September 27, 2023|י"ב תשרי ה' אלפים תשפ"ד Yizkor: The Yom Kippur War and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy
Print ArticleSomeone who worked at the Israeli embassy in London was told in all seriousness by one of the women who worked with her that the reason why we keep Yom Kippur is because of the Yom Kippur War. We all know that that statement couldn’t be further from the truth. At the same time, we cannot go through Yom Kippur this year without reflecting on the Yom Kippur War. Fifty years ago today, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, the Arab coalition jointly launched a surprise attack against Israel. The attack caught the Israeli army off-guard and unprepared. Even though there were numerous signs that war was inevitable, Israeli intelligence ignored them all. In the first three days, both Arab armies advanced quickly, capturing the Hermon post in the north and territories in the Sinai Peninsula in the south. Egyptian forces crossed the Suez Canal and advanced into the Sinai Peninsula, while the Syrians initially made gains into Israeli-held territory. At this time, there was deep concern that the State of Israel faced an existential threat. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan was rumored to refer to the situation as a potential “destruction of the third Beit Hamikdash.”
After three days of heavy fighting, Israel halted the Egyptian offensive and pushed the Syrians back to the pre-war ceasefire lines. The Israeli military then launched a counter-offensive and eventually, a little less than three weeks after the start of the war, a lasting ceasefire took effect to officially end the war.
Israel could argue that it eventually won the war; however, the fact that the Arabs had succeeded in surprising the IDF and inflicting heavy losses in the early part of the war against the supposedly invincible Israeli army left a traumatic imprint in the collective Israeli psyche. Over 2600 Israeli soldiers were killed and over 12,000 were wounded.
Many in the religious community were looking for the religious meaning of the war. Why after the great decisive military victory of 1967 was Israel’s aura of invincibility shattered on the holiest day of the year?
Now Yeshivat Har Etzion lost eight students during the war. Rav Amital, the founding rosh yeshiva, was torn between his personal anguish and imparting hope to his students. His students were looking for some meaning in this tragedy. What could Rav Amital say to encourage and inspire his students?
Since the beginning of selichot, and continuing throughout the day today up until the end of neilah, we will utter one of the most powerful prayers in the Torah – the 13 middot of rachamim, the thirteen attributes of mercy. After the sin of the Golden Calf, Moshe interceded on behalf of his people. Hashem not only forgave the people, but He introduces these thirteen midot of rachamim to Moshe. And what is God doing when He introduces these thirteen midot of rachamim?
The gemara in masechet Rosh Hashana cites the astounding view of Rabbi Yochanan to describe this Biblical event:
נתעטף הקדוש ברוך הוא כשליח צבור, והראה לו למשה סדר תפלה. אמר לו: כל זמן שישראל חוטאין - יעשו לפני כסדר הזה, ואני מוחל להם
God, as it were, wrapped Himself in a tallit like a shaliach tzibbur, like a chazzan, and showed Moshe the order of tefillot and He told Moshe that whenever Bnei Yisrael sin, let them perform this order and God will forgive them.
God is providing Moshe with a recipe for the future of achieving atonement. What is that recipe? According to Rashi, we just need to mention the attributes of God to achieve God’s mercy and that’s why we recite the thirteen midot of rachamim so many times during this time period. However, in his sefer Reishit Chochma, Rav Eliyahu Di Vidas points out that God doesn’t say that when we sin we should say the thirteen midot, but “ya’asu lefanai ka-seder zeh” – we should do them. We should behave in a godlike merciful manner to achieve atonement. In fact, Rav Yitzchak Blazer noted that his rebbe, Rav Yisrael Salanter, studied the thirteen midot of rachamim carefully to deduce new insights into how people should behave towards each other. Just like God is compassionate, slow to anger and kind so too we must be that way towards each other.
But what about the tallit? If God is showing us the way to achieve atonement and challenging us that “ya’asu lefanai ka-seder zeh” – that we should do this order, then we should also do what God, as it were, did. He wrapped Himself in a tallit. So just like God is kind, we should also be kind to others, that I get. But we are required to emulate God in a different manner, as well. Just as God was enwrapped in a tallit, so should we.
