Within each of us is a breath of the divine, a neshamah. Everything else is created by speech. She is created by breath and by thought. Everything else is obsessed with being just what it is. But the neshamah hears the music of creation and yearns for it to be heard.
Our very own Queen Esther teaches us that while practical actions are necessary to succeed in any endeavor, spiritual efforts have the real impact in drawing down G-d’s blessings.
People know Yom Kippur as a day of repentance and forgiveness. But Yom Kippur takes you far beyond that.
Because repentance means regretting who you’ve become. Yom Kippur is a day when you are embraced for who you truly are.
You are a pure, divine soul. Today, in that embrace, you experience the bond that divine soul has with G-d, and you want to live that way.
So you rid yourself of some unbecoming things you picked up on the road, and you return home, picking up some beautiful mitzvahs along the way.
On Yom Kippur you return home to the One who embraces...