Ilustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
Midrashim are ideas or stories that explain the Torah. They often come from listening very carefully to what the Torah says and how it says it. Here, we will look for what clues this midrash sees in the Torah's words, and try to understand its messages.
After teaching all the details of what the כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל (kohen gadol, high priest) does on Yom Kippur, the Torah summarizes the purpose of the rituals:
כִּֽי־בַיּ֥וֹם הַזֶּ֛ה יְכַפֵּ֥ר עֲלֵיכֶ֖ם לְטַהֵ֣ר אֶתְכֶ֑ם
מִכֹּל֙ חַטֹּ֣אתֵיכֶ֔ם לִפְנֵ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה תִּטְהָֽרוּ׃
For on this day, atonement shall be made for you to purify you;
from all your sins, before God you shall be purified.
This pasuk might seem familiar because we repeat it many times in our Yom Kippur prayers. In this midrash, Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah wonders: what does it mean to be purified לִפְנֵי יהוה (lifnei Hashem, before God)? He suggests that these words contain a message about the nature of Yom Kippur:
זוֹ דָּרַשׁ ר' אֶלְעָזָר בֶּן עֲזַרְיָה:
"מִכָּל חַטֹּאתֵכֶם לִפְנֵי ה' תִּטְהָרוּ" -
דְּבָרִים שֶׁבֵּינְךָ לְבֵין הַמָּקוֹם מוֹחֲלִים לְךָ,
דְּבָרִים שֶׁבֵּינְךָ לְבֵין חֲבֵרְךָ אֵין מוֹחֲלִים לְךָ עַד שֶׁתְּפַיֵּיס אֶת חֲבֵרְךָ.
Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah explained:
“from all your sins before God, you shall be purified”—
for things between yourself and God, you are forgiven on Yom Kippur,
but for things between yourself and your friend, you are not forgiven (by God) until you make peace with your friend.
In our translation of the pasuk, we attached “before God” to “you shall be purified” (this is what the trop notes suggest). But Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah suggests that instead we should attach “before God” to the words that come before it, “from all your sins.” See the way we moved the comma in the translation of the midrash! In this reading, the words “before God” limit the sins that get forgiven to include only those specifically “before God.”
- How many different kinds of sins (and mitzvot) are there? What kinds do you think are considered “before God,” and what kinds are not?
- Why does Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah believe that Yom Kippur can only work to repair relationships between people and God? What has to happen for relationships between people to be repaired?
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