Yeranen Yaakov: Yom Kippur Beats Out the Other Day's Events

Source 1:

Bereishit Rabba 2:4 (text from here)

ויקרא אלהים לאור יום זה יעקב ולחשך קרא לילה זה עשו ויהי ערב זה עשו ויהי בקר זה יעקב ויהי ערב ערבו של עשו ויהי בקר בוקרו של יעקב יום אחד שנאמר (זכריה יד) והיה יום אחד הוא יודע לה' לא יום ולא לילה וגו' דבר אחר יום אחד שנתן לו הקדוש ברוך הוא ואיזה זה יום הכפורים:

[It says:]"And God called the light Day" - this refers to Yaakov, "and the darkness He called Night" - this refers to Esav. "And there was evening" - this refers to Esav. "And there was morning" - this refers to Yaakov. "And there was evening" - the evening of Esav. "And there was morning" - the morning of Yaakov. "One day" - as it says: "And there shall be one day which shall be known as the LORD'S, not day, and not night..." Another explanation: "One day" that HKB"H gave to him [Yaakov]. And which is it? This refers to Yom Hakippurim.

It is worthwhile noting that the נחמד למראה (on Midrash Rabba) and the בעל הטורים both say that לאור יום has the same gematria as זה יעקב אבינו and that קרא לילה has the same gematria as עשו.

Source 2:

Bereishit Rabba 65:10 (text from here)

ויאמר יעקב אל רבקה אמו הן עשו אחי איש שעיר גבר שידין כמד"א (ישעיה יג) ושעירים ירקדו שם ואנכי איש חלק כמד"א (דברים לב) כי חלק ה' עמו רבי לוי אמר משל לקווץ וקרח שהיו עומדין על שפת הגורן ועלה המוץ בקווץ ונסתבך בשערו עלה המוץ בקרח ונתן ידו על ראשו והעבירו כך עשו הרשע מתלכלך בעונות כל ימות השנה ואין לו במה יכפר אבל יעקב מתלכלך בעונות כל ימות השנה ובא יום הכפורים ויש לו במה יכפר שנא' (ויקרא טז) כי ביום הזה יכפר רבי יצחק אמר לא שאול הוא לה ולא שאולה היא ליה אלא ונשא השעיר עליו זה עשו שנאמר הן עשו אחי איש שעיר את כל עונותם עונות תם שנאמר (שם כה) ויעקב איש תם

[It says:] "And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother: 'Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man (איש שעיר)...'" - a man of demons, as it says: וּשְׂעִירִים יְרַקְּדוּ-שָׁם [and satyrs shall dance there], "and I am a smooth man (איש חלק)" - as it says: כִּי חֵלֶק יְהוָה, עַמּוֹ; יַעֲקֹב, חֶבֶל נַחֲלָתוֹ [For the portion of the LORD is His people, Jacob the lot of His inheritance]. Ribbi Levi said: It is a parable to a hairy man and a bald man who were standing on the edge of the silo and the chaff went up upon the hairy man and got tangled in his hair. The chaff went up upon the bald man and he placed his hand on his head and removed it. Similarly, the wicked Esav is dirty with sins all the days of the year and he has nothing with which to atone, but Yaakov gets dirty with sins all the days of the year and Yom Hakippurim comes and he has with which to atone, as it says "For on this day shall atonement be made for you". Ribbi Yitzhak said: It [the parable] is not lent to it [the lesson] and it [the lesson] is not lent to it [the parable, or, in other words, the parable is superfluous]. Rather, [it says:] "And the goat (השעיר) shall bear upon him" - this refers to Esav, as it says "Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man (איש שעיר)". [It continues:] "אֶת-כָּל-עֲו‍ֹנֹתָם [all their iniquities]" - read it as עוונות תם [the sins of the the complete quiet man] as it says: וְיַעֲקֹב אִישׁ תָּם [and Jacob was a quiet man].

The Nezer Hakodesh, in his commentary on Source 1, gives a very nice explanation as to why "light" precedes "darkness" while "evening" precedes "morning". "Light" refers to Yaakov being conceived first before Esav (darkness) while the birth of Esav (evening) occurred before the birth of Yaakov (morning). But Yaakov cannot rule until the demise of Esav when Yaakov will take his portion of the firstborn in thought, but Yaakov cannot take this portion until the 6th Millennium, when exile will have rectified our sins. The 6th Millennium is the "one day" of HKB"H since it is a "day" - or millennium - where it is not totally day and not totally night, meaning not totally belonging to Esav and not totally belonging to Yaakov, but rather starting with Esav and ending with Yaakov. The end of the verse says that at evening time, there will be light, which refers to the 7th Millennium, the "day" of rest.

