Yom Kippur
Introduction
Yom Kippur
is one of the most important holidays of the Jewish year. Many Jews who do not
observe any other Jewish custom will refrain from work, fast and/or
attend synagogue services
on this day. Yom Kippur occurs on the 10th day of Tishri.
The name
“Yom Kippur” means “Day of Atonement,” and it is a day set aside to “afflict
the soul,” to atone for the sins of the past year. During the Days of Awe, God inscribes
all of our names in either the book of life or death. On Yom Kippur, the
judgment entered in these books is sealed.
Yom Kippur
atones only for sins between man and G-d, not for sins against another person.
To atone for sins against another person, you must first seek reconciliation
with that person, righting the wrongs you committed against them if
possible.
On the eve
of Yom Kippur, some religious Jews practice a ritual known as Kapparah (כפרה).
Yom Kippur
is a Sabbath day;
no work can be performed on the day of Yom Kippur. During the holiday Jews fast
for approximately 24 hours, from sundown to sundown. In addition to
dietary restrictions, he Talmud also
specifies additional restrictions that are less well-known: washing and
bathing, anointing one's body (with cosmetics, deodorants, etc.), wearing
leather shoes (Orthodox Jews
routinely wear canvas sneakers under their dress clothes on Yom Kippur), and
engaging in sexual relations are all prohibited on Yom Kippur.
As always,
any of these restrictions can be lifted where a threat to life or health is
involved. In fact, children under the age of nine and women in childbirth (from
the time labor begins until three days after birth) are not permitted to fast,
even if they want to. Older children and women from the third to the seventh
day after childbirth are permitted to fast, but are permitted to break the fast
if they feel the need to do so. People with other illnesses should consult a
physician and/or a rabbi for advice.
Most of
the holiday is spent in the synagogue, in prayer. In Orthodox synagogues,
services begin early in the morning (8 or 9 AM) and continue until about 3 PM.
More religious people then usually go home for an afternoon nap and return
around 5 or 6 PM for the afternoon and evening services, which continue until
nightfall. The services end at nightfall, with the blowing of the tekiah
gedolah, a long blast on the shofar.
It is
customary to wear white on the holiday, which symbolizes purity and calls to
mind the promise that our sins shall be made as white as snow (Is. 1:18).
Some people wear a kittel, the
white robe in which the dead are buried.
Origins
The
origins of Yom Kippur are unclear. It is not mentioned in the list of holidays
to be observed when the Temple destroyed by the Babylonians was rebuilt.
Zecharia omits Yom Kippur from the fast days Jews are to follow after their
return from captivity, and Ezra says nothing about it in his instructions on
preparing for Sukkot.
Elon Gilad
argues that the biblical references to the Day of Atonement (Numbers 29:7-11
and Leviticus 16:1-34; 23:26-32) were “inserted by priests during the Second
Temple period to validate new rites added to purify the Temple in advance of”
Sukkot. He also posits that Yom Kippur may have been inspired by Akitu, a
Babylonian festival marking the beginning of the new year, which has several
similarities to the Jewish holiday.
The fifth
day of Akitu was the only day the king entered the sanctuary of the Babylonian
temple. Similarly, the Day of Atonement was the only time the high priest of
the Israelites would enter the Holy of Holies (where the Ark of the Covenant
was kept). The Babylonian king would tell his deity that he had not sinned; by
contrast, the Jewish priest would confess the sins of the Israelites over the
head of a live goat. The animal would then be sent away into the wilderness
(Leviticus 16:21). This type of ritual performed by Jews and others gave rise
to the term “scapegoat.”
Fasting is
the practice most associated with Yom Kippur, but the Bible does not explicitly
call for Jews to refrain from eating or drinking. The phrase “ye shall afflict
your souls” is used, which is interpreted to mean fasting because that is the
meaning elsewhere.
Yom Kippur
Liturgy
Yom Kippur
has its own candlelighting blessing. If the holiay coincides with Shabbat, the words in
parentheses are added:
|
|
Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech
ha'olam asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik neir shel (shabbat
v'shel) you hakippurim.
|
After the
candles are lit, the Shehecheyanu prayer
is recited.
The
evening service that begins Yom Kippur is commonly known as Kol Nidre, named
for the prayer that begins the service. “Kol nidre” means “all vows,” and in
this prayer, we ask G-d to annul all personal vows we may make in the next
year. It refers only to vows between the person making them and G-d, such as
“If I pass this test, I'll pray every day for the next 6 months!”
This
prayer has often been held up by anti-Semites as
proof that Jews are untrustworthy (we do not keep our vows), and for this
reason the Reform movement
removed it from the liturgy,
but it was eventually reinstated. In fact, the reverse is true: we make this
prayer because we take vows so seriously that we consider ourselves bound even
if we make the vows under duress or in times of stress. This prayer gave
comfort to those who were converted to Christianity by torture in various
inquisitions, yet felt unable to break their vow to follow Christianity. In
recognition of this history, the Reform movement
restored this prayer to its liturgy.
There are
many additions to the regular liturgy.
Perhaps the most important addition is the confession of the sins of the
community, which is inserted into the Shemoneh
Esrei (Amidah) prayer. Note
that all sins are confessed in the plural (we have done this, we have done
that), emphasizing communal responsibility for sins.
There are
two basic parts of this confession: Ashamnu,
a shorter, more general list (we have been treasonable, we have been
aggressive, we have been slanderous...), and Al Chet, a longer and more specific list (for the sin we sinned
before you forcibly or willingly, and for the sin we sinned before you by
acting callously...) Frequent petitions for forgiveness are interspersed in
these prayers. There's also a catch-all confession: “Forgive us the breach of
positive commands and negative commands, whether or not they involve an act,
whether or not they are known to us.”
It is
interesting to note that these confessions do not specifically address the
kinds of ritual sins that some people think are the be-all-and-end-all of Judaism. There is no “for
the sin we have sinned before you by eating pork, and for the sin we have
sinned against you by driving on Shabbat” (though obviously these are
implicitly included in the catch-all). The vast majority of the sins enumerated
involve mistreatment of other people, most of them by speech (offensive speech,
scoffing, slander, talebearing, and swearing falsely, to name a few). These all
come into the category of sin known as “lashon ha-ra”
(lit: the evil tongue), which is considered a very serious sin in Judaism.
The
concluding service of Yom Kippur, known as Ne'ilah, is one unique to the day. It usually runs about 1 hour
long. The ark (a
cabinet where the scrolls of the Torah are kept) is kept open throughout this
service, thus you must stand throughout the service. There is a tone of
desperation in the prayers of this service. The service is sometimes referred
to as the closing of the gates; think of it as the “last chance” to get in a
good word before the holiday ends. The service ends with a very long blast of
the shofar.
After Yom
Kippur, one should begin preparing for the next holiday, Sukkot, which begins five
days later.
Sources: Judaism 101;
Kapparot, Wikipedia;
Elon Gilad, “The Obscure Origins of Yom Kippur,” Haaretz, (September
30, 2014).
