A vort from the Rebbe concerning Yom Kippur. We know that the main thing on Yom Kippur, in the time of the Beis Hamikdash, was the avodah of the Kohen Gadol. He did the avodah in the Beis Hamikdash all day, especially certain times when he would go into the קדש הקדשים, and he would bring the ketoret, etc., etc. Now, concerning Yom Kippur by that Kohen Gadol, the pasuk says: וכפר בעדו ובעד ביתו, and he shall forgive for himself and for his house. And the Gemara says that ביתו זו אשתו. What does it mean for his house? It means for his wife. And from here we learn out that the Kohen Gadol must be married on Yom Kippur, that when he, in order for the Kohen Gadol to be able to to do the avodah on Yom Kippur, he has to be a married person, he has to have a wife. And the question is that the avodah of Yom Kippur is so great, there is a combination here of the most holiest things. It's the holiest day of the year, he would go into the holiest place in the world, and he was the holiest person, and they all three come together. So, his highest, holiest avodah, why is it important that he should be married on that day? Especially that not only on Yom Kippur, but even seven days before they would have to separate the Kohen Gadol from his wife. So, he had to be separated from his wife on Yom Kippur. So, why is it so important that the Kohen Gadol should be married on that day?

But this could be answered by first asking: If the Torah wants to tell us that the Kohen Gadol has to be married, why does the Torah use the word ביתו? It says: וכפר בעדו ובעד ביתו, he should forgive for himself and for his house. And the Gemara darshens that house means his wife. Why doesn't it say clearly: וכפר בעדו ובעד אשתו, he should forgive for himself and for his wife? It's the same one word. Sometimes the Torah says something short in order to avoid going into lengthy discussion, and leaves it for the Gemara, for the חז״ל to explain it. But here it's both one word. ביתו and אשתו are both one word, so why didn't the the pasuk say: וכפר בעדו ובעד אשתו? Obviously, what the Torah is trying to tell us that when we talk about a wife here, it's not the wife per se as a wife, but as a representation of his house, of his household. That's what a wife means here. And this is the avodah of Yom Kippur. The avodah of Yom Kippur is when the Kohen Gadol reaches the highest of heights, completely disconnected from the world, reaching the highest heights of kedushah, the highest connection to Hashem, which means very, very much removed from the world. Nevertheless,

the tachlit, the goal, is not to stay that way. The tachlit is that from the highest level of kedushah, he should bring down that from after Yom Kippur, it should affect his connection to the world. He should bring down the kedushah into the world, not stay separated from the world, but bring the kedushah into the world, starting with his own household, and from there it continues further on. And therefore, on one hand, the Kohen Gadol has to be separated from his wife. In order to reach the highest levels of kedushah, you have to be separated from the mundane things. But if he would get completely separated, not even be married, that means he's completely disconnected from the worldly matters, then it would be much harder to bring down from the highest levels where he's separated from the world into the world, because they're like two separate worlds, you can't connect the two. Therefore, even though he had to be separated from his wife to show that he's reaching the highest levels separated from the world, at the same time he has to be married. There has to be a connection to his wife, meaning here ביתו, which means connected to his household, connected to the world. And therefore, after Yom Kippur he's able to bring that level of kedushah into his household, and then from there on into the wider household, which is all the other Yidden, etc., etc. Therefore, we have to have both: He has to be separated from his household, and at the same time he has to be connected to it, he has to be married, because if he doesn't have a wife, then he's completely separated, he won't be able to bring it down into this world.

And that's how we see in in Mishnah and in Rambam that it says מוצאי יום כיפור, when he finished the whole avodah, he would go home, there would be a great celebration, and they he would leave the Beit haMikdash and go home. And the question is: Why is that important to mention that he would go home? The main thing is that when he finished the avodah he would leave the Beit haMikdash. So, the Rebbe says the pshat is, it's to tell you that when he left the Beit haMikdash, it wasn't just that he left the Beit haMikdash and he left that avodah, he was going home with that avodah. He brought home the avodah of Yom Kippur, he brought ביתו, to his household, he brought it home that it's bringing it into the world. And this is the reason why the Kohen Gadol had to be married on Yom Kippur: to connect to the household, which is the world, representing the world, and at the same time he has to be se separated because he has to be in the highest level of kedushah, and the same time he has to bring that level of kedushah into his household, into the other Yidden, into others.

And that is for everybody too because we don't have a Kohen Gadol now, but every person represents the Kohen Gadol, every ייד בכלל is considered a Kohen Gadol, because it says by מתן תורה, ואתם תהיו לי ממלכת כהנים, השם said you will be a kingdom of כהנים, and the Baal haTurim says it means a Kohen Gadol. So every Yid essentially is like a Kohen Gadol. So this is the avodah of every Yid on Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur we have to try, we don't eat, we have to try to be very close to Hashem, and we have to do teshuva, we have to separate ourselves from all the mundane physical things. That's why we have to fast, we can't eat and we can't drink, and all the other עינויים, all the other things that we can't do on Yom Kippur. But the תכלית is not just what happens on Yom Kippur. The תכלית is, the goal is, the purpose is that after Yom Kippur, we bring this highest level of kedusha into all our daily behaviors, whether it's behavior of mitzvot and even behavior of our regular things we do, eating and drinking and sleeping, etc., etc. We have בכל דרכיך דעהו, we know Hashem in everything, and כל מעשיך לשם שמים, we bring from Yom Kippur the fact that everything that we do, our own things, will also be l'shem shamayim, for the sake of Hashem, with the fullest level of kedusha.