06 May ACHAREI MOS/KEDOSHIM: HASHEM AS OUR FATHER

The pasuk in Parshas
Acharei Mos says,
“For on this day
atonement shall be
made for you, to
cleanse you, from all
your sins before
Hashem.” (Vayikra
16:30). The Ribono shel Olam gives us one
day out of the entire year to be forgiven from
all our sins and to achieve tahara (purity). A
very famous Mishna at the end of Maseches
Yoma states: “Rabbi Akiva says: Fortunate
are you O Israel – before whom are you
purified and who purifies you? Your Father in
Heaven. As it is written, ‘I will sprinkle upon
you pure waters’ – so too the Holy One
Blessed be He purifies you.”
I once received a sefer written by my fifth
grade Rebbe, Rav Chaim Tzvi Hollander,
entitled Zevach Mishpacha. Rabbi Hollander
learned in the Telshe Yeshiva (Cleveland). He
writes that they once heard a question from
Rav Aharon Kotler: What is the meaning of
“Ashreichem Yisrael” (fortunate are you O
Israel) that the Ribono shel Olam washes you
off and cleanses you? He asks, “Is this not a
source of embarrassment and disgrace that
the King of Kings needs to clean us off?”
Picture in your mind – someone becomes
soiled and dirty. Should the king need to
wash him off? Why is that “Ashreichem
Yisrael?” The answer is your Father in
Heaven. The Ribono shel Olam is not acting
here as the King of Kings. He is acting as our
Father in Heaven. Just like a father has no
problem washing off a child who becomes
dirty, and the child has no problem being
washed by his father because that is what
fathers do, so too, Israel is fortunate that they
have this relationship with their Father in
Heaven.
Then Rav Hollander makes a beautiful
connection to a Gemara in Maseches Taanis
(25b): There was an incident (during a time
of drought) when Rabbi Eliezer led the
tefilos. He recited 24 blessings (praying for
rain) but he was not answered. Then Rabbi
Akiva descended to lead the tefilos and said:
“Our Father, our King, we have no King
other than You. Our Father our King, for Your
sake, have mercy upon us.” Then it began to
rain. Rabbi Akiva’s prayer is in accordance
with his opinion in Yoma that our relationship
with the Master of the World is not only one
of ‘our King,’ but it is also a relationship of
‘our Father.’
What is the source of the Avinu Malkeinu

prayer? The one who instituted this prayer
was none other than Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi
Akiva may not have composed the entire
Avinu Malkeinu – every stanza that we have
today – but the essence of this tefilla is from
Rabbi Akiva, as recorded in the Gemara in
Taanis. Rabbi Akiva felt that the relationship

between Klal Yisrael and the Ribono shel
Olam is not only that of a Monarch-Subject,
but also that of a Father-Child. It is Rabbi
Akiva who teaches Ashreichem Yisrael –
how lucky you are that you are cleansed by
your Father in Heaven. In front of a father,
there is nothing to be embarrassed about.