So the topic tonight is Yom Kippur, as self-understood, the Monday before Yom Kippur, it's only appropriate to talk about Yom Kippur. And next week, אם ירצה השם, hopefully, since it'll be before Sukkos, we will discuss Sukkos. After Yom Tov, when we will continue, then we will just pick different topics, interesting topics of Yiddishkeit, but now, being that we're in the season of the Yom Tov, so we will discuss the Yomim Tovim. It's self-understood that the discussion concerning Yom Kippur comes in continuation to the discussion concerning Rosh Hashanah. We had two sessions concerning Rosh Hashanah. Though it wasn't called Rosh Hashanah, we called one teshuvah and one shofar, but basically that was discussion about Rosh Hashanah. So today when we discuss Yom Kippur, this will be in continuation to the ones that we spoke about before. Now, if you remember when we spoke about shofar, which is the mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah, as the expression is in the גמרא, מצות היום בשופר, the mitzvah of the day is to blow shofar, so I explained that in chasidus it says, and the Rebbe elaborates on it, that there are three aspects in the mitzvah of shofar. You remember, one is that it's a mitzvah, it's a mitzvah like any other mitzvah, to blow shofar. The second thing is that shofar reminds us of teshuvah, which is a higher level than a mitzvah. The proof is that teshuvah rectifies the mistakes you made concerning mitzvot. Now if teshuvah would be in the same level as a mitzvah, then if there was a problem concerning the mitzvot, then how could teshuvah take care of it and rectify it and fix it up? Obviously teshuvah is a higher level. And then we had a third aspect in shofar, which is המליכוני עליכם, that's the mitzvah that brings about Hashem becoming the king. And we explained then that there is this special connection a Yid has to Hashem, and Hashem has to the Yidden, which is beyond the actions of the person. And that is the highest level. The lowest level is the connection a Yid has to Hashem through the mitzvot, and then in between you have the level of teshuvah, which is not like the mitzvot, because as we said before, it could rectify the mistakes of the mitzvot, but on the other hand, the concept of teshuvah is to fix a mistake that you did by keeping not keeping the mitzvot, so obviously it is connected to mitzvot. But anyway, we have these three levels. So there is a connection that a Yid has to Hashem through doing mitzvot, then there is a deeper level that a Yid has to Hashem when he made a mistake and Hashem gives him the opportunity that he's able to change that, do teshuvah. And then there's a third thing, the connection a Yid has to Hashem, which is beyond the actions of the person, that's an essential connection, like we have between a parent and a child, that there is the connection that this is the father, this is the child, or this is the mother, this is the child, and that is beyond the behavior of the child. That is concerning the mitzvah of shofar, which is the mitzvah of Rosh Hashanah. Similarly, we have on Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, we also have these three things. On Yom Kippur, we have the mitzvot of Yom Kippur. We know that on Yom Kippur, there are different mitzvot. One is that you can't work on Yom Kippur, like you can't work on any Yom Tov, and in this case, it's more than a Yom Tov, it's like Shabbos: you can't cook, you can't carry, just like Shabbos. Plus, on Yom Kippur, there are more mitzvot, which we don't have any other Yom Tov. They are negative mitzvot, but nevertheless they are mitzvot, and those are the mitzvot of the חמשה עינויים, the five things that we have to suffer from, so to speak, which are: we can't eat and drink, that's number one, and we can't wear shoes, and we can't smear ourselves with any lotions, with any oil, we can't have רחיצה, which means we can't wash our body, and we can't have relations, husband and wife. These are five עינויים, and these are mitzvot of Yom Kippur. They're not all on the same level of strictness, but nevertheless, they are all issurim, forbidden things that we cannot do on Yom Kippur. They are mitzvot lo taaseh. The two worst ones are the eating and drinking, for that the punishment is karet, but for the rest it's not, but nevertheless they are forbidden from the Torah to do. So we have the mitzvot on Yom Kippur. Then we have on Yom Kippur the mitzvah of teshuvah, that we have to do teshuvah, and on Yom Kippur, we have to do teshuvah more than we have to do all year round. And I actually brought the Rambam here, and I'll read from the Rambam in Hilchot Teshuvah. The Rambam says like this: אף על פי שתשובה וצעקה יפה לעולם, even though teshuvah and screaming out to Hashem is always good, בעשרה הימים שבין ראש השנה ויום הכפורים, the 10 days between ראש השנה and יום... כיפור, יפה ביותר, it's even better, ומתקבלת מיד, and it's accepted right away. Then the next הלכה he says, יום הכיפורים, יום כיפור, הוא זמן תשובה לכל, that's the time of teshuvah for everybody. ליחיד ולרבים, for individuals and for the public. וקץ מחילה וסליחה לישראל, that's the time when Hashem gives a complete forgiveness for the Yidden. לפיכך, therefore, חייבים הכל לעשות תשובה, everyone is obligated to do teshuvah on יום כיפור, ולהתודות, and to confess ביום הכיפורים. So here the Rambam says that even though teshuvah has no set time of the year, and as I explained last time when we spoke about teshuvah that teshuvah is not a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא, it's not one of those mitzvot that has a time limit, and therefore women would be exempt, it is not so, mitzvot of teshuvah is always. Nevertheless, the Rambam says on Yom Kippur there's a special obligation to do teshuvah. Now, I'll bring that more at length in a moment, but we have the concept of teshuvah on Yom Kippur even more than you have all year round. So again, we have Yom Kippur the concept of mitzvah, there are certain מצוות השם gave us specifically for Yom Kippur. Then we have the idea of teshuvah on Yom Kippur, which first of all it's one of the עשרת ימי תשובה, one of the ten days of teshuvah, plus as we just read in the Rambam there is a special mitzvah on Yom Kippur to do teshuvah. And then we have the third thing on Yom Kippur, and that is what we call עיצומו של יום מכפר, the essence of the day. And the essence of the day has a special, special quality which no other day of the year has. That special day of the year that's called the עיצומו של יום, the essence of the day, and that essence of the day reveals the connection, the deeper connection, the higher connection between the Yidden and Hashem. Just like we said on Rosh Hashanah, there is this higher connection, the fact that we accept Hashem as our king, which comes before mitzvot and comes even