Once
a year, on Yom Kippur, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies
to perform the required duties. Generally, the entry into this innermost
sanctuary was forbidden. It was only on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of
the year, that permission was granted for the High Priest alone to
enter.
The
current discourse, delivered by R. Shalom Dovber Schneersohn, fifth
Lubavitcher Rebbe, on Shabbat Parashat Acharei, 5679 (1919), analyzes
the biblican verse which forbids any human being from being present in
the sanctuary when the High Priest entered to seek atonement. If, as the
verse in Leviticus states: "No man shall be int he Tent of Meeting" at
that time, how could the High Priest himself be present?
By Thoroughly exploring the soul and all of its
components, the discourse explains how the High Priest, on Yom Kippur,
transcended the normative bounds of human limitation and ascended to the
sublime level of "no man." This granted him the permission and sanction
to enter the Holy of Holies.
In practical terms, says the Rebbe, this is the
challenge of man: To access and utilize the sprarational dimension of
the soul to reveal G-dliness within the world, through repentance, the
study of Torah, and performance of mitzvot.
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