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Jerusalem Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi HaGaon HaRav Eliezer Stern was the guest speaker opening the Machon Meir-sponsored ‘Kenos HaTeshuvah’ hosted in Binyanei Ha’uma, the Jerusalem Convention Hall.

Rav Stern opted to reflect on the last Mishna of Meseches Yuma, in which Rabbi Akiva equates purity in teshuvah by HKBH to becoming pure via a mikve.

אמר רבי עקיבה, אשריכם ישראל, לפני מי אתם מיטהרין ומי מטהר אתכם–אביכם שבשמיים: שנאמר “וזרקתי עליכם מים טהורים, וטהרתם . . .” , ואומר “מקוה ישראל ה'” –מה המקוה מטהר את הטמאים, אף הקדוש ברוך הוא מטהר את ישראל.

He explained just as impurity is removed by a mikve, but only when one’s entire body is immersed, without even a single strand of hair being out of the mikve, our status on Yom Kippur depends on all of Am Yisrael standing before HKBH united and then receiving a new koach in Avodas Hashem.

Rav Stern called to excel in loving one another, in Ahavas Yisrael, and to look for that which unites us rather that which divides us and to do our utmost to avoid machlokes.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)