Getting Close

The last Mishna in Yoma says אָמַר רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא, אַשְׁרֵיכֶם יִשְׂרָאֵל, לִפְנֵי מִי אַתֶּם מִטַּהֲרִין, וּמִי מְטַהֵר אֶתְכֶם. The line seems to be a contradiction in of its self, on the one hand it says  מִי אַתֶּם מִטַּהֲרִין, you have have to purify yourself but on the other hand it says וּמִי מְטַהֵר אֶתְכֶם, that Hashem will do the tahara for a person?  The Rambam rules that the day of Yom Kippur is מכפר, how does the day itself cause atonement?  Why does the Torah call Yom Kippur a day of עינוי?   

We say ברוך שם loud on Y.K. because we are like angles.  How are we like angles?  What the Mikdash is in space, Yom Kippur is in time.  The Mikdash is the place where one can come the closest to Hashem and Yom Kippur is the day when one can come closest to Hashem.  In the Mikdash, ברוך שם was already uttered at the end of a beracha or when hearing the שם מפורש because when one feels they are  in the presence of Hashem, then one acknowledges that by saying ברוך שם.  Normally, we don't feel that Presence and can't utter it aloud.  However, on Y.K. we are able to experience the same closeness to Hashem as one sanding in the Mikdash, it is a feeling of being 'לפני ה and therefore we say ברוך שם aloud.  That is what it means we are like angles.  Just as angles recognize the Presence of Hashem ,we are able to come to that recognition on Y.K .as well. 

The two stages alluded two by the Mishna in Yoma are two stages a person must go through to obtain teshuva.  The first is לִפְנֵי מִי אַתֶּם מִטַּהֲרִין, where a person works upon his self to become a better person.  After that, וּמִי מְטַהֵר אֶתְכֶם, Hashem provides tahara for the person.   

The Maharal says that the tahara of Hashem is compared to a mikvah for just as a mikvah is only metahar one when one is totally submerged, so too on Yom Kippur one is totally connected to Hashem.  The explains since on Y.K. we become elevated beyond our general physical limitations and are able to come close to Hashem.  That is the two step process of tahara the Mishna is alluding too.  The first step is the inuy of Y..K. which lets a person elevate above their normal physical boundaries and the next step is the tahara which is produces by dint of merely being close to Hashem.  Just as the Mikdash itself, the closeness a person felt brought about tehuva as in the story with יוסף משיתא, so too the closeness to Hashem on Y.K. itself makes one a better person.  That is how the tahara of Y.K. works; how the day itself can bring כפרה, for it is the day itself that brings this sense of closeness with Hashem.