Yom Kippur is mostly about the soulful introspection of the Jewish individual, in private with him- or herself and also with God, while the broader public aspect only appears peripherally. At its foundations, the book of Jonah, which follows the Yom Kippur afternoon Torah reading, is basically a parable about the individual. Professors Yair Zakovitch and Avigdor Shinan devoted a wonderful new book to the man in the belly of the whale, in which the spirit of the individual plays a prominent role, although general elements such as forgiveness for the sins of Nineveh and the salvaging of the gourd plant also appear. The demands on the individual to torture his soul are limited to a minimum. Any medium sized problem is answered with an allowance to cease a person's fast. Yom Kippur left the realm of the individual 42 years ago, when Arab countries attacked Israel. The Yom Kippur War turned the holy day into a day of national introspection; and also a day of remorse and repentance. That war was a reflection of an old saying told by the sages, of Jews who in their joy rise to the stars and in their sorrow fall to the dust, and that is what happened in October of 1973. Two things characterized Israel in those days: arrogance as if the Israel Defense Forces was omnipotent and a lack of respect for the enemy. This arrogance was largely embodied by then-Military Intelligence chief Eli Zeira, but he was not alone; and Prime Minister Golda Meir's inclination to avoid a pre-emptive attack prioritized assurances to the United States over clear Israeli interests. The war took the army, afflicted by an air of baffling complacency, off guard. Had Golda Meir ordered a pre-emptive airstrike, she would have been perceived by Washington as an aggressor, and render her calming statements that the Arabs would never dare attack as fatefully incorrect. It was a war in which the IDF overcame its disadvantage and turned it into a brilliant victory. In those three weeks it found the Archimedean vantage point that allowed it -- with the blood of 2,200 dead and thousands more wounded -- to exit the darkness into the light, from defeat to a resounding achievement. But Israel rejected the solace in this victory. An entire generation was left with a sense of animus flowing in its veins, eager to pick at the wounds and inflict pain on itself. This sentiment was evident again Monday when new documents, pertaining to a matter the public was already familiar with, revealed that then-GOC Southern Command Shmuel "Gorodish" Gonen, who was unfit for that command, sought to relieve division commander Ariel Sharon of his duties at the height of the war. The sadness of Yom Kippur quickly shifts into a Sukkot celebration, but the crestfallen generation never forgave. To this today, despite having passed on, the spirits of those who were in charge still owe the people remorse and repentance.
