Introduction to Yom Kippur abstensions and it’s a mitzvah to eat
Welcome
You made it. We are here together.
Each one of us had to overcome internal and external challenges.
For some it's a mobility challenge.
For others it's fear of judgement or maybe fear for your physical safety being a Jewish space.
Yet for others it is an ambivalence about Jewish ideas and practices.
Maybe disappointment or a rejection by someone who represented the Jewish community or tradition.
Despite all of these you are here.
This moment is so so precious.
Here is a poem by Rumi a Muslim mystic from the Middle Ages that is befitting for this moment
“Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times.
Come, yet again , come , come.”
You belong here. Born Jewish, chose Jewish or neither.
I want to take a minute to speak about the relationship between rabbis and Jews.
Rabbis get ordained by their teachers. That happens after years of study in one day. After that day a person can introduce themselves with the honorific rabbi.
However, a Rabbi is also a relationship. It is a relationship with people who call you rabbi.
You probably heard it a million times: My rabbi said this and my rabbi did that.
This is how rabbis get ordained every day.
You ordain us everyday by treating us as your rabbis.
In the next 25 hours we will serve as your guides and as your representatives. We need your backing.
Few words of introduction for Yom kippur
What do you do when you can’t do what you’re used to doing?
What do you do when you can not plan what you’re going to eat next, drink next, or the next thing that you plan to do to entertain yourself?
These are the five abstentions of yk
All of these are meant to create a space.
A period of time where you face your neshamah, your soul.
The verse in the Torah describes YK as a day
ועיניתם את נפשותיכם
It is often translated as “you will afflict your bodies”
I think a better translation is “you will respond to your souls”
You can avoid answering your soul, but that’s not why you’re here.
A mitzvah to eat
There is something we’re introducing this year that I want to explain at this point.
There’s certain people for whom fasting is not safe.
This is not a new reality.
Already 500 years ago Jewish legal codes have addressed the situation and concluded that if fasting will put your health at risk, it is a mitzvah to eat.
Thus we have designated tables in the ballroom for those who need to eat.
If you are one of these people, you will find a card that has a special prayer for eating on Yom Kippur.
If you have to eat you will have multiple other ways of answering your soul on this day.
