For on this day, He shall effect atonement for you to cleanse you. Before the Lord, you shall be cleansed from all your sins. (16:30) The Torah is referring to Yom Kippur. There is some difficulty in this Posuk, as it says Hashem shall effect atonement for our sins. This means that we would be clean. Why does the Torah have to repeat, “You shall be cleansed from all your sins"?
We also see the famous Mishnah (Yuma 85b), based on the Posuk, “From all your sins you shall be cleansed before Hashem." Rebbi Akiva concludes:
How fortunate are you, Klal Yisrael? Before whom are you purified, and who purifies you? It is your Father in Heaven, as it is stated: “And I will sprinkle purifying water upon you, and you shall be purified” (Yechezkel 36:25). And it says: “The ritual bath of Israel is Hashem” (Jeremiah 17:13). Just as a ritual bath purifies the impure, so too does the Holy One, blessed be He, purify Klal Yisrael.
Rebbe Akiva compares the atonement of Yom Kippur to being cleansed in a Mikvah.
We have to understand: What is the difference between atonement and being cleansed? We can answer this with another difficulty of repetition when we recite the Avinu Malkeinu:
Our Father, Our King! blot out and remove our transgressions and sins from before Your eyes. Then we recite: Our Father, Our King! erase in Your abundant mercy all records of our liabilities.
Now that we have already “removed our transgressions and sins from before Your eyes," why do we have to ask again, “erase in Your abundant mercy all records of our liabilities”?
The answer may be in the following scenario: Someone borrowed money from a friend, and a contract was written up and signed. When the time came to pay, the borrower, who was a close friend of the lender, pleaded with the lender to forgive the debt as he had no money to pay the debt. The lender, who had mercy and knew the situation of the borrower, agreed to forgive the debt. However, the lender still holds onto the contract, with the intention that one day the borrower might become a rich man and pay back the loan. No one would imagine the borrower has the audacity to ask the lender to rip up the contract since he is only a friend. However, if the lender was his father, who has mercy on his child, as David Hamelech says in Tehilim 103:13,
As a father has mercy on sons, Hashem has mercy on those who fear Him.
A father would consider ripping up the contract if his son acts with respect to his father.
The same idea is repeated in Avinu Malkeinu: First we beg Hashem, "blot out and remove our transgressions and sins from before Your eyes.” Since we repented, we asked Hashem to forgive. Now that Hashem is our father who has mercy, we beg Hashem with His mercy that he should also rip up the records, as we will continue to do good deeds.
This is what Rebbe Akiva is comparing the atonement to the Mikvah: Just as an impure person becomes pure when he immerses in the Mikvah and all blemishes are erased, so we beg Hashem that our Teshuva shall not only atone for our sins. Hashem should cleanse us as the Mikvah and rip up the records of our debt, as Hashem has mercy on His sons.
This is the insight of our Posuk: For on this day He shall effect atonement for you to cleanse you. The reason is you shall be cleansed from all your sins. Just as the Mikvah cleanses all blemishes, so shall Hashem cleanse all blemishes and records of the sins and we shall be Tahor.
(Mishbatsei Shlomo Harav Shlomo Minzberg)
With this insight we can understand the prayer after Sefiras Haomer:
You commanded us through the hands of Your servant, Moses, to count the Omer in order to purify us from our evil and defilement. As You have written in Your Torah: And you shall count for yourselves, from the day after the day of rest, from the day you bring the omer as the wave-offering, seven complete weeks, shall there be; until the day following the seventh week shall you count fifty days, in order to cleanse the souls of Your people Israel from their impurities.
The seven weeks of counting the Omer is the preparation to Kabalas Hatorah. In order to receive the Torah in its proper way, we must be cleansed of all blemishes. The Avodah is from the elevation of Pesach that brings with it the Taharah to Kabalas Hatorah.
(Yehuda Z. Klitnick)
