Yom Kippur: Finding The Holiness Of Sinai

When it comes to the Exodus and the revelation at Mt. Sinai, most people think of Passover as the holiday that recalls and recounts those events. Few, including myself until recently, realize that Yom Kippur itself is a reenactment of the Sinai experience.

The Bible refers to Yom Kippur as a time of afflicting the soul. The Talmud interprets the affliction of this day by identifying five classes of prohibited activities.

1) Abstaining from food and water
2) Abstaining from washing your body
3) Abstaining from wearing cosmetics, or perfume
4) Abstaining from wearing leather sandals, or shoes
5) Abstaining from sexual relations

The prohibition of these activities on Yom Kippur is meant to elevate physical pleasure and consciousness to a spiritual state. But it is also a recreation of the events that lead up to the revelation at Mt. Sinai.

Rabbinic legend and tradition tells us that Moses brought down the second set of Ten Commandments on Yom Kippur, having shattered the first given on Shavuot upon seeing the Israelites worship the Golden Calf.

The five classes of prohibited activities represent each of the actions decreed by God to Moses and the Israelites in preparation for the Sinai revelation.

1) Moses was told to remove his sandals when witnessing the Burning Bush and

2) The Israelites were instructed to abstain from sexual contact, food and drink in order to maintain a pure consciousness before God's revelation.

The closing Ne'ilah service of Yom Kippur parallels the revelation at Sinai. The Bible says that when the laws were given, "all the people witnessed the thunder and lightening, the blare of the horn." Yom Kippur concludes with a final blast of the Shofar to commemorate this event.

As we can see, Yom Kippur is a recreation of the Sinai revelation and experience. Like many of the Jewish festivals, it is about reflecting on the meaning of these events and allowing them to inspire us towards more meaningful lives. I'm reminded of how we are instructed during Passover to think as if we were there experiencing the bondage in Egypt and the Exodus towards political and spiritual freedom. The ultimate goal is a state of enlightenment that the prophets and rabbis refer to as devekuth.

For further reading, I'd recommend the book "The Mystic Quest" by David S. Ariel which is where I first learned about the connection between Yom Kippur and the Sinai revelation.

Until next time....

Shmuel