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Yom Kippur is the day when we are put to the test of who we really are: do you sense that you are primarily a soul, with a body that is merely a garment, or are you primarily a body that happens to contain a soul? If you have read the Rav's teachings, especially in Da Et Atzmecha, these concepts are already quite familiar, but we must make sure that they are not merely concepts. On Yom Kippur, we avoid the things that give vitality to the body, and if on the proper level, we will discover a new source of vitality, coming from our soul's connection to Hashem. If we only know this as an idea, but have not internalized it, we will be distracted by hunger and miss the true joy of the day.
To prepare for this state, we must accustom ourselves to consider ourselves like tourists in a foreign country who are not particularly interested in the internal politics of the country, because that is not their real place. We, too, are not in our real home, namely Gan Eden, but in this earthly place, where we have work to do for a relatively short time. If this attitude is ingrained, we will attain great peace and can connect more to the spiritual side of life and its joys.
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