Yom Kippur

I heard from some­one to whom the Rebbe Ray­atz told:

One erev Yom Kip­pur be­fore the seu­dah maf­sekes (the fi­nal meal) my fa­ther gave me con­tin­ual tasks to do. Then, re­al­iz­ing the sit­u­a­tion, he told me, “Yosef Yitzchak” — he called him by both names — “you haven’t eaten be­fore the fast! Go wash your hands quickly!” I washed and said Hamotzi.

My fa­ther let me eat a k’za­yis (min­i­mum amount) and then said, “Bentsh, it’s late!”

Motzaei Yom Kip­pur the Rebbe Rashab told the Ray­atz, “The po­suk states, ‘Lachayosam bara’av – to sus­tain them in famine ’¹⁹ — the hunger, alone, en­livens. ”

19. Tehillim 33:19. The simple meaning is that Hashem enlivens a person by providing him sustenance in a time of famine. ↩

One erev Yom Kip­pur in Lubav­itch, af­ter Min­cha, I saw the ven­er­a­ble chos­sid R. Pe­sach Ku­per of Tagan­rog come out of the Rebbe’s room wear­ing a tallis and kit­tel, and saw that he had been cry­ing. He had gone in­side, he told me, to ask the Rebbe for his erev Yom Kip­pur bless­ing, and the Rebbe wanted to bentch him.

“I was priv­i­leged, ” he told the Rebbe, “that your grand­fa­ther and your fa­ther each placed their hand on my head when bentch­ing me, and I ask you also to place your hand on my head when you bentch m e.”

R. Pe­sach con­cluded, “He put his hand on my head and burst into tears; both of us wept. ”

A sim­i­lar story was told to me by my great -grand­fa­ther, R. Yitzchak Ha­Co­hen Ka­hane­man of Sos­nitza — my zeide’s fa­ther-in-law (who passed away at the age of 99 on the 16 th of Marchesh­van, 5672 (1911) in Homil). He trans­ported to­bacco from Sos­nitza to Riga, and one erev Yom Kip­pur, on the way home from Riga, he passed through Homil. My zeide greeted him briefly, for time on erev Yom Kip­pur is pre­cious.

My zeide stood at his place to daven at Kol Nidrei, and my great -grand­fa­ther Yitzchak, hav­ing con­cluded dav­en­ing, com­pleted all of Tehillim with the minyan. “I glanced over at my Mordechai Yoel, ” my great -grand­fa­ther told me, “and he was still stand­ing and dav­en­ing.” My great -grand­fa­ther lay down to rest and woke up a few hours later — it was Yom Kip­pur, af­ter all — while my zeide stood the en­tire night and day (al­though my great - grand­fa­ther couldn’t say what his son-in-law did dur­ing those few hours he slept).

And when they ended the fast af­ter Maariv my zeide told him, “ Shver, don’t be up­set with me, but Reb Aizel said that af­ter an en­tire day with­out Torah study, one must sit and learn. ” And my zeide went off to study.

It was very late on motzaei Yom Kip­pur, 5675 (1914 ); the Rebbe was in the din­ing room. The Neilah prayer had been late, fol­lowed by Maariv and Kid­dush Lev­anah. I was stand­ing near the wall when Reb­bet­zin Shterna Sarah came in and spoke to the Rebbe about the Rebbe Ray­atz — she was ac­cus­tomed to call him by his first name, Yosef — that he had not yet ended the fast. When he came into the room the Rebbe said to him, “What are you do­ing?”

“I drank a glass of cold wa­ter, ” he an­swered. “We fin­ished dav­en­ing so late that there was time enough for Yechiel the chazan” — who trav­eled around, rais­ing funds for Tom­chei Temimim — “to have vis­ited sev­eral vil­lages al­ready. ”

“I al­ready said long ago that hur­ry­ing comes from a soul’s low­li­ness, ” said the Rebbe. “Sit down. ”

But he didn’t want to.

“You’re start­ing al­ready in the new year?!” the Rebbe gen­tly scolded.

On erev Yom Kip­pur the Rebbe would come out from the door through which peo­ple would en­ter for yechidus [to give his bracha]. On one oc­ca­sion the words of the bracha were, “May the Eiber­shter grant that you be­come aroused with thoughts of true teshu­vah, with a pow­er­ful re­solve for Torah and mitzvos — nit an­dersh (with­out com­pro­mise)” (and a few ad­di­tional words about gash­mius).

One Yom Kip­pur, the Al­ter Rebbe called the Mit­teler Rebbe to his room and told him, “There are pos­i­tive Heav­enly forces re­gard­ing your judg­ment for the com­ing year, but there are also many neg­a­tive forces. ”

The Mit­teler Rebbe left the room and went straight to the chas­sidim. “This is an aus­pi­cious time, ” he told them. “Go to my fa­ther and ask him to say Chas­sidus. ”

The Rebbe Rashab was ac­cus­tomed to break his fast motzaei Yom Kip­pur at the house of his mother, Reb­bet­zin Rivkah. On one oc­ca­sion the Rebbe sat at the head of the ta­ble. On a small bu­reau near the door there was a samovar. The Rebbe stood up — and all the chas­sidim stood —walked over to the samovar, poured a glass of tea and served it to his mother.

“Start­ing the new year with a mitz­vah, ” she said.

On motzaei Yom Kip­pur 5688 (1927) the Rebbe said, “My fa­ther told me (he men­tioned the year) that, through two things, one draws down ma­te­rial abun­dance for the en­tire com­ing year: through recit­ing LeDovid Miz­mor with great con­cen­tra­tion on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kip­pur af­ter pray­ing She­moneh Es­rei, and through break­ing the fast motzaei Yom Kip­pur ex­pan­sively. ”

The Rebbe also said then, “The four days be­tween Yom Kip­pur and Sukkos cor­re­spond to the four let­ters of Hashem’s Name, Havayeh.¹ The first day cor­re­sponds to the Yud, and is there­fore called ‘G-d’s Name’ (Gutt’s Num­men).”

1. I.e., the Tetragrammaton. ↩

My zeide re­cited a maa­mar ev­ery Yom Kip­pur. (R. Aizel Homiler in all prob­a­bil­ity did the same.)