Yom Kippur Viduy
Rav Shimon Schwab zt’l relates an interesting incident that he was involved in. Many years ago, he was standing at a bus stop in Baltimore in front of a Catholic church. A clearly Jewish women came out of the church, and seeing a rabbi, she walked confidently over to him.
“Rabbi,” she said, “you're probably wondering what a Jewish woman is doing in a Catholic church. Well, let me tell you, those Catholics, they have something special, something that Judaism doesn't have, something that's just amazing."
"Really?" said Rav Schwab. “And what exactly are you referring to?"
“It is the confessional,” she said. “You just sit in this booth, and the priest is sitting on the other side of the partition. You say, “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.” The priest says, "You are forgiven.” And hay presto. Forgiveness. You're forgiven for all your sins, and you just feel wonderful after that. Well, Judaism doesn't have that!”
"Madam, you are quite mistaken,” he said. “Judaism certainly does have confession. Three times a day, we say ‘selach lanu' forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned. We have viduy on Yom Kippur to atone for all our sins. What do you mean Judaism doesn't have confession?"
“Rabbi, you don't understand,” she replied. “At the Catholic church, someone is actually listening to you."
“Madam, you don't understand,” said Rav Schwab. “The Jewish people also have Someone Who is listening. Always. Not just a mere flesh and blood human that doesn't have the power of forgiveness, but the Creator of the Universe Himself."
At this time of year, this must be one of the most important things we can work on. We often spend so much time in front of a siddur or machzor, but if we don't realize that there is actually someone listening, and we are actually talking to Him, and the One we are talking to has the ultimate power to do anything in the world, we may take it a bit more seriously.
There was someone at the Kosel davening, and he couldn't help but hear the fellow standing next to him, and this fellow was literally talking to Hashem, telling Him all about his day and what went on, and at one point, the fellow corrected himself, “sorry,” he said, “I already told You that.” That's called talking to Hashem. Understanding Who we are talking to.
The Dubno Maggid would often scold his followers for the routine manner in which they performed their devotions on the Yomim Noraim. He never ceased to warn his listeners that the mere beating of the breast while reciting the confession of sins, mechanically performed without self-examination and without the sincere desire to mend one's ways, would never bring that Heavenly forgiveness for which we all hope in the Days of Awe.
He used to explain this with a mashul [parable]:
There was a village far off in the provinces where the people were simple and ignorant. Once, one of the villagers had an occasion to spend the night in the main city. Suddenly, he was awakened from his sleep by the load beating of drums. “What does this mean?”he asked in fright. In reply he was told that a fire had broken out and the beating of drums was the city's fire alarm. Satisfied with this information, he went back to sleep.
When he returned to his village, he excitedly reported what he had seen in the city. “They have the most amazing arrangement!” he declared. “Whenever there is a fire in the city they beat their drums and soon the fire is out.” The mayor of the village thought this was a splendid idea and immediately bought drums for use in the event of a fire. A few days later, when a fire did break out in the village, the inhabitants quickly took up their drums and beat them loudly. In the meantime, half the houses in the village had gone up in flames. A stranger that happened to be present on the village square laughed ironically and said to the fire brigade who were busily beating away with their wooden drumsticks: Why, you fools! Don't you know that you can't extinguish a fire just by beating a drum? The drum is meant only to call out to the fire brigade to come and put out the fire; the noise of the drums won't frighten the fire away!"
This mashul, said the Dubno Maggid, may well be applied to those of us who believe that idle lip service is sufficient to win forgiveness from Above. However long we may beat our fists against our hearts, it is all worthless if we regard this ‘High Holiday ritual' as a magic formula to ward off the consequences of sin. We should instead consider it an alarm, to awaken us to true repentance and resolute to better ourselves and thus extinguish the searing flame of evil that burns within our hearts. (Rabbi Avi Wiesenfeld)