more than teshuvah, so too on Yom Kippur we have this essential connection that's revealed on Yom Kippur. There is only an argument in the Gemara whether in order to reveal that special connection, you must have teshuvah. And I'll explain that. In Gemara we have an argument between Rabbi and the Chachamim. Two opinions: Rabbi, Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, and the Chachamim. Rabbi says that in order for Yom Kippur to forgive, you have to do teshuvah. The Chachamim say עיצומו של יום מכפר. No, I I I used the wrong names. The Chachamim say that you have to do teshuvah, and Rabbi says עיצומו של יום מכפר. Rabbi says that the day itself forgives, and the Chachamim say that no, you have to do teshuvah. At first glance it would seem that Rabbi holds the day itself forgives and the Chachamim hold the day itself doesn't, you have to do teshuvah. But we see it's not like that, because the Rambam says that you have to do teshuvah on Yom Kippur in order to get the kaparah, and he says at the same time עיצומו של יום מכפר, that the day itself forgives. In other words, the Rambam says that we paskan that the day itself forgives, but in order to get that you have to do teshuvah. So basically what it means is like this: everyone agrees that there is something special on the day of Yom Kippur. There is something special, there is a special connection, a special forgiveness that comes from Hashem on the day of Yom Kippur. The argument is that the Chachamim hold in order to get that, you have to do teshuvah, while Rabbi holds you don't have to do teshuvah. But even according to the Chachamim that Yom Kippur doesn't accomplish unless you do teshuvah, it means that there is a special accomplishment you gain on Yom Kippur, because otherwise, anytime of the year a Yid does teshuvah Hashem will forgive him. So what does the Chachamim mean that on Yom Kippur in order to be forgiven you have to do teshuvah, and on a regular Montik un Donershtik, a regular Monday and Thursday you do teshuvah, Hashem will also forgive you? So what does it mean that Hashem forgives you on Yom Kippur only if you do teshuvah? What it means is that there is a special type of forgiveness. Which means when a person does an aveirah, Hashem says, \"I overlook the aveirah.\" Now, all year round when a person does teshuvah, He overlooks it to a certain degree. Yom Kippur, there is this special connection that a Yid has with Hashem, that Hashem overlooks aveirot in a much deeper level, in a much the connection is much deeper, deeper than any other day of the year. But the Chachamim say in order to reveal that, you also have to do teshuvah. But when you do teshuvah, then Hashem reveals that special connection. Now, that special connection means that Hashem reveals the essence of the Jewish neshamah. Hashem reveals His own essence and connects that to the essence of a Jewish neshamah. Now, we all know that the essence of the neshamah is called in Chasidut and in Kabbalah the yechidah shebanefesh. Yechidah shebanefesh means the the single part of the nefesh. That means like this: The Midrash says that there are five parts to every neshama. And the five parts are called נפש, רוח, נשמה, חיה, and yechida. There are five parts. And that is the reason that when a person is an aveil or has yahrzeit and he daven't for the amud, our minhag is, our custom is that we have five candles burning. when it comes to daven for the amud. And the reason is because these candles are supposed to represent the neshama that you are davening for, and because it says נר ה׳ נשמת אדם that the neshama is like a candle, and since there are five parts to the neshama, we have five candles. So the five candles, the five parts are נפש, רוח, נשמה, חיה, יחידה. And it says that normally which parts of the neshama are revealed? Only the first three: נפש, רוח, and neshama. On Shabbos and Yom Tov and Rosh Chodesh and Chol Hamoed, the fourth level of the neshama is revealed. But the fifth level of the neshama, that's something special, that's only specific people at certain times, not always. Yom Kippur it says, the fifth level of the neshama is revealed by everybody. And that's the reason why on Yom Kippur we daven five tefillot. Every other day we daven three tefillot, Shacharit, Minchah, Ma'ariv, because there are only three parts of the neshama revealed. On Shabbos and Yom Tov and Chol Hamoed, Rosh Chodesh, we daven four tefillot, we add a Mussaf. The reason is because the fourth level of the neshama is revealed. On Yom Kippur we daven, it's the only day of the year that we daven five tefillot because all five levels of the neshama are revealed. That means that even the yechida is revealed. And that's why we have five tefillot. The fifth one is ne'ilah, and obviously at that point that's the holiest tefillah because that's the time when, out of all times, the real real part of the neshama is revealed. But, in truth, the whole day is considered a day that has five tefillot. So the whole day is a day when all five levels of the neshama are revealed, and that's what happens on Yom Kippur. So again, on Yom Kippur what we have is we have there are certain mitzvot that we have to do on Yom Kippur, that's like any other mitzvah of the year. Mitzvah of fasting, mitzvah of not working, mitzvah of the other things that we said. Then you have the concept of teshuvah on Yom Kippur, which is the second level that we have on Yom Kippur, similar to the second level of the shofar. Then we have this third level of Yom Kippur, the עיצומו של יום, the fact that Yom Kippur itself is the holy day. Even the teshuvah of Yom Kippur, which is the middle level, is also different on Yom Kippur than any other day of the year. As we just read from the Rambam, that the Rambam says that on Yom Kippur everybody has to do teshuvah. Everybody has to do teshuvah. Which seems a little strange, because what do you mean everybody has to do teshuvah? If a person doesn't have any aveirot, why does he have to do teshuvah? All year round we know that if a person did an aveirah, did something wrong, you have to do teshuvah. If you didn't, there's nothing to do teshuvah for. But on Yom Kippur he says everybody has to do teshuvah, has to do teshuvah. And the reason is because all year round the teshuvah comes if you did an aveirah, you have to do teshuvah. On Yom Kippur, the day itself expects you to do teshuvah. The truth is there is no person in the world that doesn't have what to do teshuvah for. Everybody did at one point something wrong. It says, אין צדיק בארץ אשר יעשה טוב ולא יחטא. There is no tzadik in the earth, in the world, that only did good. But what happens usually is you did an aveirah at one point and you did teshuvah. When it says there's no tzadik, doesn't mean that he always has aveirot. You could have an aveirah at one