A meaningful Yom Kippur Katan to all who observe. This is the last Yom Kippur Katan for three months, until Cheshvan, since it is not observed in Elul or Tishri.
Numbers/Bamidbar 28 – 29 contain a list of the regular sacrifices made for all the people for each day, Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh, chag, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. No chatat offering (usually translated as a “sin offering” and is brought to atone for unintentional sins) is brought as part of the daily and Shabbat sacrifices, and the sin offerings for the chagim (Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot), Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur are either mentioned without an indication on whose behalf they are being offered or else are offered “to cover over you” (literal) or “to atone on your behalf.” However, the Rosh Chodesh chatat offering is offered “LaShem” – “for/to HaShem.” The pshat, or plain meaning, is probably that is being offered TO G!d – but it is read midrashically as being brought to atone on G!d’s behalf, for an unintentional sin that G!d committed.
What is the sin? Well, the rabbis connect it, since it is related to the month, to the moon. In Genesis/Bereshit 1:16, it states that G!d made two great lights – the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night – and there is midrash explaining that G!d diminished the moon after making it one of the two great lights by assigning it to the night and causing it to xax and wane, with this diminishment damaging the moon. (There is also kabbalistic teaching relating this to tzimtzum, which I will leave to another time to explore.)
I want to ask these questions that might help us to utilize this opportunity for cheshbon hanefesh, accounting of the soul.
1. How have I diminished others and thereby damage them?
2.
How have I been diminished by others and been damaged?
3.
How have I diminished and damaged myself?
May the cheshbon hanefesh of this Yom Kippur Katan of Menachem Av lead to a time of deep reflection and teshuvah as we enter Elul.
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