Jonathan Sacks z”l: Yom Kippur in a Nutshell & Understanding Time

By Steve Ornstein

Posted on October 10, 2024

Jonathan Sacks z”l: Yom Kippur in a Nutshell & Understanding Time

Rabbi Sacks’ view on the Jewish way to understand time.

Transcript:

And to deal with that, Judaism created the most powerful time management tool in civilisation. It is called Shabbat. On Shabbat, you have to stop whatever you’re doing and focus on the things that are important, but not urgent. The things you’d never find time to do if there were no such thing as Shabbat in your life, like talking to those you love, like spending time, appreciating what God has given you, like having a meal with friends, like singing with joy at the fact that we’re here, like praying to God and offering Him our sacrifice of thanks. Thank You for all the good things You’ve put in my life. I think a life without Shabbat is a life without time management.

And of course, beyond that, there’s the biggest time management seminar of the whole lot, which we call the asseret yemei teshuvah, the 10 days, beginning on Rosh Hashanah ending on Yom Kippur when we think about the year that has passed and quietly, God is asking us a question: “You’re asking Me for another year of life, let Me hear your answer to this question. Last year, I gave you another year of life, what did you use it for? Did you spend your time on the things that make a difference?”

And that’s really when we ask: What have we done in the past year? How have we added to the store of human happiness? How have we made the world a little better?

And so Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are, to me, the great time management days of a lifetime. And it seems to me that the Torah really understood that, of all things, the most precious is time. It’s the only thing that God gives to us equally on equal terms, however rich or poor, powerful, or powerless. There’s still only 24 hours in a day, and still only 52 weeks in a year, in a span of years that is all too short. The essence of Judaism is contained in that marvellous line from Psalms limnot yameinu kein hoda v’navi l’vav chachma, “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” It is counting our time.

That is the most important thing in life and Judaism, the world’s most ancient – and, to my way of thinking, the single most effective – form of time management.

Yom Kippur in a Nutshell

Yom Kippur is the holy of holies of Jewish time, when we give an account of our lives. We reflect on what has happened to us and what we plan to do in the coming year. The single most important lesson of Yom Kippur is that it’s never too late to change, start again, and live differently from the way we’ve done in the past. God forgives every mistake we’ve made as long as we are honest in regretting it and doing our best to put it right. Even if there’s nothing we regret, Yom Kippur makes us think about how to use the coming year in such a way as to bring blessings into the lives of others by way of thanking God for all He has given us.

In ancient times Yom Kippur was celebrated in the form of a massive public ceremony set in the Temple in Jerusalem. The holiest man in Israel, the High Priest, entered the most sacred space, the Holy of Holies, confessed the sins of the nation using God’s holiest name, and secured atonement for all Israel. It was a moment of intense drama in the life of a people who believed that their fate depended on their relationship with God, who knew that there is no life, let alone a nation, without sin, and who knew from their history that sin could be punished by catastrophe.

tallit men shul davenning synagogue praying yom kippur talleisim tallis prayer shawl

After the destruction of the Second Temple, everything changed. There was no longer a High Priest, no sacrifice, no Divine fire, no Levites singing praises or crowds thronging the precincts of Jerusalem and filling the Temple Mount. Above all, there was no Yom Kippur ritual through which the people could find forgiveness.

It was then that a transformation took place that must constitute one of the great creative responses to tragedy in history. Yom Kippur was transferred from the Temple in Jerusalem to every synagogue in the world. Instead of the High Priest acting as a representative, God Himself would purify His people without the need for an intermediary. Even ordinary Jews could, as it were, come face to face with the Shechinah, the Divine Presence. They needed no one else to apologise for them. The drama that once took place in the Temple could now take place in the human heart. Yom Kippur was saved, and it is not too much to say that Jewish faith was also saved.

Points to Ponder

How does Yom Kippur help us focus on the future and on making a change?
How did Yom Kippur change after the churban (destruction of the Temple)? What are the advantages of each approach?
How did this transition “save Jewish faith”?