Jewish Recovery Thought - Yom Kippur

We all know that Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year. We all know that on Yom Kippur we fast. We all know that we spend the whole day praying, repenting and asking for forgiveness. But did you know that Yom Kippur is also a happy day? Yom Kippur is considered a Jewish Holiday, a joyous day, a Yom Tov. What are we celebrating on Yom Kippur?

Yom Kippur is the anniversary of the second marriage of G_d with his People. Yup, we kinda married, divorced, and married again. The first wedding took place on the holiday of Shavuot when standing under Mount Sinai as a Chupa G_d sealed his covenant of love with the Jewish people. Unfortunately, things did not work out, and within 40 days the people broke their commitment by worshiping a golden calf. G_d's initial reaction was "I am out of this marriage". He told Moses the Matchmaker that he wants out because the Jewish People didn't keep their end of the deal. So in a sense they "separated"...

But after a lot of prodding and haggling Moses was able to convince G_d to make peace with the bride. G_d realized that his love for us is greater than any mistake that we made, and that we can ever make.

When we first marry and profess our unconditional love to our spouse-to-be we don't really know what kind of mishaps and mistakes might occur during our married life. We cannot anticipate all the possible fights, arguments, and misunderstandings that end up spicing up our relationship. Sometimes the relationship turns sour and we end up dissolving it. We thought that out love was strong, but obviously not strong enough.

The Talmud tells us that it is a great Mitzva to remarry your ex-wife (assuming she didn't marry someone else in between). When a couple divorces and then reconsiders and remarries the new covenant is on a totally different level than the first. Now we know the kind of turbulence our relationship might endure, now we now how much pain we can inflict on each other. But now we commit to a greater kind of love that will be stronger than any hatred that we may ever develop. We know each others flaws and we commit to love nevertheless.

On Yom Kippur G_d recommitted to His People, but the new covenant was on much higher level. G_d realized the limitation of our human condition, and chose us again, regardless. G_d expressed His infinite love to us, a love that no mistake on our part can ever shatter. From then on, and for all humankind forever, a new template has developed for the G_d/Human relationship. A relationship not based on performance or perfection, but on love and commitment. Sure we need to follow the rules, sure we need to behave, just like a normal married couple. But when we err, when we trip, we can revert to the covenant of unconditional love that was created on Yom Kippur 3319 years ago.

The beauty of recovery is that I don't need to create a new me, I don't need to find an unknown Higher Power. I just have to revert back to my ever existing relationship with G_d. When I reconnect, the mistake of my past can be forgotten and buried with my now useless divorce documents. We're married. Again.