How to Hold On to the Inspiration of Yom Kippur

Rabbi Aron Moss, rabbi of the Nefesh community located in the heart of Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, answers a wide range of questions in his weekly column. With his sharp wit and distinctive style, Rabbi Moss offers responses marked by original, outside-the-box thinking. His columns are widely known and eagerly read around the world, and are often discussed in depth at Shabbat tables across the globe.

Below is his latest column:

Question of the Week

“I think I suffer from ‘post-Yom Kippur syndrome.’ Every year, I come away from the fast feeling deeply inspired and convinced that I will be more committed to Judaism in the coming year. But somehow, the inspiration fades pretty quickly. I don’t want to lose it again this year. Any suggestions?”

Answer

“A newborn baby is taken by the midwife moments after birth and wrapped snugly in a soft, warm cloth. This swaddling helps protect a baby who has just emerged from the security and nurturing environment of the womb. In those first moments of life, the baby is especially vulnerable and sensitive. Being wrapped gives the newborn a sense of protection from the cold world into which it has just been born.

“But swaddling does not last very long,” Rabbi Moss continues, adding with his characteristic humor, “You rarely see teenagers wrapped in blankets with their arms pinned behind their ears, although perhaps some of them should be...

“Swaddling is a brief transitional stage between the safety of the womb and the risks of real life. A baby who is properly wrapped will eventually grow strong enough to face life without the wrapping. The swaddling cloth simply helps the baby get there.

“Your soul needs that same bridge.

“You have just emerged from the womb of Yom Kippur, a pure and renewed soul. The negative residue of your past has been cleansed. Your soul is now delicate and sensitive, easily affected by the chill of spiritual indifference and the other moral germs floating in the air. You need some protection. You need to be wrapped.

“You need a sukkah.

“The sukkah is the one mitzvah you perform with your entire being. The sacred atmosphere of the sukkah completely surrounds and envelops you. Being inside the sukkah transforms everything you do there into a holy act. When you sit in the sukkah to eat, drink, or chat, you are fulfilling a mitzvah, because these ordinary activities are being performed within the divine atmosphere of the sukkah. When you sit in a sukkah, you are immersed in holiness.

“To go from the spiritual heights of Yom Kippur straight back into the routine of everyday life would be like taking a newborn baby directly from its mother’s womb and carrying it out into the cold night. You simply cannot do that.

“Sit in the sukkah. Wrap yourself in its sacred shelter. Allow yourself to be enveloped in the warm embrace of the Creator.

“You are not suffering from the post-Yom Kippur blues. You are simply a tender, holy soul that has just been born into the world. The sukkah can take care of that.”

“It is true that immersing in a mikvah is also a mitzvah performed with the entire body. But it is not performed with your entire being. You cannot eat a meal or read a book in a mikvah, and even if you did, doing so would not itself be a mitzvah. In the sukkah, however, even those ordinary activities become part of the mitzvah.”