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Thought for the Day: Lowering Ourselves to the Level of Angels to Rise to the Level of Human

I can do anything!

In the very first few moments of Yom Kippur we proudly announce with raised voice, "Baruch Shem Kavod Malchoso l'Olam va'Ed!" -- Blessed be the glory of His Kingdom for ever and ever!

This statement is usually said quietly, in an undertone, for only the angels dare make this proclamation aloud. But on Yom Kippur, we -- klal Yisrael -- achieve that lofty status and are also permitted to proclaim aloud the glory and eternity of the Kingdom of Heaven. And we achieve that from the very onset of Yom Kippur. All night and all day, we fast in order that our prayers should be uninterrupted with the needs of the physical body. We make ourselves as spiritual as possible and show ourselves and our bodies who is boss. HaShem is our King and we are His faithful servants. For more than 25 hours we dedicate ourselves to His service. In the last moments of this most holy of days we escort the Sh'china -- HaShem's Holy Presence -- up through the seven heavens. And then, after the final blast of the shofar for this season, we daven ma'ariv. The first ma'ariv after the Ten Days of T'shuvah that being with the Day of Judgement and culminate with our n'ila prayers.

We get to this sh'ma and then we silently to ourselves proclaim, "Baruch Shem Kavod Malchoso l'Olam va'Ed". What happened? We were there; and now we are... where? What happened to being at the level of angels?

In our literature angels are called "omdim" -- "standers". The don't move, they stand. They have no yeitzer harah, the serve HaKadosh Baruch Hu faithfully; today, yesterday, tomorrow -- always the same. We are not standers, we are movers. We took one day to stand. We spent that day taking a good, honest, *hard* look at ourselves. You can't do that when you are moving; you need to stand still for that. So on that one day, while standing, we were at the level of angels. Now it is after Yom Kippur, time to move. We didn't fall... we are poised to rise.

In case you think that is "just mussar"... take a look at this:
Best Video of the Year

A young man doing ordinary things; but extraordinary because he does it without eyes. We have not only eyes, we have Light. We have a Torah and we have guides. We can do anything.
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