Yom Kippur, Shabbat Shabbaton
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron
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Seeking the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land
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"Please HaShem! Please atone for the unintentional sins, the sins done through lust and emotion, and the intentional sins that I have sinned before You , me and my household, as it says in the Torah of Moshe Your servant, 'for on this day you shall be atoned for to purify you from all your sins, before HaShem you shall be purified."
It is a well-known custom among all Israel that at these last words the entire congregation bows down to the ground, numbers of times throughout the service, when hearing the name of HaShem, a custom reminiscent of the practice of prostration in the Bait HaMikdash upon hearing the Name of God. Although this practice is supposed to be reminiscent of what occurred and will occur in the Bait HaMikdash, God willing speedily in our days, it is important to differentiate that while prostration on the stone-floor of the Bait HaMikdash is praiseworthy, prostration on a stone-floor in any other location is Biblically forbidden as it says, 'and a prostrating stone you shall not put in your Land to prostrate upon it' (Lev. 26, 1). Therefore, the obligation in all synagogues is that the community prostrate only upon materials other than stone.
The exception of the Bait HaMikdash to this rule is learned from the words 'in your Land', from which it is inferred that specifically in the general Land one is forbidden to prostrate upon stone, but in the Bait HaMikdash, considered aloof from the general Land, one is allowed to prostrate. This said, we do see in numbers of sources (and seemigly also in practice) that there is a value in prostrating oneself on the tomb of the righteous for the purpose of uniting with the righteous person and not for the purpose of bowing down before HaShem. This also seems to be the simple explanation of what our Sages teach us that Kaleb prostrated himself in Hebron on the tombs of the Patriarchs.
How is this allowed? 'Avodat HaMelech', a commentary on the Rambam's Mishneh Torah, learns from a manuscript of the Mishneh Torah that only prostration for the purpose of worship of HaShem is prohibited, but otherwise is permitted, yet 'Avodat HaMelech' does not make a final conclusion based on this manuscript. If we do not make this inference from the fore-mentioned manuscript, we may explain the 'prostration' of Kaleb and other sources as being done with a cover of some other material upon the stones of the tombs, or by another tactic. Whatever the case, it seems clear that one should not prostrate on the ground of Maarat HaMachpela today even with the intent of 'connecting' to the Patriarchs, since this location is a well-known place of worship and doing so will definitely seem outwardly as if one is bowing down on stone in worship of HaShem, which is forbidden by all, as mentioned.
In any case, such 'connecting' to the righteous by prostration etc. or otherwise is done in order to ultimately connect and cleave to the Holy Presence, as our Sages explain that the commandment 'to Him you shall cleave' refers to cleaving to the Godly righteous. Of course, this is clearly done in Hebron, City of the Patriarchs, the prototypes of all the righteous.
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Real Stories from the Holy Land #90:
"One day I went to pray for success, parnasa, etc. at the tombs of a number of tzadikim of the previous generation. Just a few days later, I got a call from a real-estate agent who told me that someone had offered to buy an apartment of ours, which we were still paying the mortgage for, for more than twice than the amount we bought it. We sold, and were able to buy the apartment we live in Kiryat Arba today with no mortgage at all." (A.S)
Sources: Even Shoham vol. 8 intro., Rambam Avodah Zara 6, 6-7 and Avodat HaMelech