point and then do teshuvah. But Yom Kippur, even if you did teshuvah for that aveirah once, you have to do teshuvah again. It says that even if you did teshuvah for an aveirah years ago, you have to do teshuvah on Yom Kippur again because the day itself is a day that expects a person to do teshuvah. And since it's a day that expects a person to do teshuvah, you have to do teshuvah no matter what. And every person has something to do teshuvah for, even if he did teshuvah already once before. It says that חטאתי נגדי תמיד, which means my sin is always in front of me, that if a person once did an aveirah, even if he did teshuvah for it, next Yom Kippur you have to say vidui, you have to mention it again. For two reasons. Number one, you have to still do teshuvah because that aveirah is always there. But number two, when you reach a higher level, the teshuvah that you did before doesn't really count. I won't say it doesn't count, but you have to do teshuvah now on a higher level. There are certain things that not for Yom Kippur they wouldn't even count as an aveirah. When Yom Kippur comes, because you reach such a higher level, then those things are counted for an aveirah. Like it says, the Arizal writes, why is it that after Shemoneh Esreh we say, every day in davening we say אשמנו, we remind ourselves about our aveirot at after Shemoneh Esreh, after we said the most part of davening, why? And he says very simple, because when do we first realize that certain things are wrong, or when do certain things become wrong? Only when you reach a level after Shemoneh Esreh. There are certain things that in a normal situation they're not even considered wrong, but when you reach a higher level, then they start becoming wrong. And when you finish Shemoneh Esreh, a Yid is supposed to reach a higher level as I explained when we spoke about tefillah, that's when you start realizing certain things are wrong. And the same thing is with Yom Kippur. Certain things all year round you might not even have to do teshuvah for, but when it comes Yom Kippur, you have to do teshuvah for everything. And that's That's why the Rambam says Yom Kippur is a time of תשובה לכל, for everybody, and Yom Kippur is a day that everybody must do teshuvah, everybody, because there is nobody that could be perfect and nobody could say that there is nothing that is not 100%. And therefore, even if during the year you didn't have to do teshuvah for it, but Yom Kippur you have to do teshuvah. That is the second aspect of Yom Kippur.

But the main part of Yom Kippur that we know about is that this is the day that Hashem says, \"I reveal my connection to you.\" That explains an interesting halachah in the Rambam. The main avodah, the main service in the בית המקדש on Yom Kippur, we all know was that the Kohen Gadol, the high priest, would go into the קדש הקדשים, the Holy of Holies. There was one room in the בית המקדש that no one, no one ever entered, the Holy of Holies. The other parts, some places he would enter more, more people, more times, some place less, but they would enter there very often. The קדש הקדשים, no one entered. The only time any person entered was on Yom Kippur and the Kohen Gadol, which means that it was the holiest day of the year, the holiest person of the Jewish nation would enter the holiest place, the holiest place of the whole world, the קדש הקדשים. What would he do there? He would bring ketoret. He would take the incense, the spices, and burn them, and walk into the קדש הקדשים, and then come back in later to take it out. That's what he did there. When they When they made the ketoret, there were certain ingredients in the ketoret. There was one thing which is not really an ingredient of the ketoret, but they would add it. And that was a certain herb that was called מעלה עשן. The translation of the word מעלה עשן means it makes the smoke go up. By putting in that herb into the ingredient and when it burned, that would make the smoke go up straight. Now we say in davenen every day that they would put in every day whenever they brought ketoret every day on the mizbe'ach, they would put in מעלה עשן כל שהוא, a very drop of מעלה עשן, and that would make the ketoret that they brought every day in the בית המקדש go up. Nevertheless, the Rambam says that every day of the year, if they forgot to put it in or they didn't have it, bediavad, we call it, was kasher. You had to have the 11 ingredients. If you missed an ingredient, you couldn't use that ketoret. But this is a 12th thing which was not part of the ingredients, and bediavad, if you didn't have it, it was kasher. On Yom Kippur, when they would go into the קדש הקדשים, the Kohen Gadol would go in, the Rambam says that מעלה עשן was me'akev, which means you have to have that מעלה עשן. If you missed it, then the ketoret was pasul, you couldn't use, invalid, you couldn't use it. And all the commentaries wonder, where did the Rambam take it from, and why should there be a difference between the Yom Kippur and any other day of the year? If it's important, it should always be important. Why is it? And they give all kinds of answers in halachah, in nigleh, which we're not going to go into. But the Rebbe has an explanation based on the whole concept of ketoret and of Yom Kippur. I'll explain it just in short. When we discussed korbanot, I explained that ketores is a very, very holy korban. But of all sacrifices, the holiest of all sacrifices is the ketores. We actually see it in the name. The word korban comes from the word karov, which means close. The word ketores comes from the word קטר, which means a knot. A knot is a closer connection than just being close. When you tie two things together, it's closer. The closeness that a Yid would get to Hashem through a korban was not as great as the closeness that Yidden would get to Hashem through the ketores. Why? So I'm not going to go review the whole thing, but just in short, because the idea of a korban is that they took a physical animal, burned it on the mizbeach, which means it was consumed by the fire of Hashem. That showed that we took the worldly things and you brought it up to Hashem. It was the only service of Hashem that physically you would see how an object was, so to speak, eaten up by Hashem. Everything that we do is to elevate the world, but you don't see it. When we put on tefillin, we don't see how the physical tefillin is elevated to Hashem, even though we know it's true. By korbanot, you would actually see it physically. Ketores was even more. Why? Because ketores, first of all, ketores was made up of ingredients that was not edible. It wasn't food, which is lower within the physical world than animal or flour, which were korbanot which were edible. Second of all, one of the ingredients in the ketores was חלבנה, which had a very bad smell. Another