On Yom Kippur, we stand before the Holy One Blessed Be He and we are constantly reminded of our state of shame:
My God, before I was formed I was unworthy, and now that I have been formed, it is as if I had not been formed. I am dust in my life and will surely be so in my death. Behold before You, I am like a vessel filled with shame and humiliation. May it be Your will, Hashem, my God and the God of my forefathers, that I not sin again. And what I have sinned before You, may You cleanse with Your abundant mercy, but not through suffering or serious illness. (Mussaf for Yom Kippur)
Do not enter into judgment with us, for no living being can justify itself before You. What can we say before You, Hashem, our God, what can we declare, what justification can we offer? Our God, we are ashamed of our deeds and humiliated to lift our faces to You, our God. (Ma?ariv for Yom Kippur)
These prayers precede the vidui, confession of Yom Kippur, because shame is a spiritual state, a place on the line of proximity to God. As we stand before our Creator to measure our lives, we feel shame.
What is shame?
Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch explains that shame is the feeling of a person who has fallen short of his own expectations. When a person has not acted in the manner he expects of himself, he feels ashamed. Each of us has a picture of our ideal self, of who we would like to be, or who we would like to become. When confronted with a version of our self that does not look like this picture, we feel shame.
This feeling of shame is a gift from God, implanted deep in our consciousness. It prods us to an understanding that we have failed to live up to our potential. Although God created us in His image, and gave us a mission to serve Him, there are times when we fail to act in the ways of greatness that He set out for us. Of course, God knew that we human beings would not always succeed in achieving this lofty goal, so he gave us a tool that would make us our own monitors and guardians.
The mechanism God has given us to enable us to judge ourselves is conscience. With it, we are able to examine the distance between who we are, and the ideal self we would like to be. The condemning verdict when we fall short of our vision is shame, busha. (Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch on Braishis 2: 25)
What is Man? A Little Lower Than Angels
The modern world of psychology has made it a goal for every person to be normal. Sometimes it changes the definition of what normal is, but nevertheless, the goal doesn?t change. Indeed, in the twentieth century, the objective of child rearing and of self-development has become to raise normal, healthy children and to be OK ourselves. While these are fine goals that cannot be challenged, they remain limited and small. They confine us to a role that is standard and common. They say little about the potential for greatness that the Torah assigns us:
What is man, that You are mindful of him? The son of man, that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor. (Tehillim 8: 5-6)
Our capacity as human beings goes way beyond normal. We can be great, ?a little lower than angels.? This is not to say that we are born that way, but rather that we have the ability to achieve something just a little less than the pure spiritual level of angels. In fact, if we serve God from free will, we have a tremendous advantage over the angels, because the angels are preprogrammed to serve God while we are not. Therefore, when we choose Divine service, we are ?crowned with glory and honor?.
How do we achieve this? How do we move beyond ?normal? to greatness? We achieve this through using our intellect to control our thought, action and emotion. The first step is to know ourselves: our weaknesses and our strengths. Honestly evaluating who we are, so that we know where we need extra firm safeguards and what tools we can utilize to grow. We must also know our goals as Jews. What do we want to become? What qualities do we want to develop? What negative tendencies do we want to curb? What is right and what is wrong?
Checking in with our conscience enables us to know where we are. How much shame we feel will correspond directly to our knowledge of right and wrong. The more we understand and become sensitive to Truth, the more busha, shame, we feel at falling short of its demands. The more sensitive we are to the will of God, the bigger our conscience, the more we are embarrassed at having strayed even a ?little? bit from the path of Torah. Therefore, shame is a force equal to its counterparts, intellect and knowledge (Orchas Tsaddikim, Sha?ar Shishi, Sha?ar Busha )
Shame is the external revelation of an internal connection to God.
Shame: First step to Reconciliation
This nation is distinguished by three characteristics: We are merciful, [feel] shame and [are] benevolent. (Yevamos 89a)
Shame is a Jewish trait. Since the Torah delineates a high standard of behavior, it would be impossible to monitor ourselves without feeling shame. The more learned and integrated a Jew is, the more his shame functions to push him to teshuva, repentance.
This is not a crippling kind of guilt. Shame is not neurosis. It is future oriented, opening up the wonderful possibility of positive change. Shame is the first step to teshuva, the impetus to do better. It has a purpose, a direction. There is no room in the Torah for neurotic guilt. In fact, when shame leads to change, then any guilt is erased.
As we stand before God on Yom Kippur, let us feel shame. Shame at what we have failed to do, or have done inappropriately. Let us, in our shame, recognize the tremendous potential we have as individuals, and let us begin the path back to God.
