A Yummy Yom Kippur

With so much focus on the trepidation attached to standing before Hashem in judgment on Yom Kippur, I was pleased to find a reminder of a different aspect that I would have overlooked.

The Slonimer Rebbe zt”l (Nesivos Shalom, Haazinu, pg. 217) cites the Zohar on the words of Yeshaya (58:13): “If you proclaim Shabbos a delight – this refers to Shabbos – and the holy day of Hashem honored – this refers to Yom Kippur.”

What they have in common, he suggests, is that both serve as fonts that spill over beyond their borders. It is well known that the source of all blessing of the week is Shabbos. Yom Kippur similarly serves as the source of kedusha, determining its strength and contours in the year that follows. This, he says, is hinted at in the very next verse, “Then you will delight in Hashem.” In the Hebrew, the word “then” is אז, alluding to the once-a-year Yom Kippur, and the Shabbos, which comes every seven days.

Why would the day of maximum awe and reverence be linked to delighting in Hashem?

The explanation is in the verse (Tehilim 63:6): “My soul is sated as if with fat and abundance, when my mouth gives praise with joyous language.” We practice five types of affliction on Yom Kippur [food and drink, leather shoes, etc.]. These correspond to the five prayers. These five prayers provide the ultimate delight – the fat and abundance that satisfy us…This is the lofty level of Yom Kippur, in which our yirah for Hashem becomes a yirah of pleasure.

May everyone have a most yummy Yom Kippur!