The Service of the Kohen Gadol
In a folk tale adapted from, "The Dybbuk," Jewish people, places, holidays, and language are all deemed holier than all others. It describes the holy of holies in the Temple in Jerusalem, the high priest, Yom Kippur, and the name of God as the holiest among these categories, and then describes the combination of these four things:
...Once during the year, at a certain hour, these four supreme sanctities of the world were joined with one another. That was the Day of Atonement, when the high priest would enter the holy of holies and there utter the name of God....
Every spot where a person lifts eyes to heaven is a holy of holies. Everyone, having been created in the Divine image and likeness, is a high priest. Every day of a person's life is the Day of Atonement, and every word a person speaks with sincerity is the Holy Name of God.
(from "Yom Kippur Readings" edited by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, 2005)
This is our task during the month of Elul. To make every moment, every word we utter, every place we step a moment of holiness.
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