Nachal novea; makor chochma -
A flowing river; the source of wisdom (Mish. 18:4)

It takes boldness to approach Hashem after years of neglecting Him and say: "Please help me come back!" It takes chutzpa to ignore people distant from Hashem who demand our allegiance because they raised and cared for us. It takes boldness to reject an immoral society which offers us every material opportunity. It takes boldness to ignore all the insulting voices who would have us believe that we have gone crazy for following the ways of Hashem. It took chutzpa to beseech Hashem to save us from Haman’s decree which we had brought upon ourselves through our own sins. "When Mordechai gave the signal, the blast of 12,000 shofars rose us together with the cries of the Jewish people to rend the heavens. (Targum Sheni 4:16). Thus, Mordechai injected our souls with the blast of the Shofar, holy chutzpa, the spiritual power of boldness. The verse illustrates this point, as it says, "Kashofar harim kolecha v’hagid ami"—raise up your voice like a shofar and tell my people (Isaiah 58:1). Mordechai showed us how to have holy chutzpa, through the sound of the shofar, to approach Hashem despite what we have done previously. We therefore can apply the lesson of Mordechai to our situation on Yom Kippur. We must be "bold as a leopard" (Avot 5:24) to approach Hashem on Yom Kippur and ask for mercy and forgiveness despite what we have done. Boldness is essential to acquire Torah and express oneself in prayer. It is no good to be timid and shy, for "one who is shy will never learn." (Avot 2:6). The bolder one is, the more he will be able to find new vistas in Torah and prayer. To be bold in a positive sense, in pursuit of the holy, is part of the very essence of prayer and being a Jew. It takes a certain daring to stand before Hashem and ask Him for what we need, including even miracles. A person who feels ashamed when he thinks of his own inadequacies and failings will never be able to open his mouth at all. This is why it takes boldness to pray. Hashem desires our prayers and waits anxiously for them. It says "Hashem desires the prayers of the righteous" (Rashi). It says "all your people are rightuous" (Isaiah). Hashem wants to hear our prayers: "let me hear your voice: for your voice is sweet" (Shir HaShirim 2:4). Hashem waits to hear our prayers, no matter how awkward they are, "for your voice is sweet."

To have boldness and to pray, you must build up your morale as the verse illustrates, "I will sing (pray) to my G-d with the little I have left" (Psalms 146:2). Though the little bit of good that I still find left within myself, I build up my morale to pray to Hashem, otherwise I am not able to pray. Not being able to pray when ones morale is broken and one has given up hope in oneself, is illustrated by the verse, "many say of my soul, there is no help for him with Hashem, Selah" (Psalms 3:3). This verse refers to the evil inclination convincing a person that approaching Hashem is useless. The result of this attitude is "I laid myself down and slept" (Psalms 3:6a). I went into a spiritual sleep and gave up on approaching Hashem. What is the solution for this? "I woke for the Lord sustains me" (Psalms 3:6). I awoke form my spiritual sleep and my morale was restored and then I was able to approach Hashem, because Hashem--the connection I have to Hashem--through my having done good deeds, sustains me—enables me to come close to Him in prayer. As it says, "for yet but for a little bit, and the wicked shall be no more" (Psalms 37:10). The verse is saying that due to the little bit of good that I find in myself, the wickedness which is within me, and keeping me from coming close to Hashem, is no more.

Thus, to be connected to Hashem, we must connect ourselves to His kindness. We therefore wear our Tallesim all day and even at night on Yom Kippur to attach ourselves to his kindness. The entire aspect of the Tallis draws the spiritual power of Hashem’s kindness to the wearer.

There are 13 coils in the last knotted section of the fringes. This corresponds to the 13 middos of mercy of Hashem. Hashem taught Moshe the 13 middos of mercy wrapped in a Tallis (Rosh HaShana 17).

It says in the verse, "From the narrowness I called to Hashem," (Psalms 118:5). The word for narrowness is "maytzar" spelled mem, tzady, reish. If the letters are rearranged they spell tzemer, tzady, mem, raish, which is wool. In Isaiah 1:18 it says, "though your sins should be as scarlet, they shall become like wool." If a person is in a maytzar, which is a situation where a person is suffering afflictions due to his sins, he should put on his tallis which is made of wool, tzemer. Wool draws from the spiritual power of great mercy and rearranges the letters of maytzar, afflictions, to tzady, mem, raish, wool. Wool is defined in Isaiah as the end result of having ones sins (afflictions) turned white, which is the category of wool. This is the great kindness of Hashem to forgive a person’s (red) sins and make them white like wool. This is the turning of ones sins to merits. It mentions in the Gemmorah (Yoma 39) that a strip of crimson colored wool was hung on Yom Kippur in the Beis HaMikdash which would turn white to indicate Hashem’s forgiveness of the sins of Israel. Therefore, the woolen tallis has the ability to draw great mercy to the wearer and affect a forgiveness of sin. That is why it is essential to wear a tallis all through the Yom Kippur service. The woolen thread of the Techalis (blue color) attached to the fringes reflects the idea mentioned in the above quoted verse that crimson colored sin will be turned to the category of wool, which is mercy.

