ICJudaism: A Teacher’s Guide to Judaism

      Hosted by ICTeachers                                                                Formerly: Mike’s Rough Guide to Judaism

Disclaimer:

The contents of these pages represent the author’s personal views, experience and understanding.
There are bound to be some things here that some Jews would disagree with.

 

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is the 10th day of Tishrei and marks the culmination of the Yamim Noraim (High Holy Days). On this day, Jews believe, God makes his final decision about our individual fates for the coming year (who will live, who will die; who will prosper, who will not...). One particular metaphor, which is embedded in the day’s prayers, is that on this day God writes our names in either The Book of Life or The Book of Death. These books are finally closed and sealed at the end of the day. Until then we have the opportunity through Repentance, Prayer and Charity to avert the “harsh decree”.

The usual greeting on Yom Kippur is “Hatimah tova” (“A Good inscription” ie. .. in the Book of Life).

Where Rosh Hashanah is concerned with righting our wrongs against other people, Yom Kippur is focused on righting our wrongs against God. The theory is that we can only come to God with true repentance once we have cleared the air with our fellow humans.

Yom Kippur is a total fast (no food, no drink), beginning before sundown (to give time to reach the synagogue before dusk) and ending the following evening when 3 stars are visible in the dark (ie after about 25 hours). Fasting is forbidden to young children, pregnant women and anyone whose health would be adversely affected by doing so.

Additional rules for the day forbid washing, shaving, using make up or wearing leather and many people, particularly in strictly orthodox communities will follow these rules closely.

Many Jews think of Yom Kippur as the most important day of the year. Those who rarely go to synagogue are more likely to go on Yom Kippur than on any other day. Synagogue services begin early and, in many communities, go on all day.

The Erev (evening before) service is known as Kol Nidre (pronounced kol nid-ray), which are the opening words of the opening prayer and mean "All Vows..". In this prayer we ask God to negate all vows made to Him (but not those made to any people) over the past year, clearing the way (I suppose) for a renewed attempt at living right in the next year. The service is a long one lasting from about 7.30 to around 10.00 pm after which we go home to sleep and / or meditate.

Next morning the synagogue service begins early (10 am  in our synagogue) and continues throughout the day. (No need for a lunch break!). There are actually 5 separate services, with two separate episodes of reading from the Torah scrolls, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

During the morning there are usually services and activities for various age groups of younger people and a place is set aside where those unable to fast may eat. In fact, many families take children home at lunchtime, many adults go home sleep or otherwise have a break, and although the synagogue is packed in the morning it is usually much less well populated in the afternoon. (In many  communities there will be a pause of half an hour or so in the afternoon when people can stretch their legs,or simply relax for a while).

Things build up again later on and it usually gets pretty packed again for the last hour or two. About an hour before the end there is a special remembrance service called Yizkor (memorial) when prayers are said remembering deceased relatives and friends.

Staying in for the whole day is hard going and most people take some breaks. Many of us spend an hour taking part in the security rota (it is a sad fact that Jewish congregations feel the need to maintain a security watch at every service). Those on security duty also serve as a “meeting and greeting” team.

Some people like to go off at sometime during the day for a quiet reflective walk. (I remember as a teenager in North London, where there are many synagogues, that I and my friends used to spend part of the day walking from one service to another, sometimes covering several miles in the day, and always spending part of the day walking in Highgate Cemetery, an ideal place for the kind of Life-the-Universe-and-Everything conversations that people of that age tend to have at such times. These days I usually prefer to stay in synagogue the whole day - that way I’m much less likely to think about food!)

Yom Kippur may sound like rather a marathon, and in some ways it is, but much of the service is deep and moving, the music is beautiful and the atmosphere is like no other day of the year. Like any long event, the tone of the Yom Kippur service is varied. It begins with a feeling of energy (Jewish services are marked by frequent episode of standing up - followed of course by sitting down - sometimes you can be up and down several times in the space of a few minutes!).

As the day moves on things become quieter. The middle part of the day is calm, and deeply introspective with some really heavenly music. As the day moves towards its close, things build up again. The last service of the day, Neilah, is conducted with the Ark open and the Torah scrolls in view. When the ark is open we remain standing - in this case for about an hour! The final flourish is a mega-long blast on the shofar.

The earliest date in the Gregorian calendar that Yom Kippur can fall is 14th September; the latest is 15th October.

 

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