thing, one of the ingredients in the ketores was not kasher. There's no such thing as bringing a korban of non-kasher animal. So as great, as much as the korbanot showed the elevation of this physical world, but only what part of the world? How low? Only things which are kasher. In the ketores, they elevated even things which were bad, and that's why ketores was so special. This is basically what the Rambam means when the Rambam explains that the reason they brought ketores in the בית המקדש was to take away the bad smell of the burning meat, and all the commentaries say, that Rabbeinu Bachya, how could the Rambam say that that's the reason? So Chassidut says the reason means the Rambam meant something else, he meant to take away the spiritual bad smell, to elevate the kelipah, as we call it, שלוש קליפות הטמאות. Yom Kippur, when they brought the ketoret on Yom Kippur, it reached a much higher level. As great as the ketoret was a whole year round, and it brought the yidden closer to Hashem, that's true, and more than the korbanot, more than the sacrifices, nevertheless, on Yom Kippur the ketoret was even greater. Why? Because we said before, on Yom Kippur the connection a yid, the yidden have to Hashem is so deep, deeper than any other connection that the yidden have throughout the whole year. And therefore, as deep as the connection came through ketoret, and the word ketoret, as we said, means to tie, it tied the yidden to Hashem. On Yom Kippur, it didn't just tie the yidden to Hashem regularly, it tied them much deeper and much stronger. And therefore, this ingredient called מעלה עשן, which means to go straight up, the word מעלה עשן means to bring up the smoke. The physical part of it, the fact that physically the smoke went up, was supposed to be a sign of the spiritual elevation that the ketoret caused. So all year round, being that it didn't go that high, so the Rambam says that even if they missed this ingredient, מעלה עשן, which means it didn't really go straight up, was also kasher. But on Yom Kippur, it had to be there, because Yom Kippur the whole idea of the ketoret of Yom Kippur is to bring the yidden up to Hashem in a way which is the closest possible, as we said before, to connect the יחידה שבנפש, the essence of the neshamah, to the essence of Hashem. And that's why it says by the ketoret, when the Kohen Gadol brought the ketoret, no one was allowed to be there. No one. And it says, who do we mean? Who do we exclude? So the Yerushalmi says we exclude malachim. Even malachim weren't allowed to be there, because then the connection of the yidden to Hashem was so strong that no one else was able to be there. Throughout the year, when we connect ourselves to Hashem, to the level of Hashem that's not that deep, that's a level where malachim have something to say there, too. As a matter of fact, we learned that malachim are the ones that pick up the tefillot, they bring the tefilot to Hashem, so obviously they're also involved. Yom Kippur, it's not like that. Yom Kippur the malachim are out of... they're not part of it, because there's such a deep level of a Yid is revealed that the malachim have nothing to say. So the malachim can't... the angels can't even be there when the ketoret is brought. That's what Yom Kippur is.

We said before that when, at what time of Yom Kippur is that really revealed more than others, is the time of Ne'ilah. And we all know the Rebbe's peshat in the word Ne'ilah, Ne'ilah means closing. So the simple peshat is: why is the last prayer of the day called Ne'ilah? Because all day Yom Kippur the gates are open. When Yom Kippur is over, the gates are closed, so at the time when they close the gates. And the Rebbe says: why is it called Ne'ilah? Because that's the point when Hashem says: it's only Me and you, that's Hashem and the Yidden, and the gates are closed for everybody else. No one else could get in. That's a private audience that we have with Hashem at that time. That's why it's special. At that time, the malachim can't be there, the goyim, the satan, no one could be there. See, the satan can't be there, is not there all day. We all know that the word hasatan, the satan, the numerical value, the gematria of the word hasatan is 364. There are 365 days a year, and 364 days a year the satan has something to say. One day not, that's Yom Kippur. But other malachim have a connection even on Yom Kippur, but when it comes to Ne'ilah, no malachim are involved, because that's the time when the essence of the neshamah is revealed. This is the reason why on Yom Kippur we're not allowed to eat. The deeper reason, because at that time we're beyond this concept of eating, we're beyond the physical world, we're so spiritual, which is one of the reasons why we put on a kittel on Yom Kippur. One of the reasons is because we to be similar to malachim. But what it means is that we are beyond this world. There's an expression, I think in the name of the of Levi Yitzchak Berditchever, he said, the difference between the fasting of Yom Kippur and Tish'ah B'Av, he said like this, in Yiddish it sounds better: תשעה באב טאר מען נישט עסן, און יום כיפור וויל זיך נישט עסן. תשעה באב, you're not allowed to eat. Yom Kippur, you don't want to eat. Yom Kippur, we are in a level beyond this world. It says in Chassidut there's a pasuk that says לחיותינו ברעב. He will give us life through hunger. Now, normally you get life from food, you don't get life from fasting. On Yom Kippur we get spiritual life through fasting, לחיותינו ברעב, through the רעב, through the fasting, because that day we are beyond. And that the whole idea is that after Yom Kippur, when we go to eat, we bring down that level that we reached on Yom Kippur, we bring it down to the level that we reach later on where we are involved world. That's why there is an expression, I don't know in whose name it's said, that Motzaei Yom Kippur, and we all know Motzaei Yom Kippur you finish davenen, everyone rushes home. Why? They're hungry, everyone wants to eat. So, I don't know who said this, one of the Rebbes who said די מלאכים קוקן און זיי לאכן. The malachim looking down and they see all the human beings, finally they decided they're running to eat! To them it's a joke, running to eat, what's this idea, running to eat. The malachim are laughing. די מלאכים לאכן און דער אויבערשטער קוועלט. Kvells means he has nachas. Hashem also looks down and He has nachas, and He says, \"Yes, the whole idea is they were in a much higher madreigah, but the idea is that afterwards you take the level they reached, you bring it down. Now let them go to eat. Yes, let them go to eat.\" Since Hashem doesn't laugh at it, Hashem has nachas from what they did. But this is the whole idea of Yom Kippur. It's a day that we are completely beyond gashmiut. We are beyond this physical world.

