During the Ten Days of Repentance, we say HaMelech HaKaddosh, HaMelech Hamishpat These ten days are a revelation of God’s kingdom. The Maharal says that as the ten days go by, that revelation gets stronger. The ultimate revelation of God being King comes on Yom Kippur, the tenth day. He says that the number 10 is the climax, or maximum. Once you hit 11, you start to count back from one. Ten represents the complete gamut. Where do we see this great expression of God’s Kingship? Specifically on Yom Kippur. It is interesting to note that in our Amida of Yom Kippur, besides saying that Hashem is the King that atones and forgives for all our sins, we say He’s the Melech Al Kol Haaretz - the King over all. So we connect God being King, to God’s forgiving. The
Maharal explains as follows: There are two levels of God’s Kingship: First, on Rosh Hashanah, God is King, as it says, The king, through judgment, sets up the earth. So, the first step of God’s Kingdom is that He is the King, and He judges. Then, on Yom Kippur, God’s kingdom goes to a higher level, which is when God says,
I am the boss. I do not have to answer to anybody. I can forgive my children because I want to. On Yom Kippur, God expresses His ultimate kingship by taking us out of the clutches of the Yetzer Hara, another force that rules over us. God puts us totally under His power, under His kingship alone, and that revelation, that there is no other force but Him, is what brings us our atonement.
The Maharal says that He is the One and only King.
Therefore, he can free us and take us out. This is an even higher level of kingship than on Rosh Hashana.
This is a powerful concept. We are working on our Emunah and Bitachon, we are working on realizing that En Od Milevado, there is nothing else but God, and the more that we perceive this, that there is nothing else but God, the more atonement we get.
God’s ability to atone our sins comes from the fact that He answers to no one, and there is no one else but Him. It’s our En Od Milevado belief that brings our kapara.
Like the famous Nefesh Chaim, Rav Chaim Volozhin, says, “The believe that there is nothing else but God takes away all judgment and removes all prosecution, because there is nothing else but God.”
That is the force that brings kapara on Yom Kippur. That is the ultimate Malchut/kingship.
Therefore, as we work on our Emunah and Bitachon, which started on Rosh Hashanah, we come to the ultimate climax on Yom Kippur: Full belief that God is the One and Only.
This explains the famous question: Why do we have Rosh Hashanah, when we get judged, first, and then have Yom Kippur, when we get forgiven? Wouldn’t it be better to first get forgiven, and then be judged? The Maharal gives a beautiful answer: We need Rosh Hashanah first, in order to start working our way up the rungs of the ladder of God’s kingship.
We can only get the kapara after we realize that God is King. That is what brings the Kapara.
The sefer Zera Berach brings down a Zohar that says that the difference between the judgment on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that on Rosh Hashanah, God judges with a regular judgement system: There are prosecutors and defendants, with different angels and nations present. There is a system to the judgment. But on Yom Kippur, God alone judges. There is no one else there. It is almost like, lehavdil, when the President, at the end of his term, has the ability to pardon people. That is the concept of God. He is able to forgive, because He is the Boss. But He does not have to do it at the end of His term. God does this every single year, on Yom Kippur, for the Jewish people, who are His children.
That is the special time of Yom Kippur
Rav Asher David May, in his sefer Shirat Natan brings down that the Pirkei D’Eliezer says that on Yom Kippur, God put Moshe Rabbenu in the crack of the rock, and revealed the 13 Middot. There was no one else there but Moshe and God. All the angels were sent out, just like when the Kohen Gadol entered the Holy of Holies. It is a time when God is alone, and no one else is there. That is when God forgives; When there is an ultimate revelation of nothing else but God, that’s what brings our forgiveness.
B’ezrat Hashem, we will all merit that clarity, because more clear we are on this concept, the greater our atonement is.
Have a wonderful day, and a wonderful Yom Kippur.