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Observing Yom Kippur
a brief guide:
The culmination of the Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), Yom Kippur stands as the most solemn day of the Jewish calendar. On Yom Kippur, God is said to seal the book of life and death for the coming year, hence it brings the intensification of the process of teshuvah in which we have been engaged since the start of Elul Rosh Chodesh (the month of Elul).
In order to more fully connect with the spiritual issues that constitute the crux of this holiday, it is customary to abstain from eating, bathing, as well as other bodily pleasures and luxuries (such as wearing leather, a one-time sign of wealth). Sartorially, white dress offers a concrete image of the purification to which one aspires and simultaneously evokes the image of the burial shroud, hence the matter of morality which is the subject of our rumination on the Day of Atonement. Yom Kippur is also the only night in the entirety of the Jewish calendar when a tallit is worn in the evening.
Yom Kippur in the Bible and Beyond
While many Jewish holidays were established in the Rabbinic period, Yom Kippur is already referenced as a sacred day in the bible, appearing both in Leviticus and in the Book of Numbers. During the period of the Second Temple, Yom Kippur called upon the High Priest to engage in rituals aimed at the expiation of the sins of the community. It is during the Rabbinic period that the day of Yom Kippur came to occupy its present position as the most important day in the Jewish calendar.
Prayer Services of Yom Kippur
The focus of Yom Kippur is, of course, atonement -- both individual and communal. Arguably, the communal acceptance of transgression as a shared burden (Viddui) is one of the most remarkable and affecting aspects of the holiday. When we seek forgiveness, we do so not only for ourselves but for the entirety of those that we can claim for our community. From Aleph to Tav, there is the alphabetical recitation of sins accompanied by the gentle beating of the breast with one's closed fist in an act of self-remonstration. What is acknowledged here is not just fallibility as such, but our deep intertwinement with one another. For humankind, there is no solitary redemption. Ours is a condition of mutuality and, one might argue, it is precisely the cultivation of this consciousness of mutual dependency at which Judaism aims and the realization of which holds some promise of Tikkun Olam.
Unusually, Yom Kippur begins prior to sunset with the legal formula of Kol Nidre ("All Vows"). Kol Nidre is entoned three times and is aimed at the nullification of any and all vows made under duress. Because Judaism takes quite seriously the bindingness of verbal commitments, Kol Nidre is said to have arisen as a solution to the problem of forced conversion, enabling Jews subject to that specific form of violation to return to pray with their Jewish communities. Promises made to other people (as opposed to the pledge of fealty to a religion), however, cannot be nullified by Kol Nidre. The only release from promises made to others and subsequently broken is in seeking absolution from those one has harmed. More broadly, our prayers on Yom Kippur cannot yield divine forgiveness if we have failed to repair our relationship with individual persons.
In addition to the three services typically featured in a day of Jewish observance (Maariv or evening services, Shachrit or morning services, and Mincha or afternoon services), Yom Kippur involves as well the YIzkor memorial service during which we honor and remember those loved ones who have passed.
The Torah portion on Yom Kippur is Leviticus 16, which tells of two goat sacrifices: one to God and the other the "scapegoat" that carries the sins of the community out to the desert. The Haftarah is Isaiah 57-58 in which the prophet speaks of the emptiness of ritual performed without intent and good works, speaking to the problem with which we are all no doubt intimately familiar: that of conforming to the correct behavior (fasting) absent of the intentionality required for genuine teshuvah.
During Mincha, Leviticus is read as is the Book of Jonah, the theme of which is repentance. Neilah, the liturgy of which invokes the closing of the gates of heaven with the end of Yom Kippur. During this service, the Torah is revealed and the congregation stands in deference to the holy words inscribed therein. Services end with a Tekiah Gedolah (a long blast) of the Shofar upon which follows the communal breaking of the fast.
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