Now I want to get into a few some just to mention some little details that people that people, you know, want to know about Yom Kippur, little, what do you say, tidbits or things that to mention. One of the things is, we know that one of the most important tefilot of Yom Kippur in the eyes of the whole world is Kol Nidrei. That is the beginning of Yom Kippur. Now, in truth, I don't want to minimize the greatness of Kol Nidrei, but what Kol Nidrei really is is hatarat nedarim. All it is is you nullify your vows. The chazzan says, and we all say along with him, that any vows that we will make this coming year from today, from this Yom Kippur till next Yom Kippur should be nullified, and a person has a right to nullify his vows of the future. Actually, we make hatarat nedarim we do the same thing on Erev Rosh Hashanah. After the morning davenen we have hatarat nedarim, but this is also an hatarat nedarim. Now why that is so important is because it says that not to keep a vow is a very, very terrible aveirah. If a person promises and doesn't keep it, it's one of the worst aveirot, and that could be a cause of great punishment. And therefore, before Rosh Hashanah, or in this case, before Yom Kippur, we want to make sure that all our vows are nullified, and we are clean of this aveirah of not keeping the vows. And therefore, this is something special. It's a special tefillah. But there was a time when this turned into a very, very important tefillah, and this was in the time of the Spanish Inquisition. In the Spanish, time of the Spanish Inquisition, there were a lot of Marranos. These were people who kept Yiddishkeit quietly. Whatever they were able to do. And throughout the year they would, you know, behave like goyim, and they would make promises, and they would say things, things which were against the religion. That's the only way they could survive. And this day, when there is a minhag of nullifying your vows, to them this meant this was the most important tefillah of the year. Therefore, they would go into hiding, and they would say Kol Nidrei with the greatest, greatest feeling because to them this was the expression of their Yiddishkeit. And that's why that's when Kol Nidrei became a very, very special prayer. So Kol Nidrei in itself is special, but because of that, it's even more special. Because this to them, to those people who went on mesirat nefesh actually, they gave up their lives for Yiddishkeit, to them this was the special time of the year when they expressed to Hashem that we are loyal to You, and all other loyalties that we said throughout the year is meaningless. This is really what Kol Nidrei is about. But beyond that, there are also, it says, since this is the beginning of the day, the beginning of Yom Kippur is a very, very important part of the day. You know that in everything the beginning is very important, and the end is very important. Now in this case, the end is Ne'ilah, you know that's very important, and the beginning is also important. And since this is the beginning, this is the, we say the areinfihr, this is the introduction to Yom Kippur, that's why this time is the most serious time of the day, including similar to Ne'ilah. And that's why we find that there is a special zechut, it says, in buying the Sefer Torah that's held, the first Sefer Torah that's held next to the chazzan when you say Kol Nidrei. Because since this is the beginning of Yom Kippur, and the way you start that's how it's going to go. If you start off on the right foot, if you start off with a serious feeling, then you expect the whole Yom Kippur to be that way. So the one that buys that first Sefer Torah, really it's the one that buys it, not even the one that holds it, usually the one that buys it, the one that holds it, unless you're mechabed somebody like by the Rebbe, someone would buy it, but the Rebbe would hold it. So the one that has that connection to that Sefer Torah, so that's the beginning of the day of Yom Kippur, so this is one of the holiest times. This goes together, similar to the end, by Ne'ilah there is a special zechut in buying פתיחת הארון for Ne'ilah, to buy opening of the aron to Ne'ilah. Which is different than other tefillot. Other tefillot, there's certain times you open the aron, certain times you don't. Ne'ilah, the aron, the ארון קודש is open throughout the whole tefillah. And the one that buys it has a special zechut. Why? Because that's the end of the day, and end of the day is the climax of the whole day. But it all also depends how the day starts. And that's another reason why Kol Nidrei is so important, not only because of what Kol Nidrei, what you say the words, but this is, as we say in Yiddish, ווי מע שטעלט זיך אוועק. That's how you start off the day, and that's why this is so important.

We have other things that we do before Yom Kippur yet, which is also like an araynfir, something as an introduction to Yom Kippur. And this starts off with basically kapparot. We do kapparot on Erev Yom Kippur in the morning, which is also a minhag that dates back hundreds and hundreds of years. And the whole idea is it should be similar to a korban. Not that chas veshalom you want to say that kapparot is a korban, the kapparot is a korban, it's a sacrifice, but it's similar to a korban. And it is al pi Kabbalah. It says at that time of the day, which is early, early morning of ערב יום כיפור, חוט של חסד, there is like a thread of chesed, of kindness, that shines in the world. And that's the time when you have to be mechaven, by shachting the kapparot at that time, then Hashem brings down the chesed. It does say that if a person can't do it then, you do it the night before, you do it throughout עשרת ימי תשובה, because throughout that time, it's all similar to the Erev Yom Kippur, but basically the real time of kapparot is Erev Yom Kippur. And one of the ideas is the shachting of the kapparot, not only the making of the kapparot. The idea is you take the kapparot, and you say there: כפרותי, זה חליפתי, זה כפרותי, זה תמורתי. That means that this should be instead of me. These are all simanim that whatever is going to happen to the chicken should be instead of me. These three words: חליפתי and תמורתי and כפרותי, if you look at the abbreviation, is ח' ת' כ', which is חתך, which means to cut. There's an expression: החותך חיים לכל חי. Hashem cuts life for all living. We say that in the tefilot, and to remind us of that, or to be a remez, we have this inyan of kapparot. Some people have a minhag before Rosh Hashanah every year to buy a new knife. It's not a lechatchila'diker minhag, but some people have it. And the reason is because the knife is what cuts. And this is to remind us of החותך חיים לכל חי, that you cut chayim. It says kapparot is the same idea, החותך חיים לכל חי. It says it's better if you have white kapparot. You shouldn't really look for it, because the goyim used to do it, but why white? Because it also reminds us of אם יאדימו, אם יהיו חטאיכם כשנים כשלג ילבינו. It says if your aveirot will be red, Hashem will forgive by making it white. So white is always a remez of forgiveness. So this is one of the first things that we do on Erev Yom Kippur to bring upon us this idea of Hashem forgiving us our aveirot, and thus reminding ourselves to do teshuvah. Because just like by a korban it says that, one of the things the Ramban said, how did the korban help to forgive aveirot? A person had to think, when he saw what was done to the korban, he had to think that really, it should have been done to me. You shachat the korban, and then sprinkle the blood and put the fat on the mizbeach, really I should have been, should have happened to me because I deserve it, but Hashem had pity on me, and He allowed us to to make it to an animal rather than to us, and this brings a kapparah. This makes the person start thinking that really, I deserve it. Why do I deserve it? Because I didn't behave right. So it brings a person to do