This week's parashah is concerned with the instructions for carrying out the Yom Kippur service.
The Stone Edition Chumash, Vayikra 16:29 - 31:
"This shall remain for you an eternal decree: In the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and you shall not do any work, neither the native nor the proselyte who dwells among you. For on this day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you; from all your sins before Hashem shall you be cleansed. It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall afflict yourselves; an eternal decree,
Commentary...
The eternal commandment of Yom Kippur. Having completed the Yom Kippur ritual, the Torah states that the commandment to observe Yom Kippur is an annual one and that, in addition to the Temple service, which has been the sole focus of the chapter up to this point, there are additional commandments to fast and to refrain form work.
T'anu et nefeshteichem. You shall afflict yourselves. The Sages expound that the expression afflict refers only to abstention from food and drink (Yoma 74b). Wherever Scripture associates nefesh, self, with affliction, it refers to fasting. This is how the Sages derive that our verse requires fasting rather than some other form of affliction (Ibn Ezra).
It is noteworthy that, in giving the laws of Yom Kippur, Rambam does not speak of fasting or affliction. Rather, he writes: There is a further positive commandment on Yom Kippur. It is to rest from eating and drinking. It is forbidden to bathe, to apply oil to the body, to wear shoes or to cohabit. It is a positive commandment to rest from all of these just as it is commanded to rest from eating (Hil. Shevisas Asor 1:4,5).
Rambam's choice of words is significant. He states that on Yom Kippur, one "rests" from the listed activities, which indicates that the purpose of fasting is not that one should suffer, but that he should transcend the normal human limitations that prevent him from functioning properly unless he eats. On Yom Kippur a Jew is like an angel who serves God without need for food. In the Yom Kippur Machzor, which proclaims that teshuvah [repentance] is one of the means of deflecting evil decrees, the word tzom, Fast, is superscribed over the word Teshuvah. The superscription's implication is plain: Fasting's greatest value is when it is associated with repentance, and the purpose of the fast is to elevate Jews, not to cause them physical deprivation.
~ SHABBAT SHALOM and CHODESH TOV ~
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