In the mid-nineteenth century, a young Jewish boy in Germany was kidnapped and taken to a monastery. His parents, frantic, ran to the courts. The priests denied any "kidnapping"; they claimed that they had found in the street a homeless child, freezing from the winter cold, and saved his life. They even offered to send the child to his parents- on condition they first ask the boy if he wanted to leave the Church. Of course, the priests first plied the lad with all kinds of sweets, and flattery, so that when asked if he wanted to stay where he was, the boy replied in the affirmative. His parents went home, dejected and despairing of hope for their beloved child, in danger of שמד (forced conversion away from Judaism). An accomplished, famous attorney was appalled by these doings, and gave the parents the following advice: " There is no child who doesn't want to be with his parents. Perhaps this long kidnapping in the Church has made the boy forget his mother and father. Request a second hearing". In the hearing , the attorney asked the Court that the boy be returned home for two weeks, and to then ask him where he preferred to be. The request was eminently fair and reasonable, and the Judge couldn't ignore it. However, the German Judge decided that two weeks weren't needed for a child to remember his parents. Thus the decision was to give the boy five minutes with his mother and father- and then he should be asked where he wanted to stay. The parents went home brokenhearted: what could they possibly do in five minutes? Not knowing what to do, they turned to the house of Doctor Rabbiner Tzvi H. Auerbach, the city Rabbi of Halberstadt (famous throughout Germany as the author of his book, Nachal Eshkol). The Rav told them: " There IS no need for more time than the five minutes; but let ME go, instead of you. You stay home and pray for the success of my mission, and may the Almighty grant us mercy to save your son.". On the critical day, the Nachal Eshkol dressed in his Yom Kippur kittel ( white garment). The priests had put the boy at the end of a long corridor, to limit the time that the Rav would have to talk to the boy. Entering the hallway, Rav Auerbach began- at first in a low voice- to chant the words and tune of the Kol Nidrei prayer (which opens the Yom Kippur night services). The holy song entered the boy's ears, and piercing through to his heart, he burst into tears. He began to remember well his home, and his mother and father; he began to tremble, as the Nachal Eshkol raised his voice to a thunderous chant. Finally, the Rav stood by the boy, and asked: "Tell me, my child- what do you want TO BE- Jew, or Goy? Choose-this world, or the world to come?" The boy jumped into the Rav's arms, and softly cried: "Rebbe, I'm a Jew. Please take me home". "If so, give me your hand. You ARE going home". And the boy turned to the Judge and said :" I want to return home". And so it was. This story of return is echoed in the Zohar Chadash's treatment of the אשת יפת תואר , the beautiful captive ( Deuteronomy 21; 10-14 ). In this story, a woman is captured by the Jewish army during war. One of the soldier's feels passion for her, and is allowed to marry her. First, though, she must wait a month, as she grieves for her home and "cries for her father and mother for a month of days". Although this story is true on the practical level (King David himself married a yefat toar), the Zohar sees this on another level. The Beautiful One is none other than the soul of each and every Jew, forced to live in the rat-race of this physical world- but not always. For a month, the Jew's soul cries for its Mother and its Father. That month, is Elul- the one that precedes Rosh Hashanah; it is a month reserved for crying: introspection, regretting one's sins, and for preparation for the Teshuvah and Din of Rosh Hashanah. Now, who is the Father of a Jewish sou l- and who, the Mother? Who is the little boy, our soul, crying for? Says the Zohar Chadash: " The Father of the Jew's soul is the Lord Almighty Himself, and the Mother is the Torah". In the words of Rav Matis Weinberg, all year long, the Jew has entered into illicit relationships with his G-d and with His Torah( which is why we read that section in the Torah on Yom Kippur at Minchah), stressing only the physical, materialistic and mechanical aspects of our selves (Rav Weinberg, again). Yet, there is one day a year designed for the soul, and solely for the soul. As psychiatrist Rabbi Abraham Twersky, MD, writes (in his Machzor Companion book): Yom Kippur is the one day a year that we take care of our souls; we delight our soul, we " make nice" to our soul. We pray and learn all day; we don't eat, don't drink. We dress in white, to resemble angels (nonphysical spiritual beings). Like the little boy , we run to the angelic figure of Rav Auerbach, just as we say " to hell" , לעזאזל ( Vayikra 16;10) , with our Scapegoat, i. e. our physical needs (Rav Weinberg). Please see my article " A Chazan's Prayer For Kol Nidrei "(Sep. 12, 2013) for much more on this topic, of the Jew being a body and a soul- and Judaism stresses BOTH. For an expert's treatment of this, I recommend reading Rav Matis Weinberg's sefer (book)explaining Hilchot Teshuvah of the Rambam; the entire book is an explanation of how we mortal beings are to approach our spiritual inner selves, our yefei toar - and how via the Din of Rosh Hashanah we escape the daily rat-race of the physical world, and CREATE ourselves via Teshuvah, and attain BEING and true existence. Each one of us CREATES ourselves, our personal world, by recognizing the importance of speech, as the means of that Creation( not mere communication), with this ceremony : "Kol Nidrei, ve'Esarei…."
