The Day That Redeems

Time is of the essence, and the essence is time. In our day-to-day lives, we experience time as linear. What we do is done, and we must live with the consequences of our actions. When we have done what is good and right, this presents no problem. But when we have done wrong, we are left to confront the consequences. We may feel that we have somehow tainted ourselves and that there is no way back. This quandary has confronted human beings since time immemorial: Is it possible to rectify what we have done? Is there a way to come clean?

The Jewish tradition’s answer is that renewal, too, is to be found in time, but in a very different conception of time. Alongside linear time, we might speak of a kind of circular or cyclical time, a time in which, through a unique spiritual mechanism, we are given the opportunity to renew ourselves, to begin again, and, in a sense, to be reborn.

This idea finds its fullest expression in the day we call Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is quintessentially a different kind of day. Its very essence is bound up with a unique conception of time: a sacred moment set apart from the ordinary flow of life, in which the past need not have the final word. On this day, we are offered the possibility of returning, of being renewed, and of beginning again.

This theme is taken up in an exceedingly colorful midrash on several phrases from Psalm 27, a psalm closely associated with the penitential season:

Of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? … When evildoers draw near me to eat my flesh, my foes and my enemies, they stumble and fall. (Psalm 27:1–2)

The midrash identifies the “evildoers” with the enemies of the Jewish people who seek their destruction. The midrash envisions Satan as the prosecutor who advocates the case against Israel before God.

To understand one of the midrash’s central images, it is important to note that it assumes a 365-day solar year. The Hebrew word ha-satan—”the Satan” or “the accuser” has a numerical value of 364. Thus, according to the midrash, Satan has the authority to accuse Israel on 364 days of the year, but there is one day on which his prosecutorial power is suspended – Yom Kippur:

“And my salvation” – this refers to Yom Kippur, when He saves us and atones for all our sins. “When evildoers draw near me” – these are the ministering angels of the nations of the world. “To eat my flesh” – when they come to accuse Israel on the Day of Judgment. “My foes and my enemies” – you find that ha-satan, the accuser, has a numerical value of 364, corresponding to the days of the year less one. On every day of the year Satan has the authority to accuse Israel, except on Yom Kippur.

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Satan: “You do not have permission to touch them [on Yom Kippur]. Nevertheless, go and see how they occupy themselves [on that day].” He went and found them all fasting and praying, wearing white garments and wrapped in tallitot like ministering angels. He returned utterly embarrassed.

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: “What did you find regarding My children?” Satan replied: “They were like ministering angels, and therefore I was unable to touch them.” Immediately, the Holy One, blessed be He, restrained him and proclaimed to them (the children of Israel): “I forgive you.” (See Midrash Tehillim 27:4, according to the Cambridge manuscript, Buber edition, pp. 224–225.)

Yom Kippur is thus a day on which Jews are expected to undergo a radical transformation, as represented in this midrash. Their “rebirth” makes them figuratively like ministering angels, over whom Satan, the prosecutor, has no power. The past has not disappeared, nor have its consequences been denied. Rather, through the unique spiritual power of the day, human beings are offered the possibility of becoming something other than what their past actions alone would seem to define them to be.

Such is the power of Yom Kippur—and such is the Jewish conception of renewal through time itself.