teshuvah. The same idea is behind the kapparot, that when you start thinking that really what's done to this kapparot, to this chicken, should have been done to me, and that brings a person starts the person off to do teshuvah. Maybe ask the question later. Okay, just remember it. So this is one of the things. Bichlal, just like on Erev Rosh Hashanah, on and Rosh Hashanah, it says we should do certain things that would be remazim, hints, and simanim, signs for a sweet year, that's why we eat the honey and we eat an apple and honey and then we eat a head of a fish to show that we will be the head, and we eat carrots, which is mehren, to show that we will be a lot, all kind of different things. On Erev Yom Kippur we do the same. We do things that should be like a sign for all throughout the year. One of the things is kapparot, that by the kapparot we say that the chicken should have it and chas v'shalom not on us. We have a minhag on Erev Yom Kippur that we ask for lekach. Lekach is honey cake, and the minhag is that we ask for lekach. First of all, lekach is honey cake, so it's sweet, so it's a siman of sweetness, so it whole year should be sweet. But more than that, it says that just in case Hashem has written in the book that we should have to beg this year, we should be yotzei with the begging of the lekach. So that's why the expression is not that we should have lekach on Erev Yom Kippur, we should ask for lekach on Erev Yom Kippur. There's another thing that we do on Erev Yom Kippur which is to remind us, to be a siman. Erev Yom Kippur, it says we all get malkot. It says it's a minhag, mainly by the men, that they should have somebody give them malkot. They could take a strap and hit them slightly 39 times on the back. The original malkot that it says in the Torah for doing an aveirah was 39 times, and you say והוא רחום three times. That's all also a sign that if we chas v'shalom did something that we have to get malkot for, this should be the malkot. But it's more than that. It reminds us that really we deserve malkot. And therefore, by doing this, we will do teshuvah. This will remind us that we deserve this malkot. Then there's another thing on Erev Yom Kippur, and that is that we have to eat. There's a mitzvah to eat on Erev Yom Kippur. Actually, it says in some places you should eat the same amou- no, as much as you would eat in two days. And it says anybody who eats on Erev Yom Kippur, it's considered as if he fasted on Erev Yom Kippur. So you have to eat on Erev Yom Kippur. Now, it's interesting that we accomplish on Erev Yom Kippur through eating the same thing we accomplish on Yom Kippur through fasting. And because of that, eating on Erev Yom Kippur is even greater than fasting on Yom Kippur. Because on Yom Kippur we said in order to accomplish and reach this high level, we have to do it through staying away from gashmiyut, staying away from food. Why? Because if we reach such a high level, having a connection to gashmiyut will disturb. On Erev Yom Kippur, we're we're able to reach such a high level that the food will not disturb. And even though we eat, we still accomplish the same level, which is similar to what it says concerning Purim. It says that Purim is like Yom Kippur, or Yom Kippur is like Purim. יום כפורים, יום כיפור is called יום כפורים, it's a day like Purim. But it says in chassidut that Purim is higher than Yom Kippur. Why? Yom Kippur, in order to reach this high level, you can't eat. But on Purim, there's a mitzvah to eat, and you still reach the same level as you reach on on Yom Kippur. And we do see similarities between Purim and Yom Kippur. Purim and Yom Kippur we said is a day that Hashem reveals his inner connection to us. It says on Purim is the same thing. That's why we see Yom Kippur is one day. All other yamim tovim are more than one day: Pesach more than one day, Rosh Hashanah, Shavuos, Sukkos, they're all more than one day. Even the other Yom Tov of d'rabbanan, Chanukah. There are two yamim tovim which are one day: Yom Kippur and Purim. And it says why is it one day? Because it's beyond limits. Anything that's more than one, you have a few, so it's limited, to three, to five. When you want to speak about something that's unlimited, and since in this physical world it can't be unlimited, so therefore if it's one, it has the idea of the nekudah, the point which is not limited to size. So therefore, it has the minimum, which is one. And we find that on Purim, find that on Yom Kippur. We'll find something else on Purim and Yom Kippur. Purim, the word Purim means goral, means lot, because he threw, Haman threw lots. Yom Kippur they also used to throw lots. In the Beis Hamikdash they had two animals, and one was supposed to be a korban, and one was supposed to be taken to the mountain and thrown down, and they used to throw lots. It says the idea of lots, of a goral, shows a very, very deep level. Why? When you do something by throwing lots, it's because there is no reason why you would choose one over the other. When do you make a goral? When you have two things, and you want one over the other, you don't throw lots, you just choose the one you want. When there is no reason why you want to choose one over the other, that's when you throw lots. The connection Hashem has to the Yidden on Yom Kippur is beyond logic. It's not for any reason. It's not because of any logical reason, it's not because of any logical, any feeling. When a Yid is connected to Hashem through his behavior, then there is a logical reason. You behave properly, Hashem likes you. But that's the lower level of connection. The higher level of connection is not because of any logical reason. Then why is Hashem connected to us? That's an essential connection beyond any reason, beyond any feeling, and that's expressed in the concept of goral, of throwing lots. And we find that on Yom Kippur, and we find that on Purim. So they're similar. But in this part that I started saying is also similar that on Purim we're allowed to eat. When you reach a very high level and you're allowed to eat, that means that it's such a high level that even within the eating it's done. And the same thing is with erev Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur itself, the only way we could reach that high level is through fasting. But again, it's a time that we fast and we don't even want to eat because we're in a level that we're beyond food. It's לחיותנו ברעב. We get the chayut, we get the life through the hunger. This just reminds me of the famous story with, this happened how long ago, maybe 10 years ago? Rabbi Gassinsky, I don't know if any of you ever heard that story. My father heard it from him himself. He was, he was sick and the doctors cut out his stomach, and he only had, I think, a quarter of his stomach left, and he had to eat every two, three hours. So it was impossible to fast. I mean, there's no question. So it came to all the fasts, even Tishah B'Av, I mean, he said he managed till middle of the night. Further than that, he couldn't go. But when it came to Yom Kippur, but not to fast on Yom Kippur, a Yid not, I mean, he couldn't take it, he didn't know what to do. So when he passed by the Rebbe by lekech, he asked for a berachah. He told the Rebbe in short the problem, that the doctors said he has to eat every few hours, but how could he on Yom Kippur not fast? So the Rebbe just looked at him and made with his hand, and he said, \"נו, זאל זיין לחיותנו ברעב. Let it be,\" and quoted the pasuk, \"that your life will come through hunger.\" He said he never fasted so easy. He fasted the whole Yom Kippur. Not only that, he davened Neilah for the amud, and says it was the best fast he ever had. Because it was לחיותנו ברעב. Obviously, only the Rebbe could do that, but this just shows because this is what Yom Kippur is all about. And the Rebbe was mamshich it, so to speak, the gilui, that this person should, should feel it, should, should see it.

