The One and Only
On Yom Kippur the most unique level of the soul, called the Yechidah, can be reached and expressed. This explains why, only on Yom Kippur, we pray five different prayers. These five prayers are designed to reveal all of the five levels of the soul, including yechidah.
Fives names of the soul
Yom Kippur is referred to in the Torah as “achat b’shanah-a single day of the year.” The Tosphot commentary on the Talmud explains that this term Achat refers to the soul that is called yechidah-singular or unique. Hence, Yom Kippur is the day that we get in touch with our soul.
However, we know that the soul is known by four other names: nefesh, ruach, neshama and chaya. Why is Yom Kippur described as a day when we get in touch with yechidah specifically? Why doesn’t it say that it is the day of nefesh, or the day of ruach etc.?
To answer this question we must also answer another question about the name yechidah. All the other names with which we identify the soul denote a spiritual life force. Only the fifth name, yechidah, does not mean life force, but rather “singular” or “unique.” How does singularity or uniqueness apply to the soul?
In truth, the five names relate to and describe five distinct layers of the soul, each of which is responsible for different spiritual expressions and functions of the soul.
While the four other names of the soul express the soul’s characteristics, the name yechidah expresses the uniqueness of the soul even in relation to its other levels.
Five prayers of Yom Kippur and being touched by Yechidah
It follows then, that on Yom Kippur this most unique level of the soul can be reached and expressed. This also explains why, only on Yom Kippur, we pray five different prayers. These five prayers are designed to reveal all of the five levels of the soul, including yechidah.
What precisely does it mean that we have touched our yechidah and how does it differ from the way the other four levels of the soul are expressed?
When a person does something good, there can be many different motivating factors. Each one of these motivating factors derives from a different level of the soul.
One can do the right thing because one has been physically conditioned to do it (nefesh) while others will do good because they love doing good (ruach). There is still another individual who does good because it makes sense logically (neshama). Some will do what is right because their intellectual faculties dictate that it is the right thing to do.
There are yet some people who may lack the conditioning, love, understanding to do good, but they still do it because they just want to do it. Their conscience (read: the level of chaya) motivates them to submit and surrender to G-d’s will. This Will-power can get a person to do something that is totally alien to their personality.
These four motivating factors—conditioning, emotion, understanding and will-power—represent the four levels of the soul that can be accessed throughout the entire year.
What is unique about Yom Kippur is that we are then capable of expressing the fifth level of yechidah, the singular and unique dimension of the soul as well. This is the state of doing that which is right not because of any motivating factor. One does that which G-d wants simply because one feels that one cannot do anything else. To do something due to the other levels of motivation suggests that there is a basis for inaction, and one has to bring one faculty or another to bear to get the person to do that which is right.
When the Yechidah is revealed, on Yom Kippur, however, we don’t need motivation. That which is G- d’s desire is automatically ours. This is because the level of Yechidah is so intimately bound with the singularity of G-d, that there can just not be any other course of action for this individual. Our will is G-d’s will.
Leaving the Temple
The purpose of Yom Kippur, however, is to allow the yechidah experience of Yom Kippur affect all the other levels of our soul.
To be inspired on Yom Kippur to the point where we are inextricable bound with G-d is not the goal. The goal is to take that uniqueness and instill it in the lower levels of the soul. Our conscience, intellect, emotions and physical faculties of our soul should be inspired by the yechidah.
This explains why Maimonides—based on the Talmud—describes the service of Yom Kippur in the Temple of old and concludes with the description of the High Priest going home after the service. Of what relevance to the Yom Kippur service is the description of the High Priest’s return home?
The answer is that that is precisely what Yom Kippur is all about: it is to take the part of the soul that is singular and make it a part of all aspects of our personalities.
Perpetual Yechidah
Kabbalah teaches us that during the Messianic Age our yechidah will be revealed perpetually. It will be Yom Kippur every day. It doesn’t mean that we will be observing Yom Kippur with all of its physical denial. Rather it means that the post-Yom Kippur state— where we take the Yechidah home with us—will be perpetual.
Moshiach himself is chosen to be the leader that will usher in the Messianic Age because his Yechidah is perpetually alert. And it is through his inspiration— energy generated from his yechidah to ours—that enables us to discover our innermost spiritual powers. It reveals our singularity; the Yom Kippur of our souls.
May we all be sealed for a good and sweet year, a year that will known for its uniqueness in terms of the G- dly blessings that will prevail.
From the book Light from the Future: Yom Kippur by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
