The main text of the fourth blessing of the silent prayer on Yom Kippur ends with the words, “כי אתה סלחן לישראל ומחלן לשבטי ישורון– For you are the One Who forgives Israel and pardons the tribes of Yeshurun.” The expression “tribes of Yeshurun” is uncommon in the prayers. Why do we use it on Yom Kippur?
The author of the Meshech Chochmah (Harav Meir Simchah of Dvinsk 1843-1926) explains this line in the prayers in light of a theme he sees behind three other unique details of the Yom Kippur service:
- A key aspect of the Yom Kippur service, an incense offering, takes place in the Kodesh Kodashim, the Holy of Holies of the Beit Hamikdash. Yom Kippur is the only day of the year anyone enters the Kodesh Kodashim.
- A rope was tied around the horns of the se’ir la’azazel, the goat that was taken out to the wilderness on Yom Kippur. The weight of that rope was to be two sela’im (about 29 grams).
- The Kohen Gadol wore totally white garments when he entered the Kodesh Kodashim on Yom Kippur. The Gemara (Yoma 35a and 35b) tells us that his afternoon garments – for when he would enter the Kodesh Kodashim to remove the incense spoon and shovel – were of a lower quality than the ones he wore when he actually offered the incense in the morning. The Gemara and commentators seem to assume that this change only applies to the kutones, the cloak. The kutones seems to have a special status on Yom Kippur.
The author of the Meshech Chochmah makes an observation. Two of the Children of Israel’s sins reverberated through the ages: the selling of Yosef and the sin of the Golden Calf. Just as we find that “no punishment comes upon Israel that does not include some punishment for the sin of the Golden Calf” (Rashi on Shemos 32, 34), we also find the sin of the selling of Yosef as the cause behind the murder and torture of the ten martyrs (the עשרה הרוגי מלכות that included Rabbi Akiva and other Tannaim). These two core sins represent the two areas we need to heal and improve on – בין אדם לחבירו, interpersonal relations, and בין אדם למקום, our relationship with G-d.
Yom Kippur gives us the opportunity to atone for these two sins. Yom Kippur was, historically, the day when HaShem allowed Israel to repair the sin of the Golden Calf and gave Moshe the second tablets. Yom Kippur is also the day to atone for the sin of the selling of Yosef. The atonement takes place in the Kodesh Kodashim, which was located in the area of the tribe of Binyamin, who was not at all involved in selling his older brother Yosef. The rope attached to the horns of the goat was two sela’im, the same weight of Yosef’s coat (Shabbos 10b). Yosef’s coat played a key role in the sin, and therefore special attention is paid to the cloak- ketones - on Yom Kippur it is the Kohen Gadol’s key garment during the atonement process. When he entered the Kodesh Kodashim, the Kohen Gadol did not wear the Choshen, the breastplate upon whose stones the names of the tribes appear – for ten of them were in some way involved in the sin. Yom Kippur is also the one day of the year when HaShem “pardons the tribes of Yeshurun” for the sale of Yosef.
The Torah’s account of the sale of Yosef exposes an interpersonal problem Israel carries through the generations but has within it the power to mend.
