We are together, but we are separated. On the other hand we are separate but together. This paradox, this dialectic actually sits at the basis of our very humanity. We are each social beings but ultimately we alone are responsible for our lives and we die alone. In fact, this dialectic sits at the heart of Yom Kippur also.
Yom Kippur is wholly communal, we confess in the plural, the main sacrifice was on behalf of all of israel. And yet, the penultimate moment of yom kippur was one of extreme solitude. The High Priest enters the Holy of Holies completely alone. As the Torah says:
And no one may be in the Tent of Meeting when he goes in to atone, until he exits, and he must atone for himself, his family and all of Israelץ
The Talmud tells the following story:
ארבעים שנה שימש שמעון הצדיק את ישראל בכהונה גדולה ובשנה האחרונה אמר להן בשנה הזאת אני מת אמרו לו מאיכן אתה יודע אמר להן כל שנה ושנה שהייתי נכנס לבית קודש הקדשים היה זקן אחד לבוש לבנים ועטוף לבנים נכנס עמי ויוצא עמי ובשנה הזו נכנס עמי ולא יצא עמי. בעון קומי ר' אבהו והא כתיב (ויקרא ט״ז:י״ז) וכל אדם לא יהיה באהל מועד בבאו לכפר בקדש עד צאתו אפי' אותן שכתוב בהן (יחזקאל א׳:י׳) ודמות פניהם פני אדם לא יהיו באהל מועד אמר לון מה אמר לי דהוה בר נש אני אומר הקב"ה היה:
‘Simon the Righteous served Israel as High Priest for 40 years. During his final year he said to them (his students), “In this year I will die”. They asked him how he knew. He replied, “Every year that I enter into the Holy of Holies there is an old man dressed in white wearing a white turban who enters with me and leaves with me. This year he entered with me but didn’t leave with me.” They asked Rabbi Abahu (a third century CE rabbi of Israel): ‘But doesn’t it state that “There shall be no man with him (the High Priest) in the Tent of Communion when he comes to atone on the sanctuary until he leaves” (Leviticus 16:17), even those about whom it is written “And the image of their faces was like the face of man” (Ezekiel 1:10, that is, the angels) shall not be in the Tent?’ He answered, ‘What are you saying to me, that it was a man (or an angel)? I say that it was the Holy One Blessed Be He.’
I think the lesson is an important one for this year. We are never truly alone. God is with us and the community indeed is with us. We may not be together physically but we are still one community, together, a-part. May God grant that we all will be once again shoulder to shoulder in Shul speedily in our days.