For on this day shall he atone for you, to cleanse you; of all your sins before Hashem may you be cleansed” (Leviticus 16-30).
The obvious intention is that Hashem is the One that cleanses us. There are those that translate it to mean that the Kohen Gadol will do the process to atone you. But it’s all “before Hashem” referring to sins that are between man and Hashem. These He will remove, but sins between man and man even Yom Kippur won’t help unless one receives forgiveness from the person he hurt. The day of Yom Kippur is such a privilege that it’s a day to rejoice on, and not be sad.
The Rambam writes in the laws of Teshuva (chapter 3-1 -3) “Just like when a person passes away he is judged, so too every year he is Judged on Rosh Hashana. If his merits are greater he is called a tzadik and is written in the book of life. If his sins are greater he is called a Rasha and will be sentenced to death. A person that his merits and sins are equal, his sentencing waits until Yom Kippur and if his merits are more he will be granted life, and if they are lacking the opposite. This period of time is called Aseret Yemay Teshuva, the ten days of Teshuva.”
The question is, do we really need ten days? On Rosh Hashana he hears the Shofar and that should tilt the scale for him. The very first mitzvah he does should win him life. Additionally, the person that is exactly 50%- tzadik and 50% rasha is only 1% of all people so do we need to impose 10 days of Teshuvah for 99% of the people? Why wait until Yom Kippur to be locked in, shouldn’t Yom Kippur be the cause to tilt the scale as the day itself forgives?
In today’s world, we buy a house with a mortgage, we think we own the house but really the bank owns the house until we pay off the loan. Imagine for 10 days a year you can request from the president to dismiss the loan or at least part of the loan. That day would be the best day of the year, and so is Yom Kippur. Even a tzadik that is 80% good still has a big mortgage over his head. This is a time when we have the opportunity to get rid of so much negativity that even a rasha that has a rating of 70% evil can remove so much of the negativity in his life. The day of Yom Kippur is like a mikvah in time just as we pass through it we are removing much baggage. The more effort we put into the day, the more we can fix. Because all of Am Yisrael is one, we can actually do Teshuvah for someone else and remove them from their possible negative situation, and they emerge a Baal Teshuva.
