax,” you could ask the same question about someone who does repent. Why should atonement be granted to him? (“They asked Wisdom: what is the punishment of a sinner?…”). This is the way the Holy One, blessed be He, conducts His world: repentance brings atonement. On Yom Kippur, the further principle was introduced that also on the communal plane repentance helps the entire community (which is like a single organism that includes all the individuals).
As for the destruction of the Temple, it may be that this is exactly because the community as a whole was not worthy of atonement, and then Yom Kippur did not help them.
And one should discuss the obligations of a sin-offering or a guilt-offering, or liabilities for lashes and capital punishments—why their obligation is not nullified after Yom Kippur according to Rabbi. Apparently, within the categories of atonement, Yom Kippur according to Rabbi fills the role of repentance, but if there is a need for the other forms of atonement, they are supposed to remain in force in addition to that.