We are now in the midst of the yamin noraim/ the Days of Awe, those ten days that begin with Rosh HaShanah and end with Yom Kippur.
Our Sages describe Yom Kippur as a ‘doorway’, an existential threshold from which we can pause, look back, gaze forward, and fortify ourselves for what is to come.
Judaism has always held doorways as places of vulnerability because they are liminal, the space between here and there. This is why Jews in ancient Babylonia buried bowls of water underneath their doorways, and Jews of ancient Egypt put lamb’s blood above their gates, to keep their spiritual thresholds strong, and misfortune from entering their homes.
It is why we Jews today put a mezuzah on our doorposts, with prayers inside that contain the letters for the Divine name of Shaddai, an acronym for Shomeir delatot Yisrael- Guardian of the doorways of Israel.[i]
Doorways are symbolic markers between boundaries.
Yom Kippur is the gate that separates who we were last year from who we can be in the year to come, what our world was yesterday compared to what we could make it tomorrow; and, we admit with a whisper, our own eventual mortality. “Open the gates!” we call out in our Yom Kippur liturgy, “Open up the Book of Life”, knowing that these are open today, because we are HERE, and we are together, but at some point, these too will close.
Now, my intent is not to be morose, for Yom Kippur is not about death, but rather, it is about ‘living’, and ‘life’. What a gift that we can pause, together, to consider how we are going to best live the hours, days, and years on the other side of today. We have choices of how we use this precious time so that we can live the most beautiful, connected, lives that we can.
For Judaism is a religion that celebrates life. L’chayim!
We wish you an easy fast, and a holiday that allows you to both see the proverbial door and to walk through it.
May this Yom Kippur be for you one of connection and meaning.
G’ mar tov, Shana tova, and Shabbat shalom!
Rabbi Spike
[i] Rabbi Laura Lieber, Pausing at the Threshold: In Praise of Open Gates, Mishkan Hanefesh: Machzor for the Days of Awe, Rosh Hashanah, CCAR Press, New