Then there are other things that we also find concerning Erev Yom Kippur. This is a special halachah of going to the mikveh on Erev Yom Kippur, that we have to go, and there are two reasons, but the main reason is because Erev Yom Kippur, since we are going to go through this kapparah, that Hashem is going to forgive us, it's similar to geirut. It's almost like we are converting, and a convert, the way you convert is by going to the mikveh. So a Yid, every Yid has to go to the mikveh on Erev Yom Kippur in order to, so to speak, to convert. And there is an argument, two opinions in Shulchan Aruch when you're supposed to go: before Minchah or after the סעודה המפסקת, after after the last meal that you eat. And because of that, many of us have the custom of going both times. Since there are two opinions, you go both times. Then there is an obvious mitzvah on Yom Kippur of vidui, that we say Al Chet many times, and that starts even from Minchah. Minchah on Erev Yom Kippur already we say vidui. And the reason we say vidui, it says, because just in case a person might by the seudah drink a little bit too much and he will not say the vidui, the confession, the Al Chet when the time comes, therefore he has to say the vidui on Erev Yom Kippur by Minchah to make sure that when he enters Yom Kippur, he enters Yom Kippur with the proper vidui. These are the basic points of Yom Kippur. But we spoke before about the beginning of Yom Kippur being very important and the end of Yom Kippur being important. Really, the last last thing that we do on Yom Kippur, even after Neil ah, is the shofar. There is one tekiah that we blow. And it says in Chassidus, the Alter Rebbe writes that this one tekiah is a reminder of the שופר גדול of Mashiach. When Mashiach will come, there will be the blowing of the great shofar. And this blowing of the shofar by the end of Yom Kippur is the reminder of that shofar. And it says why, because by a Yid doing on Yom Kippur what he's supposed to do, that is מעורר השם, that it awakens Hashem to bring Mashiach. So really it depends on our behavior on Yom Kippur that Hashem should bring Mashiach. And if we takeh do on Yom Kippur what we're supposed to do, then we can hope that Hashem, expect that Hashem will bring Mashiach, and halavai it will happen this year that Mashiach will come.

Any questions? Yes. Yes. When is the doing of kaparot? I mean, is it early... The best time is early in the morning on Erev Yom Kippur. How early in the morning? Like what time? No, that's early... In the yeshivah at night, the night before. Some people do it the night before, if you can't do it on Erev Yom Kippur in the morning. So the night before is all right too? It's all right too, but the best time is on Erev Yom Kippur in the morning. Why if you say that our neshamah is revealed on Yom Kippur, is a Jew still able to do an aveirah on Yom Kippur? Hashem doesn't... Why don't we feel it? I mean... Hashem doesn't take away free choice. If Hashem would make it which... Well, there are certain times of the day that you do feel it, and especially when it comes to Ne'ilah, most people do feel a difference. Yeah, but they have they're all alone in the house with their baby during Ne'ilah. Yeah, but there are there are a certain feeling that every Yid has, I mean, even the the furthest Jew on Yom Kippur, is there there is a difference in the feelings, I must say. And the time of Ne'ilah for sure. They even say a story that once there was a Yid who was an older man, a simple Jew who was trying to explain how he felt when he had to go visit the Czar at one point. He was a soldier and he had to go visit the Czar, and he tried to explain that he was actually petrified and shivering and and you can't imagine how he felt. And he was speaking to the to the youngsters, trying to describe to them how he felt, and then he saw that he couldn't get through to them, they couldn't understand how he felt, so finally he said, \"You know how I felt? Like a Yid feels by Ne'ilah.\" That's the only way he could describe his true feeling of how he shivered and how he felt. Well, actually we do, not to say that every single person feels the same way, but it's there, it's there by a Yid. I'll put I'll put it in other words: it's a time that if a Yid really wants, he's able to feel. Other times of the year, even if you want, not necessarily will you feel. That's the time when Hashem says, if you really want, you could feel it. So, if you really put yourself in that matzav, then you feel it. Put inside in that atmosphere, a Yid could feel closer to Hashem, you feel the seriousness of the moment, you could. Take for instance another example. It says that when you come to Eretz Yisrael, you feel how Hashem's eyes are looking down at Eretz Yisrael. Now, in that case, if you feel that, how come you have so many people there who are not frum and who knows what they do? The answer is, Hashem doesn't take away free choice. All it mean all it means is, if you want to feel it in Eretz Yisrael, you could feel it more than you feel here. Same thing here, if you want to feel that closeness, you could feel on Yom Kippur much more. Yes. Is the holiest service is kapparot? What do you mean there wasn't? There was no special Not special, but they did in the Beit HaMikdash Ne'ilah time? No. The ketoret was done a few times, they went in, out, but it doesn't that doesn't doesn't special specifically go inside with Ne'ilah. The truth is, the whole day, so like I said before, the whole day is a day when there's yechidah. At the end of the day, when it comes to its climax, it's the most. So, could be it's because he went in before in order to be me'orer that by the time Ne'ilah comes at the end, we should feel it more. I don't know, could be that's what it is. The kavanot when you say are supposed to be when you say vidui for the whole life, or the past year? Whole life. Whole life? That's good. No. You focus on Well, obviously, those that you did this year are worse, because the ones that you did last year, chas veshalom, you already did teshuvah. But still, you have to keep in mind on those, also. Yeah. So there's