Halacha:

Brit Milah 

Machshava:

Yom Kippur 

Parsha:

Bereishit 

Collections: R' Rubenstein Yomim Noraim

Description

This shiur explores how fish — appearing throughout Rosh Hashanah, Tashlich, kapparos, and the Noach story — symbolize the peru u'revu drive that Hashem built into creation to ensure the world's continuation, a force so central that Rebbe Nachman says the taavah between man and woman isn't even a true yetzer hara but simply what sustains the world. Through the Sfas Emes's linking of Yom Kippur to bris milah and the Me'or Einayim's explanation of how Rebbi holds Yom Kippur atones even for hotza'as zera l'vatalah (normally beyond teshuvah), the shiur shows that this specific aveirah is uniquely both 'Onnes' and 'Ratzon' — a claim we make explicit in the vidui's באונס וברצון and therefore we say Yom Kippur night a declaration כי לכל העם בשגגה. This same dynamic — that Hashem's desire for a populated world (לא תהו בראה לשבת יצרה) both drives the sin and grounds its forgiveness — explains why תשובה קדמה לעולם, why Rosh Hashanah precedes Yom Kippur, and why Noach's teivah is itself called 'Yom Kippurim' in Tikunei Zohar.