Now we can understand why there is a prohibition to wear shatnes, a garment of wool mixes with flax. Wool draws to it the spiritual power of chesed, kindness. Flax, on the other hand, draws to itself the spiritual power of din, harshness. When these two elements are combined, the two opposing forces struggle and compete with one another for dominance. This was the struggle between Cayin and Hevel. Hevel was a shepherd of sheep, and his spiritual inclination was from the source of kindness. Cayin was a farmer who worked the earth, which reflects his spiritual inclination from the source of gevurah, strictness. This is indicated by the earth having been cursed, which is a reflection of spiritual harshness, gevurah. It mentions in the verse that it was "when they were in the field that Cayin got up against Hevel his brother and killed him" (Bereshis 4). When Cayin saw that Hevel’s sacrifice was accepted and his own sacrifice rejected, he became jealous and rose up and killed his brother. This is the outcome of having wool and flax being brought together. To avoid the spiritual struggle of the forces of gevurah and chesed we do not wear wool and flax/linen together, shatnez.

It is further mentioned in reference to the Akaida, that Yitzhok asked Avraham his father, "Ayeh haseh l’olah," where is the lamb for the burnt offering? "Where?" refers to a person’s asking in his confused state of mind, "Where can I find Hashem?" This is also alluded to in the Kedusha, "Where is the place of his glory?" (Ayeh makom Kavodo?) The solution to this question of "where is Hashem," is the burnt offering which atoned for and rectified improper thoughts. The question, "where is Hashem," indicates that this person is starting his search for Divine closeness. This is in itself the beginning of the solution to rectify his sins and his confused state of mind. It is this spiritual power of the oleh-sacrifice which would resolve and atone for all the doubts in a person’s heart which, in turn, stem from his sins. We can draw the power of the lamb burnt offering to rectify our confusions and bad thoughts, through wearing the wollen tallis (a product of the lamb) which has the power of the lamb burnt offering. The Tikkuney Zohar teaches that the word Bereshis can be divided into Bara Tayish, "He created a kid." This alludes to the "lamb for the burnt offering" for which a kid can be used for the same rectification as a lamb, to rectify our confused minds so that we can return to the one who created the world through the word "Bereshis."

Wearing a tallis, as mentioned above, draws chesed, kindness, to our confessions on Yom Kippur. Why is confessing one’s sins verbally part of the repentance process? How does verbal confession atone for sin?

The sins of a person are etched on his bones as the verse indicates, "And their iniquities will be (etched) on their bones," (Ezekiel 32:27). Each sin corresponds to a certain combination of letters. When one commits a particular sin, an evil spiritual letter combination is etched on his bones. This is due to the fact that every physical item of creation is held together by the letters of the Torah. Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world with the letters of speech. When we do a positive or negative act it results in a manipulation of these letters. This is because every act we do is covered by all the positive and negative commandments of the Torah, which are the letters and words of Hashem. The letters of Hashem have the power to create, change or destroy. Just like manipulating the characters of a computer changes the results of a particular programso is the world is directly affected by our every action.

For example, if a person transgresses a Divine command which states the prohibition, "you shall have no other gods beside me" (Exodus 20:3) the he destroys the good letter combination of that Divine command and he creates an evil letter combination of that Divine command. This letter combination is etched on his bones, where it exacts vengeance upon him. This can result in suffering and punishments chas va shalom! This is illustrated by the verses "your iniquities have turned away these things (the rains and harvests)" (Jeremiah 5:25) and the verse "Evil shall slay the wicked," (Psalms 34:22). The evil letter combinations that the wicked person has himself created through his sins is what will slay him.

By means of spoken confession, the letter combinations etched on a person’s bones are manipulated and transformed to positive letter combinations. Speech affects what is written on one’s bones as it is written, "All my bones shall say" (Psalms 35:10).

This explains what the sages said (Sota 7b): "During the time that Israel was traveling in the desert, Yehuda’s bones rolled about (in his coffin) until Moshe said "Hear Hashem the voice of Yehuda" (Devarim 33:7). Moshe asked that Hashem remember the confession of Yehuda. The sages intentionally chose the words, "his bones rolled about." By means of confession, the sins etched on his bones were rectified and each bone returned to its proper place.

May we be able to use our holy boldness wearing the tallis, to draw kindness to ourselves to confess our sins and thereby rectify all our spiritual imperfections which will result in having a year of true life, following the ways of Hashem, amen.