Leap of Faith: carrying the essence of Yom Kippur into the future

Adam, our first ancestor according to the Torah, is a good guide to keep in mind on Yom Kippur.  If we are frightened, alone, sad, exhausted and full of longing – well, so was Adam. And it is Adam who can take us out of Yom Kippur with hope for the future.

At the end of Ne’ilah, the final service of Yom Kippur, we do Havdalah, the ceremony that separates all sacred time from ordinary time. When we do Havdalah at the close of Yom Kippur, we are drawing back from our long glance into the world to come.

At the close of Shabbat, some take a drop of the Havdalah wine and place it on their eyes or in their pockets to carry away with them the essence of Shabbat. As we go back into the mundane at Ne’ilah, how do we carry with us echoes of those feelings that have crowded our heads this Yom Kippur? If our teshuvah (repentance), is genuine, then we will indeed carry with us the essence of Yom Kippur out onto the streets.

At Havdalah, at the end of Shabbat, we make a blessing over wine, spices and fire. Some believe that on Shabbat a second soul enters us and the reason we smell the spices is to revive ourselves, as our bodies grow faint with the sudden leaving of this second soul and the loss of Shabbat. When we make Havdalah after a festival, we make the blessing over wine and fire only, perhaps because we are now quite ready to re-enter the world of ordinary time.

As you stretch out your hands towards the Havdalah candle this Yom Kippur, remember the following midrash (rabbinic legend).

Adam was expelled from the garden of Eden in the twilight time before the first ever Shabbat. Out in a dangerous new world he was safe as long as Shabbat lasted. But at twilight on Saturday, he feared that the snake would return to kill him. And so God sent a pillar of fire to comfort him. Adam stretched out his hand towards the fire and blessed the One who creates the light of the fire, with the very blessing that we say at Havdalah. Then Adam fasted, as we do on Yom Kippur, and he said: “Accept my teshuvah.” And God stretched a hand towards Adam and God accepted his teshuvah.

After the final prayers of Ne’ilah, as we stretch our hands to the candlelight, God is reaching back towards us and accepting our teshuvah.