My God, before I was formed I was unworthy, and now that I have been formed, it is as if I had not been formed. I am dust in my life and will surely be so in my death. Behold before You, I am like a vessel filled with shame and humiliation. May it be Your will, Hashem, my God and the God of my forefathers, that I not sin again. And what I have sinned before You, may You cleanse with Your abundant mercy, but not through suffering or serious illness. (Mussaf for Yom Kippur)
Do not enter into judgment with us, for no living being can justify itself before You. What can we say before You, Hashem, our God, what can we declare, what justification can we offer? Our God, we are ashamed of our deeds and humiliated to lift our faces to You, our God. (Ma?ariv for Yom Kippur)
These prayers precede the vidui, confession of Yom Kippur, because shame is a spiritual state, a place on the line of proximity to God. As we stand before our Creator to measure our lives, we feel shame.
What is shame?
Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch explains that shame is the feeling of a person who has fallen short of his own expectations. When a person has not acted in the manner he expects of himself, he feels ashamed. Each of us has a picture of our ideal self, of who we would like to be, or who we would like to become. When confronted with a version of our self that does not look like this picture, we feel shame.
This feeling of shame is a gift from God, implanted deep in our consciousness. It prods us to an understanding that we have failed to live up to our potential. Although God created us in His image, and gave us a mission to serve Him, there are times when we fail to act in the ways of greatness that He set out for us. Of course, God knew that we human beings would not always succeed in achieving this lofty goal, so he gave us a tool that would make us our own monitors and guardians.
The mechanism God has given us to enable us to judge ourselves is conscience. With it, we are able to examine the distance between who we are, and the ideal self we would like to be. The condemning verdict when we fall short of our vision is shame, busha. (Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch on Braishis 2: 25)
What is Man? A Little Lower Than Angels
The modern world of psychology has made it a goal for every person to be normal. Sometimes it changes the definition of what normal is, but nevertheless, the goal doesn?t change. Indeed, in the twentieth century, the objective of child rearing and of self-development has become to raise normal, healthy children and to be OK ourselves. While these are fine goals that cannot be challenged, they remain limited and small. They confine us to a role that is standard and common. They say little about the potential for greatness that the Torah assigns us:
What is man, that You are mindful of him? The son of man, that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honor. (Tehillim 8: 5-6)
Our capacity as human beings goes way beyond normal. We can be great, ?a little lower than angels.? This is not to say that we are born that way, but rather that we have the ability to achieve something just a little less than the pure spiritual level of angels. In fact, if we serve God from free will, we have a tremendous advantage over the angels, because the angels are preprogrammed to serve God while we are not. Therefore, when we choose Divine service, we are ?crowned with glory and honor?.
How do we achieve this? How do we move beyond ?normal? to greatness? We achieve this through using our intellect to control our thought, action and emotion. The first step is to know ourselves: our weaknesses and our strengths. Honestly evaluating who we are, so that we know where we need extra firm safeguards and what tools we can utilize to grow. We must also know our goals as Jews. What do we want to become? What qualities do we want to develop? What negative tendencies do we want to curb? What is right and what is wrong?
Checking in with our conscience enables us to know where we are. How much shame we feel will correspond directly to our knowledge of right and wrong. The more we understand and become sensitive to Truth, the more busha, shame, we feel at falling short of its demands. The more sensitive we are to the will of God, the bigger our conscience, the more we are embarrassed at having strayed even a ?little? bit from the path of Torah. Therefore, shame is a force equal to its counterparts, intellect and knowledge (Orchas Tsaddikim, Sha?ar Shishi, Sha?ar Busha )
Shame is the external revelation of an internal connection to God.
Shame: First step to Reconciliation
This nation is distinguished by three characteristics: We are merciful, [feel] shame and [are] benevolent. (Yevamos 89a)
Shame is a Jewish trait. Since the Torah delineates a high standard of behavior, it would be impossible to monitor ourselves without feeling shame. The more learned and integrated a Jew is, the more his shame functions to push him to teshuva, repentance.
This is not a crippling kind of guilt. Shame is not neurosis. It is future oriented, opening up the wonderful possibility of positive change. Shame is the first step to teshuva, the impetus to do better. It has a purpose, a direction. There is no room in the Torah for neurotic guilt. In fact, when shame leads to change, then any guilt is erased.
As we stand before God on Yom Kippur, let us feel shame. Shame at what we have failed to do, or have done inappropriately. Let us, in our shame, recognize the tremendous potential we have as individuals, and let us begin the path back to God.