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One Above and Seven Below – The Yom Kippur Connection
Many publishers have told me that as a rule, one of the last steps of producinga book is assigning the title. The title is the main conduit for informing thepotential reader - who is outside of the book - as to what is inside the book andmuch care and deliberation needs to go into formulating a title. The book companies devise titles in order to sell the book.I am a bit of a dyslexic thinker. I work backwards. As soon as I started my project, I knew what I wanted to title it. I just wrote the rest of the book to sellthe title.Throughout the time I was writing the book, and telling my friends, relatives,mentors, investors (same as relatives), and potential publishers about it, I wasconstantly asked what I will be calling the book. That was an easy question toanswer because my title was etched in stone even if none of the rest of the book was.Then they would ask me what it means. And that was a much tougherquestion to answer. Almost everybody was able to immediately catch on that the title is taken fromChazal's description of one of the most reverent parts of the special YomKippur service performed by the Kohen Gadol as referenced in Rashi Vayikra16:14. But how does this relate to the book?To the sharp-eyed reader, I disclosed this secret on page 81 where I wrote: 
Incidentally, the title of this book is based on a passage from theTalmud that Rashi quotes in Leviticus 16:14 in conjunction with thecommentary of the
Chizkuni
(ad loc).
The Chizkuni, in his exceedingly brief style, comments on the seven drops:
םכיתאטח עבש לע רפכל
 
. In other words, the seven drops that are sprinkled on thelower part of the Kapores are meant to atone for the seven levels of deviancethat are discussed in Parshat Bechukosai. And since the entire premise of the book is to scrutinize and promote HKBH (G-d the Father)'s unrefusable dealin Parshat Bechukosai, the connection was very appropriate.The more important question is: what led me to take note of the profundity of Parshat Bechukosai to begin with?For this, I have my oldest son, Yaakov, to thank. Yaakov's role in this project is very special but I think I will close this post at this point and tell the story in aseparate post.Stay tuned for 
 Yaakov's Story 
.
© 2008,9 Yechezkel Hirshman
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