Rabbi Linda Joseph
The final service on Yom Kippur is called Neilah, evoking images of the locking of the Gates of Heaven and locking of the Temple Gates at the end of the day. There are two ways to approach this final service. One is with our kiddush cup half empty, and one is with our kiddush cup half full.
Our half-empty kiddush cup is filled with urgency. We are outside the Gates at these final moments as we seek forgiveness. We are feeling “Oy, will we be forgiven?” Our prayers are solemn and heartfelt, our melodies rise in yearning tones on a minor scale. We feel our lives in the balance, our skin pale as the white clothes we wear, our bodies shaky from deprivation. We resemble a person on the verge of death. Our breaking hearts tremble with awe in the sense of fear. We have an insatiable longing to find ourselves inside the gates before the doors clang shut.
Our half-full kiddush cup is approaching the end of the day with a feeling of “joy!” Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel in Ta’anit (4:8) taught: “There are no days of joy greater in Israel than … Yom Kippur.” We are already inside the gates during these final moments of Neilah. We are secure in the knowledge that our efforts to repent have succeeded. The synagogue cantor sings songs and prayers with delight. Our translucent bodies, white outfits, our forgoing of food, lead us to resemble unblemished angels. We are in awe of God’s mercy and forgiveness. In some Hasidic circles, the warm awesome embrace of the Holy One in these final moments is celebrated with laughter and dancing.
Whether the synagogue service we attend is in the mode of “oy” or “joy,” there is the same end point. The mystics teach us that there are five aspects of soul, each corresponding to the five different services on Yom Kippur. These five aspects are Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya and Yechida. The Neilah service is connected to the Yechida, the aspect of the human soul that links us intimately to the Holy One. Whether we are standing outside the Gates, deeply feeling the awe that we are on the cusp of life and death, or inside the gates, feeling profound awe that we have been forgiven, the point of Neilah is that we feel the connection to the Holy One. That we feel Yichud, unification.
Thus, our Neilah service ends with three statements. We recite the Shema Yisrael — Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One — once, declaring our always intense yearning to be at one with God. We repeat the Baruch Shem — Blessed be the Name whose glorious dominion is forever and ever — three times, declaring God’s eternality in the past, present and future. Finally, we sing seven-fold Hashem Hu HaElokim — The Lord, He is God — corresponding to the seven firmaments of the heavens.
During this day of Yom Kippur, God has been with us from evening to evening accompanying us on our journey of Teshuvah — repentance. At Neilah, our spirits have cleaved to the Holy One. Our seven-fold chant accompanies God back through the seven layers of heaven because our unification can only last but a moment. Such oneness is forever fleeting. Once felt and realized, it is constantly yearned for again and again. The rest of our year will see us striving for this feeling again. It will be our compass in the
year ahead.
Rabbi Linda Joseph is the congregational rabbi of Bet Aviv, an adult-focused congregation that is committed to Columbia’s Interfaith concept.