What does this mean? It means that while each one of us should radiate kindness and mercy, we shouldn’t advertise ourselves and seek glory in doing chesed. We shouldn’t seek the limelight; it’s so important for us to be understated when we do wonderful things because it’s a challenge. It’s a challenge to strive for greatness and yet be satisfied even if others don’t perceive us as that great. But that’s how each and every one of us can emulate God, by doing great things while being enwrapped in a tallit.
But I think that there’s an entirely different way of understanding the message of this Talmudic passage, that God wrapped Himself in a tallit. What is the message that Rabbi Yochanan wanted to convey when he described Moshe’s encounter with God in this fashion? Moshe had just convinced God not to destroy the Bnei Yisrael and he tells God “הַרְאֵ֥נִי נָ֖א אֶת־כְּבֹדֶֽךָ “ – please show me Your glory. Moshe desires a fully intimate relationship with God and God responds by saying לֹ֥א תוּכַ֖ל לִרְאֹ֣ת אֶת־פָּנָ֑י - you can’t – you are not capable of seeing My countenance, of such an intense relationship. And it is in this context that God introduces the thirteen midot of rachamim. But, according to Rabbi Yochanan, He does so while being enwrapped in a tallit.
What this means, says Rav Amital, is that sometimes the ways of God are not clear. Sometimes He is wrapped in a tallit and His ways are hidden from us. Let’s say you look out into the distance and see the shape of a person in front of you, and that shape is wrapped in a tallit. Do you think that the tallit is just magically floating in the air? No, even though you don’t see the person underneath the tallit, you sense his presence because of the tallit. God tells Moshe that when Bnei Yisrael sin and when they struggle and they feel distant from Him, they should remember the image of God wrapping Himself up in a tallit and reciting the thirteen attributes of mercy. When we have that image clear in our minds then we remember that there is greatness under the tallit, that we can sense God’s presence even if it is not clear, and that’s what we are trying to do today.
Today, we imagine ourselves as angels. We are standing in prayer the whole day. The kohen gadol in the Beit Hamikdash enters the Kodesh Ha-Kodoshim, the Holy of Holies. We are desperate to sense God’s presence today. At the same time, we know that we will never be able to fully understand God. He will always be hidden under the tallit. And we hope and pray by the end of the day that just we sense His presence today, we will sense His presence every day of our lives as we continue to strive to deepen our relationship with Him.
Rav Amital did not view the Yom Kippur War as an example of classic Jewish suffering throughout its 2,000 year exile. He viewed it as part of the messianic wars of Israel which will ultimately lead to our final redemption. There is suffering even in the messianic wars and the suffering should awaken us to engage in teshuva and introspection, but the Yom Kippur War did not demonstrate that God had retreated from the Jewish people or from the land of Israel. Rav Amital wrote: “We are commanded to live with the faith that there will be no retreat since the beginning of the return to Zion. There are temporary concealments, but no retreat. All the paths – those paved and unpaved – lead us to the redemption of Israel.” Clearly, Rav Amital saw God wrapped up in a tallit in the Yom Kippur War. He didn’t have all the answers, but he sensed greatness under the tallit. He sensed God’s presence even in the tragedy of the Yom Kippur War, even as his yeshiva tragically lost eight students in the war.
Today we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. We mourn the loss of life in the war, over 2,600 dead, and we remember a time when we were tempted to re-assess God’s presence in our national life in Eretz Yisrael. But it’s Yom Kippur. It’s a day when we sense God’s presence so clearly and we commit to both emulate God’s midot of rachamim in a hidden and modest fashion and to remain faithful to God even when He seems so hidden, as He seemed in the early stages of the Yom Kippur War. Many of us say Yizkor for parents, parents who, like God, are also wrapped in a tallit. They are hidden from us in this world, but we sense their presence. We will give tzedakah on their behalf and we will daven on their behalf. And we are doing more. Because of their constant guidance throughout our lives, we acknowledge that they continue to guide us even beyond their grave. Yizkor – we will always remember you, mom and dad. We sense your presence. You are greatness hidden under a tallit.