Be Mine

Incensed

You’re wayward and I am wayward. Let’s get that off our chests. At least that’s what the beginning of the Yom Kippur liturgy tells us. Right before we start this most hallowed day and just ahead of one of the more solemn prayers in Judaism, Kol Nidrei, we say the following:

עַל דַּֽעַת הַמָּקוֹם וְעַל דַּֽעַת הַקָּהָל. בִּישִׁיבָה שֶׁל מַֽעְלָה וּבִישִׁיבָה שֶׁל מַֽטָּה. אָֽנוּ מַתִּירִין לְהִתְפַּלֵּל עִם הָעֲבַרְיָנִים:

With the consent of the Almighty, and consent of this congregation, in a convocation of the heavenly court, and a convocation of the lower court, we are hereby granted permission to pray with transgressors.

It’s that clause that always gets my attention. What a strange thing to note in this moment! I imagine when most of us are in a space with a large group of other humans, we assume there’s a wide range of behaviors present. If we had to name it, the odds are probably high that someone in that room has committed some transgressive act. So why here, in this place, do we make it explicit?

To be a part of a people, and in specific, the Jewish people, requires a certain ability to stomach being grouped with those whom you may not like very much. It’s been that way from time immemorial. We’ve always been a motley crew. We have a wide range of beliefs, ritual adherence, ethnic backgrounds, and opinions.

This past year has only magnified that. I would guess we all have had a moment where we heard something from another Jew and thought, alright, that’s it, I am done with them. Someone transgressed something so essential to you as a Jew that it’s like they were worshipping a totally different God. I hate to break it to you but you probably did the exact same thing for someone else.

That’s why in this moment, on this day of self-affliction, we read this clause right before Kol Nidre. The Talmud in the tractate of Keritot (6b) that deals with the laws of excision teaches the following:

Rav Ḥana bar Bizna says that Rabbi Shimon Ḥasida says: Any fast that does not include the participation of some of the sinners of the Jewish people is not a fast, as the smell of galbanum is foul and yet the verse lists it with the ingredients of the incense. Abaye says that this is derived from here: “It is God Who builds God's upper chambers in the heavens and has established God's bundle on the earth” (Amos 9:6), i.e., when the people are united as a bundle, including their sinners, they are established upon the earth.

There was once a secret recipe to make the incense for the Temple in Jerusalem. Take that, Colonel Sanders! If a person got hold of that recipe and mixed it for use outside of the Temple, they would be punished by excision. The Rabbis of the Talmud use that case to make a larger point. Namely, galbanum, a gum resin found in the Mediterranean smells terrible and yet, it’s used as part of the incense, which was an incredibly powerful sacrifice used to bridge connections between God and humans.

The smelly, nasty thing is an essential part of how we connect to God. A fast is meant to strip us down to our studs. Emptied out, we are to think deeply about what actually matters in our lives. One of them, the Rabbis suggest here, is that we need everyone. They use a prooftext that illustrates we’re all in the same bundle. In that bundle, there’s a wide range of types of straw. When we can remain tied together, we can remind each other of our shared divine spark.

To be clear, it’s hard work. Like I shared before, we hear things other people say and do and want them off the island but that’s too easy. That quick judgement is low hanging fruit. The work is moving beyond that. One way to remind ourselves of that comes from Reb Tzadok Ha’kohen of Lublin, a thinker we’ve spent some time with here:

“In truth, the Jewish soul cannot tolerate any hierarchy at all—even when it comes to someone great in wisdom—because each Jew has a portion in Torah… every Jew is connected to a letter of the Torah, and a Torah missing even one letter is invalid. Thus, every Jew needs every other Jew. Even if a Jew has a greater portion in words of Torah, he still doesn’t know anything of the portion of Jew with a smaller portion.¹

Each of us, no matter what you do or say (and I really think he means that), you’re as equal a member of this people as I am, even with all of your warts. Because I have got them too. When we siphon off, we diminish ourselves. If people choose to cast their lot elsewhere, that’s on them. But we can’t do that to another because we need each other.

So as you enter into Yom Kippur tonight, pay close attention to those words. Look around you. Think back on your year. Who did you excise out because of something they said or did? In this moment, you need them and they need you. I will be your transgressor. Will you be mine?

1. Tzidkat Ha’Tzadik 231-with thanks to

Levi Morrow

for bringing this piece to my attention in his great piece