Divrei Torah for Yom Kippur
A Yom Kippur Drosha from the Chofetz Chaim
Rav Yechezkel from Kuzmir once said, even if a person was on his way to shul on erev Yom Kippur, if his friend would stop him and ask if he could go for a walk with him because there is something that is bothering him and he would love to be able to speak his heart and remove the worry, the man should say yes and go with him because the goal of Yom Kippur is teshuva, and fulfilling the great mitzvah of ואהבת לרעך כמוך, which is a klal gadol b'Torah, is an enormous zechus and will help fix all the times during the year that we ignored people instead of helping them. At this time, we need every zechus we can get.
Rabbi Yoel Klofat learned in the yeshiva of the Chafetz Chaim for six months when he was a bochur. That year on Yom Kippur, the Chafetz Chaim got up to speak as usual between Kol Nidrei and Ma'ariv. He quoted the pasuk ונסלח לכל עדת בני ישראל ולגר הגר בתוכם that Hashem forgives all of the sins of the Jewish People and of the converts. He gave an example of a goy who converted to Judaism at a very old age. Then, on one of the first few days as a Jew, he made a light transgression. “Will Hashem have a claim against him?”, the Chafetz Chaim asked. “He never learned; he doesn't know better. He wants to do what's right; he just doesn't know yet. Even though he is considered a full-fledged Jew, he was not trained properly and has no idea of what is truly expected of him.” Then the Chafetz Chaim added, “We, as well, what do we know? How much do we learn? ונסלח לכל עדת בני ישראל.” The Chafetz Chaim said, “Hashem forgives us just like he forgives the aged converts. Why?כי לכל העם בשגגה - because we are all considered acting mistakenly."
Rabbi Yoel said, “When I heard that speech, I was baffled. That is what the great Chafetz Chaim decided to speak about on the holiest night of the year?” He was so disappointed. He was hoping to hear a fiery speech from the Gadol HaDor that would ignite him to improve his ways, but in the end, the entire speech was all about being milamed zechus on Am Yisroel, giving the Jewish People the benefit of the doubt. Then, later on in life, Rabbi Yoel finally understood some of what the Chafetz Chaim was trying to accomplish that night of Yom Kippur. He read in the sefer Shem Olam, authored by the Chafetz Chaim, how wondrous it is to give people the benefit of the doubt and judge them favorably. One reason is because whoever judges others favorably, mida k’neged mida, will get judged by Hashem favorably. The Chofetz Chaim was teaching his talmidim how to judge favorably on the day that it counted the most.
When we are asked for forgiveness, if we can give the people asking the benefit of the doubt and wholeheartedly forgive them, then b’ezras Hashem we will also be forgiven and we will also be judged favorably by Hashem. (R' Dovid Ashear)