The Greatest Day of The Year
Yom Kippur is the greatest day of the year, it is a gift from Hashem, a day in which we can rid ourselves from all the aveiros which have distanced us from Hashem and have taken away our feelings of spirituality. The mitzvah of the day is teshuva, admitting our sins, regretting them and accepting upon ourselves to stop them. We must believe that with the proper teshuva, our past misdeeds will become completely erased, as if we had never done them. We begin Yom Kippur with Kol Nidrei, which is a paragraph annulling our vows. One reason why we begin this awesome day with that tefillah is that Chazal want to teach us a lesson about the power of teshuva. When it comes to a vow, if somebody violated his vow and only afterward went to a Rabbi to make hatoras nedorim and the Rabbi sees that there is a valid reason for the hatorah, then retroactively, the vow is annulled and it is considered like the man never made the vow and therefore, his violation of the vow completely disappears because there was never a vow to begin with. This is the way that teshuva works as well. We can go back in time and make it like we never sinned. It doesn't take that much to do and the positive ramifications from it are endless – one act of teshuva can change the course of a person's entire life, as well as his future generations.
Rabbi Yitzchok Zilberstein was told a story by a talmid chocham who today teaches Torah to the masses. He said he is one of over 5000 offspring of his great-great-grandfather Ya'akov. And every one of those offspring are bnei Torah and yireh Hashem. Some of them are rabbis in communities in all different parts of the world. And it all came about in the zechus of one nice hello. And he explained: His great-great grandfather Ya'akov grew up in a religious home but his father died when he was young and Ya'akov got swept up in the enlightenment movement and was lured away from Torah and mitzvos. One morning, he woke up remembering it was the yahrzeit of his father and his conscience was eating away at him. His father had requested before he passed away that he always say kaddish for him on his yahrzeit. At the present time, Ya'akov had moved away from his hometown and didn't even know if there were any shuls in his neighborhood. He decided he was going to make an effort to search for a shul. So he searched for the entire day, walking around the city until he finally found one. He was very nervous to walk in, thinking that he would be judged by his appearance. He hoped to find a place in the back of the shul where he wouldn't be noticed. He would just say kaddish and leave. When he walked in, he saw they were in the middle of the silent amidah of Mincha. He waited in the back of the shul until they ended the prayers, he said the kaddish for his father and he quickly tried to leave. As he was making his way towards the door, the rabbi of the city Rav Yitzchok Dov HaLevi Bamberger caught up to him and gave him the warmest greeting. Instead of rebuking him for his dress, he told him how much he admired him for coming to shul to say kaddish. Ya'akov stood there with tears in his eyes. He had been feeling so guilty about leaving Torah and mitzvos, and now he felt so special from the Rabbi's uplifting words. He ended up speaking to the Rabbi and became re-energized to come back to religion. Two years after that kaddish, Ya’akov was standing under the chuppah, marrying a girl who aspired to reach great heights in religion as he did. They established a family together of bnei Torah – 13 children all going in the way of Hashem. And now, 150 years after that kaddish, Ya'akov has over 5000 offspring, all shomrei Torah and mitzvos.
The power of one decision to come closer to Hashem has affected generations and generations of people. Everyone has greatness inside of them. With one decision to commit to becoming stronger in Torah and mitzvos, we can bring it out of ourselves and change the entire course of history. Let us utilize this awesome day of Yom Kippur to repent and recommit ourselves to Hashem. (R' Dovid Ashear)