Jewish Life #13. Purifying Israel

​[photo by dr Gershom, August 7, 2024. My favorite Mikveh in the north of Norway]

In the chazzan’s repetition of the Shemoneh Esrei [Amida], we read: ‘O pure One, hearken to my supplications; cleanse me from the stain of my iniquities, O hope of Israel, Hashem (and as the Merciful One, may You forgive us.’ 
 
The final Mishnah in Yoma (8:9), part of the Talmud, concludes with the famous teaching of Rabbi Akiva that Israel is praiseworthy in that God himself purifies them, as the verse states in Jeremiah 17:13: ‘the hope (literally, mikveh) of Israel is Hashem’. Just as a mikveh purifies the contaminated, so does Hashem purify Israel. 
 
Why does Rabbi Akiva deviate from the simple translation of the word mikveh in that verse as meaning ‘hope’ and propose a more strained literal translation implying ritual immersion, Rav Soloveitchik wonders.[1]
 
The Rambam states that Yom Kippur itself atones for returnees.[2] He does not say that the day of Yom Kippur atones ‘with teshuvah’ (see Blog #8), but rather ‘for returnees’. For atonement to be granted, the entire person- the whole being- must be a ‘returnee’. The necessity for complete teshuvah that impacts the entire person is the reason that Rabbi Akiva used the mikveh as an analogy. A mikveh serves to purify the entire individual. If even one finger lacks contact with the mikveh water, the purification does not take place and, as a result, no part of the person becomes purified. 
 
The same is true regarding the purification of Yom Kippur. 


[1] Yom Kippur Machzor, p. 394.

[2] Hilchos Teshuvah 1:3

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