Question: Every year I find the 24 hours of Yom Kippur to be a most powerful and meaningful time. What I do find somewhat strange however, is the way we conclude this special day: Once Yom Kippur is already over - before going home to break the fast- we pray the regular weekday evening service (maariv). The service begins by us reciting the "Vehu Rachum", a small prayer asking G-d to be compassionate and to pardon us for any wrongdoing. Having just concluded Yom Kippur, the day when G-d forgives us for all our sins, what exactly we are asking G-d to pardon us for? 

Answer: A young scholar once entered a shul at the very end of Shabbat only to find the men present immersed in song, oblivious to the fact that Shabbat had actually concluded. After waiting a few minutes he approached one of the elderly men and asked him at what time the evening service would commence. With a surprised look on his face the man turned to the young man and replied, "My child, are you yearning for the week?"

Yom Kippur is an island in time. It is a day when we leave behind the physical world we live in, set aside all our bodily desires and needs and spend a considerable part of the day in shul re-committing ourselves to G-d. For 24 hours we become like angels - we refrain from eating or drinking, we dress in white and we rid ourselves from sin. In such a setting we very often feel greatly inspired to change our mundane lives. But the nature of inspiration is that it comes and goes. In order for a moment of inspiration to have an enduring effect it must be acted upon. If not, the inspiration will be wasted and will evaporate like it never was.

Our focus at the very end of Yom Kippur is on how we can bring the holiness of Yom Kippur into our daily lives. For this reason our sages tell us that immediately when Yom Kippur ends, we should start busying ourselves with the festival of Sukkot - either by actually starting to build the Sukkah or by planning for it - thus capitalizing without delay on our day in shul.

But we are conscious of the fact that this is a challenging task. We begin to worry that our minds might be focused on the fact that in just a few minutes we will once again be able to eat and drink and return to our mundane lives. We are afraid that we may allow the inspiration gained in a day of the life of an angel to simply fade away as if it never was, so we immediately ask for Divine assistance. We quickly begin the weekday evening service by asking G-d to be compassionate and forgive us for being so physically minded and to protect us so that we can commit ourselves to not allow the day's inspiration to go to waste.

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