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Speech

September 5, 1990

Yom Kippur Seminar (1990)

Yom Kippur

Rabbi Lamm speaks to rabbinic alumni on themes of Yom Kippur.

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Speech

Pre-Yom Kippur Message to be delivered over WMAS (1955)

Beginning at sundown tonight, and for more than 25 hours thereafter, Jews all over the world will flock to their synagogues to ask forgiveness of G‑d on this holiest day of the year. Forgiveness implies, of course, that a sin was committed. And, indeed, we shall recite the Vidui – the list of some 50 sins to which we confess – a total of 8 times. For 8 times, all told, we shall, in full consciousness and awareness, admit that we have erred. For us moderns that will be, as it is every year, quite a disturbing experience. For we have learned to conform to the tempo of our society in which the words of Protagoras and Swinburne hold sway: “Man is the measure of all things.” G‑d has been replaced by Man as the hub of the universe. Religion has become an extension of psychological therapy. Convenience has been raised to a sacrament. And the only sin recognized is the failure to “adjust.” Yom Kippur thus stands in direct contradiction to this basis of our daily living. Not only can we sin, but we do sin. We approach our G‑d in humility and selflessness, and proclaim that it is we who are faulty – we and not G‑d, not Torah, not Religion, not the Synagogue. G‑d has not abandoned us; we have abandoned Him. Yom Kippur thus acts as a check on us – as a brake, lest we run away with ourselves and seriously begin to imagine ourselves as Divinities who can do no wrong. Think about it this way: the one time we Americans are glad – even eager – to recognize G‑d is when we point to Him as the source of our tragedies. There is an automobile accident. We complain: Why did G‑d do it? There is a flood. We ask: Why did G‑d do it? There is sickness. We murmur: Why did G‑d do it? But when it comes to our successes, we tend to forget Him. Polio was vanquished by American science. Economic prosperity is the achievement of our business wizardry. Jet propulsion is the product of American know-how. The projected man-made satellite will be the creation of our genius. And this way of thinking rev…
Yom Kippur

Synagogue Sermon

Judaism from the Inside (1975)

The more significant an event is, the more elaborately and deliberately must we prepare for it. Rabbi Soloveitchik once said that more important than the שומר שבת is the שומר ערב שבת – the one who prepares before Shabbat in the right measure and spirit. In this sense, it is worth turning our attention to the preparation for Yom Kippur. The Talmud (Yoma 2b) teaches that the High Priest had to remain within the Temple for seven days before Yom Kippur. Every year, he was to set aside this week and remain completely within the Sanctuary, in a chamber known as lishkat parhedrin, there to prepare himself for the holiest day of the year.As we all know, any room or house which serves as a residence requires that we affix a mezuzah to the doorpost. Nevertheless, for certain reasons, the Temple rooms were exempt from this obligation of a mezuzah. Hence, the lishkat parhedrin did not require a mezuzah. However, R. Judah (Yoma 10b) is of a somewhat different opinion. As one of the Sages, he normally adheres strictly to principle and is unconcerned with popular reactions and public opinion. Yet here he shows a remarkable divergence from this method. He agrees with his colleagues, that no chamber of the many within the Temple required a mezuzah. The lishkat parhedrin, the chamber where the High Priest stayed for seven days, similarly did not require the mezuzah insofar as the law was technically and formally concerned. However, R. Judah maintains that the Rabbis promulgated a special decree requiring only of the lishkat parhedrin that it be adorned with a mezuzah. The reason offered by R. Judah is amazing: שלא יאמרו כהן גדול חבוש בבית האסורים, so that the people will not say, “the High Priest is imprisoned in the Sanctuary!” R. Judah feared that when the masses of the people came to Jerusalem for the High Holy Days, and congregated about the Temple, they would notice that after the Priest went into the Sanctuary until after Yom Kippur, he did not emerge for seven full days. Not …
Yom Kippur

Synagogue Sermon

The Inner Kernel - editor's title (1956)

Our very presence here this evening, the solemnity of this hour, and the sense of serious dedication which pervades and sweetens the atmosphere of our synagogue tonight point to something within us that we seldom suspect exists. It indicates a tremendous potential for the good, the holy, the decent, and the courageous that lies dormant in our hearts all year but which comes to the fore in response to the mystic challenge of Kol Nidre. Our presence, our prayer, our upward glance, our silent cries and our unseen tears, these are an affirmation of the great principle of Judaism that Man is more than a two-legged beast, that he has a soul, that he was created in the Image of G-d, that there is something inherently good and worthwhile and decent and honorable and G-dly within each of us.This thought came to mind when I read a recent press report of one of the many archaeological expeditions carried out in the State of Israel. An expedition had discovered the ruins of an ancient settlement which was, according to all estimates, some 2,000 years old. Deep down in one of the underground caves, the archaeologists had found a large amount of wheat evidently stored away by the original settlers. Because of the right conditions of humidity and temperature, the wheat had remained preserved intact for these past 2000 years. But the scientists were extremely skeptical as to whether any life was left in the kernels of wheat – that was too much to expect. And so, to experiment, they planted the kernels – and by harvest time, they were amazed to find a bumper crop! Buried in the depths of the earth for 20 centuries – and enough life left to start all over again!So it is with man – all year we may resemble a spiritual ruins, but on Yom Kippur we affirm that there is a kernel of Life left someplace deep within us, and in response to the call of Torah, we seek to retrieve that kernel, that hidden goodness and concealed G-dliness, and bring it to full bloom and fruition again.Indeed, ha…
Yom Kippur