One feature of our Yom Kippur prayers

One feature of our Yom Kippur prayers is the recitation of the service performed by the High Priest in the Holy Temple on the Day of Atonement. The Holy Temple was razed nearly two thousand years ago and we no longer have a High Priest. However, the Temple was destroyed only in the physical sense, affecting the stones and precious metals from which it was built. The spiritual Holy Temple which exists in the soul of every Jew, remains untouched and can never be destroyed. The Yom Kippur service of the High Priest, therefore, is valid today, too.The High Priest's service was divided into two parts: One was performed while wearing special garments made of gold, and the second was performed in simple, white linen. The gold clothing was worn for those parts of the service executed in the Temple and in the Temple court, while the white was reserved for the service performed within the Holy of Holies.
Maimonides explains that one of the reasons the priests were commanded to wear special garments "for honor and for beauty" is that a person must always utilize the finest and best of whatever he possesses in serving G-d. It is therefore only fitting that the High Priest's Yom Kippur garments were made of gold, a substance universally prized for its value and beauty.
Translating this concept to our inner, spiritual Temple, a Jew must always strive to serve G-d with all of his talents and to the best of his ability. A rich person, for instance, cannot claim that he has fulfilled his religious obligations by learning Torah--G-d has granted him wealth in order to share with others.
But if such is the case, why did the High Priest remove his golden finery before entering the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, the most sacred day of the year?
The Holy of Holies was the place in which the Ark and the tablets of the Ten Commandments were kept, and the site in which the Divine Presence was revealed and manifest. It was therefore appropriate for the High Priest to wear only white and pristine garments in the presence of such holiness.
In other words, although it is indeed necessary to utilize whatever riches and blessings a person is granted in order to serve G-d properly, one must realize that external trappings cannot affect the holy inner sanctum of the Jew. When a Jew really wants to plumb the depths of his soul and enter the "Holy of Holies," where the Tablets inscribed with the intrinsic bond between the Jew and G-d are kept, he must first sanctify and refine himself, approaching G-d with humility and clothed in pure white garments.
This self-sanctification is required of every Jew; in the Holy of Holies of the soul, all Jews are equal. On Yom Kippur, garments of gold are unnecessary. G-d asks only that we stand before Him with a pure heart and with a clear conscience, so that we may be sealed in the Book of Life for a good and sweet year.

Adapted from the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe