[Avodah] yom kippur drasha

[David Riceman]

I got drafted to speak for Yom Kippur again this year at our minyan, and I 
wonder if anyone can suggest improvements/emendations for the following 
drasha.  There's a strict eight minute limit (extended from five on normal 
Shabbasos).

1.  We read about the throngs of people watching what happened on Yom Kippur 
in the Beis HaMikdah, yet Yom Kippur is not a regel.  Why come if there's no 
mitzva? Contrariwise, if there's a reason to come, why not a mitzva of 
aliyyah l'regel?

2.  King David applied the root "ksy" both to Rosh HaShana (bakeseh l'yom 
hageinu) and Yom Kippur (ashrei ... k'suy hata'ah).

3.  On RH this alludes to the paradox of the mitzvas hayom: acknowledging 
God's sovereignty.  OTOH God wants us to have free will, but OTOH the more 
we recognize God's sovereignty the less free will we have.  So RH is a 
hidden holiday (hence, for example, the Bible avoids any explicit 
description of what RH is really about).

4.  Hazal cite "ashrei nsuy pesha ksuy hata'ah" as precedence for not 
confessing sins publicly (the exceptions are a machlokes Rambam and 
Ra'abad).  Analogously the passuk says "v'khol adam lo yihyeh b'ohel moed 
b'vo'o lchaper bakodesh ad tzeiso".

5.  Mishnath R. Eliezer b'Rebbi Yosi explains this as a reward.  Because 
Aharon was oheiv shalom and rodef shalom God granted him yir'ah, so 
everyone, even malachim, were afraid to be around "b'vo'o ..."  This midrash 
seems weird.  We know that Aharon was popular, the antithises of yirah, 
precisely because he was oheiv shalom and rodef shalom (e.g. vayivku es 
aharon kol beis yisrael).

6.  The essence of tzidkus is not failing to make mistakes, but the capacity 
to correct them (ki ein tzadik ba'aretz asher ya'aseh hatov v'lo yeheta; 
sheva yipol tzaddik vakam; Orot HaTshuva 5:6).  Yet one of the ways we gain 
inspiration is by watching people we admire and emulating them; in this 
context watching them sin is not helpful even if we later see them repent. 
The yirah the midrash is talking about is precisely because everyone so 
admired Aharon; they didn't want to see him when he acknowledged his own 
fallibility(!)

7.  The paradox of YK is that we want to be around people we admire on YK, 
so we can be helped doing tshuva, but we don't want to see them doing 
tshuva; we want to see them as tzaddikim.  Hence the two faced nature of the 
crowds; we want to see the Kohen Gadol bichvodo, but not in his private 
moments, b'vo'o lifnay v'lifnim.

8.  The contemporary equivalent of lifnai v'lifnim is Shmonah Esraih, when 
we're surrounded by pious people but we're alone with God, so we can 
concentrate on our sins and and be inspired by their virtues ....

David Riceman