Aveilut and Simcha: How Rav Soloveitchik Read Yom Kippur's Hidden Joy

Aveilut and Simcha: How Rav Soloveitchik Read Yom Kippur's Hidden Joy, by Rav Yosef Blau

Kiyum simcha beYom HaKippurim. No festive meal, no Hallel — so why does Yom Kippur still override mourning like a Yom Tov?

Rav Soloveitchik understood aveilut not as a set of external practices but as an inner state — the felt sense of disconnection from Hashem — and understood Yom Tov's simcha similarly, as fundamentally about closeness to Hashem rather than merely festive eating. Because Yom Kippur represents the deepest possible closeness to God (epitomized by the Kohen Gadol entering the Holy of Holies), it cancels aveilut just as other Yamim Tovim do, even without a festive meal — revealing an inner joy beneath its solemnity.

This shiur was given in the context of a chug for Bnei Chul at yeshiva: 'Torah and Stories of the Rav' from a close talmid and giant of Jewish education, Rav Yosef Blau. Rav Blau served as the mashgiach ruchani at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary from 1977 to 2025, before coming on aliya to Israel.