teshuvah, right? Of last year. Yes. Right, left, middle. Right, left, middle. Right, left, middle, till you come up to 39. Triangle, right. It's not The idea is not a triangle. The idea is חסד, גבורה, תפארת. חסד is the right, גבורה is left, and תפארת in the middle. And that's how the order of all the sefirot are. And that's why we go in that in that order. And we say the והוא רחום three times, and each one together, it makes up 39 words. Yes? How come children or boys don't wear kittalot? How come they don't wear talitot throughout the year? Sephardim do, but Any special any special garment that's made for tefillah, the minhag of the Ashkenazim is to wear it only after the wedding. We don't wear a gartel when you're not married in Lubavitch, other chassidim do. But a טלית אשכנזים don't wear, because anything that's connected to a special to have a special garment for tefillah is only after you're married. In מנהג ליובאוויטש, we only wear a kittel once a year, not more. And therefore, we don't wear a kittel by the seder, some people wear, some people wear a kittel on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Lubavitch wears it only once a year, and therefore, the first year, the first Yom Kippur after the wedding, you don't wear a kittel either. Why? Because he wore it by the wedding. So you don't wear a kittel more than once a year. I guess it's so special that we can't, you know, take it more than once. Such a special thing, yeah. Yes? What, something about עשירות? One of the special things is מפטיר יונה, the מפטיר to Minchah. Now, the source for this being a segulah of becoming rich is unknown to me. It's possible that it started the other way: since it went for a lot of money, so only rich people could afford it, so then they said it was a segulah for עשירות. I don't know, it's a special segulah, that's for sure. And probably the reason is not for עשירות. See, the reason why it's a segulah for rich I don't know, but why it's so special, bichlal it says this is an important thing to remember also, bichlal, always it says that the afternoon of Shabbos, the time of שלוש סעודות, that time, מנחה שבת is a special time. When it comes to aliyot, people always fight over aliyot in the morning. על פי קבלה, the most חשובה עלייה, the most important aliyah is the עליות שבת במנחה. The Mitteler Rebbe, by his bar mitzvah, the first aliyah he got was שבת במנחה. That's a very important one. Why? Because שבת במנחה is רעוא דכל רעוין, it says על פי קבלה. It means it's a time when the highest spiritual levels are revealed more than any other time of the day and other time of the year. Now, Yom Kippur, which is like Shabbos, and even, what we call, greater, the קריאת התורה that we read by Mincha is even greater than the קריאת התורה we read Shabbos afternoon. Now, the first two aliyot could only be taken by a kohen and a Levi. So, the only one that most people could get is the third aliyah. Plus, it's not just a plain קריאה, it's a קריאה with a maftir, which shows that this is a special aliyah. So, therefore, being that it's Yom Kippur, and it's יום כיפור צו מנחה, and it is an aliyah that you could get, an aliyah with a maftir, that's why this is a special, very special aliyah. And a lot of people used to always try to get the aliyah, even not looking for riches, for becoming rich. It is a special aliyah because that's the special time of the day, it's similar to Neilah. And, therefore, people would pay a lot of money for it, try to get it, and maybe that evolved that if you pay money, so it means that you were rich, it means that it became with all the riches. On the other hand, I don't know. If by Yidden it's accepted that this is a segulah for becoming rich, it definitely has meaning, there's no question, it definitely has it. But I don't know the source for it. Yeah. This year? Yeah. So, you can imagine how great that is. This year that Yom Kippur comes out on Shabbos. Shabbos itself is very holy. To a certain degree, it's even holier than Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur, from a different aspect, is the holiest day of the year. You imagine if the two holiest come together, then it's much, even holier. That's why the only time that we fast on Shabbos is if Yom Kippur comes on Shabbos. Any other fast day, we don't fast, because it's so holy that the fact that we don't eat doesn't disturb the Shabbos. Other fasts would disturb the Shabbos. But על פי קבלה, the way it says, the עליית העולמות, the way the worlds, this world and the higher spiritual worlds go up and are elevated, there's a certain aliyah that takes place on Shabbos. There's a certain aliyah that takes place on Yom Kippur. And this year, both aliyot get together, so it's much holier. So, this is, takeh, a very, very high madregah. Yom Kippur this year is even greater than Yom Kippur other years. What? Huh? No, it says, no, I don't know where the source is originally, but it says in sefarim. It says in sefarim to that it's important. But for מפטיר יונה, I never saw in a sefer. It just says, no, I'm saying when I say there is no source, I mean there is no, doesn't say anywhere. This you ask פתיחה דנעילה, it says. פתיחה דנעילה, it says in sefarim that it's something special. I don't know if it says anything specific, but it's, I don't think so, yeah, it could be, I didn't see, I didn't hear exactly, but it's definitely a segulah. בנוגע the first Sefer Torah by Kol Nidrei, it says in sefarim. But this, I don't know if it says in any sefer. It's just people say that, it's known. That's what I mean, I don't know the source. Yes? No, it says you should do with a chicken. If you can't, then instead, you should do with money. So you should do with something else, with fish, or with, that's second choice, but the best choice is to do with a chicken. Never heard of that. No, maybe it's so, I didn't hear. I didn't hear. Well, you can't take a cow. And they also wanted something that you can't use as a korban. Specifically, it shouldn't be able to be used as a korban, and a chicken can't be a korban. All right, please, everybody in the back, as I mentioned, is the mailing list. Please put your name