Returning to Yourself: Rabbi Avi Weiss on Yom Kippur

This Yom Kippur, Justin Pines welcomes back his teacher and rebbe, Rabbi Avi Weiss, for an hour-long journey through the holiest day of the Jewish year.  Rabbi Weiss, founding rabbi of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale (the Bayit) and founder of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and Yeshivat Maharat, opens with a tefillah he wrote and recites each morning: a prayer for help in giving thanks for the blessings he has, and in not letting his heart be weighed down by the blessings he lacks. From there, the conversation moves through the themes of the day including the shofar and teshuva – Rav Kook’s teaching that repentance is not only an accounting of past deeds, but a return to your own inner self. Strength and love – why love itself is not a feeling but a decision, an action. Kol Nidre – the power of words and the dangers of them. The confession (vidui), and the positive vidui Rabbi Weiss composed: ahavnu, we have loved; barachnu, we have blessed; gadalnu, we have grown. The Avodah, and the idea that every one of us can be a Kohen Gadol, and finally Neilah.  Rabbi Weiss reflects, “I would always think: God, don’t lock me out. Lately I’ve been thinking that maybe we should be saying: God, don’t lock me in. Let me go out. Let me experience the entire world." ”  Recorded on the eve of 9/11, Rabbi Weiss also reflects on walking into Ground Zero as a clergy first responder and finding a holy place, and on the soldiers, families, and small daily steps that have shaped his thinking since October 7th. He closes with a blessing.