He continues with this theme to explain how the Midrash then expounds "one day" to alternately refer to Yom Kippur. Based on Source 2, he explains that the reason why Esav carries the load of all of Yaakov's sins is because the archangel of Esav takes a bribe so as not to prosecute and disturb the Avoda of the Jews on this day (see Ramban who says this too). And we now understand "and it was evening" - that is the evening or downfall of Esav - "and it was morning" - that is the rise of Yaakov. What caused it? The transferring of the sins from Yaakov onto Esav every Yom Kippur. Until here is what was stated by the Nezer Hakodesh.

This Yom Kippur, in 5776, lots of things are going on:

The Autumnal Equinox
Eid al-Adha
The Pope is to meet Obama at the White House

Yom Kippur should counter all 3 of these powerful forces:

The Autumnal Equinox is when the nights start to get longer than the days, but even though "and it was evening", nevertheless, "and it was morning" will be here soon. The strong counterforce is "one day" - i.e. Yom Kippur, as the Midrash states.

Eid al-Adha is an Islamic holiday which purports to be the day Avraham took Yishmael to be slaughtered. Of course, this is rubbish. As I mentioned last year, the Yalkut Reuveni and the Rikanati both say that Akedat Yitzhak took place on Yom Kippur, thereby demolishing the force of the nation that is compared to a donkey on this day.

The third powerful force is the political leader of Esav meeting the spiritual leader of Esav on this day. As we noted, though, the archangel of Esav is preoccupied on Yom Kippur with his bribe and doesn't prosecute the Jews, while at the same time, Esav's load of sins continues to increase from not only his own sins, but from those of Yaakov as well. Thus, Yom Kippur saves the day again.

And it seems not to be a coincidence that all these things are occurring this year, 5776, a Motza'ei Shemitta year with many other signs pointing to this year as well.

May we soon reach the day when the sins of Esav and the merits of Yaakov will raise Yaakov up over Esav, and Hashem's Kingdom shall reign supreme.

At this point, I'd like to ask forgiveness from anyone whom I may have hurt, insulted, or otherwise pained. Please forgive me.

May everyone have a גמר חתימה טובה and have an easy and meaningful fast.

3 Comments:

At Tue Sep 22, 06:35:00 AM 2015, Neshama said...: Yes, please forgive me for challenging you so many times in my many emails, all with good intentions. And wish you also a meaningful and easy (in that order) fast. With much appreciation for your stimulating blog :-)
At Tue Sep 22, 07:41:00 AM 2015, Dov Bar-Leib said...: There are two competing korbanot on the Temple Mt. this year: Akeidat Yitzchak which occurred in 2085 and the supposed Akeidat Yishmael. Even though this Binding of Yishmael supposedly occurred on a mountain in Saudi Arabia. the Arabs will be pretending especially this year, that their Akeidat Yishmael occurred on the Temple Mt even though Netanyahu has limited access to the Temple Mt. to men 40 years and up. So we have a situation of "Competing Qorbanot", as per the medrash, between the Children of Yitzchak and Yishmael this year on the day that the prospective Yovel year 5776 is sanctified too. Of course, there is the majority opinion that the Akeidah of Yitzchak really took place on Rosh HaShanah, but in the Yovel year, the Rosh HaShanah Shofar service took place at the time of the Temples on Yom Kippur too...because of the ram that got caught in the thicket by its horns. Now according to the medrash, Yishmael's Qorban is accepted and Yisrael's is rejected as a Test, but this has been ongoing for 1350 years already. So perhaps the rejection part has already occurred. The resulting world war though, has yet to occur. It might simply involve a foolish Jordanian king going to the UN Sec. Council to wrest control of the Temple Mt. from the Jews followed by G-d's resulting reaction.

Gmar Chatimah Tovah.
At Wed Sep 23, 02:49:00 PM 2015, Neshama said...: He certainly is a foolish King. Biting the hand that is protecting him.