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How is Yom Kippur celebrated? A beginner’s guide to atonement

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1 month ago

October 12, 2024

How is Yom Kippur celebrated? A beginner’s guide to atonement

Rosh Hashanah has come and gone and with it, the enjoyment of welcoming a brand new yr. What follows is the nice Jewish anti-celebration: Yom Kippur.

An important day on the Jewish Calendar, Yom Kippur – or the day of atonement – gives the prospect to say sorry. It concludes the “10 Days of Awe” that, sandwiched between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, provides a short window for Jews to carry out “teshuvah,” or repent.

Rising up, I had a type of begrudging appreciation for Yom Kippur. The providers had been lengthy and the fasting uncomfortable, however I valued the best way it demanded stillness. Whereas there was at all times extra prayer for individuals who sought it, my household normally returned house after the primary service and let time transfer lazily till the solar set. We traded notes on the sermon and waited eagerly for the outsized Costco muffins that normally appeared at our neighborhood break quick.

This yr, because the world feels more and more un-still, the prospect to dedicate a day solely to solemn reflection feels notably vital.

Yom Kippur dictates a generosity of spirit, imagining that God will see the perfect elements of us and that we would be capable to find them ourselves. Within the title of that generosity, I’m providing up a information – to Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike this yr.

Right here’s find out how to hack atonement.

Think about mortality

If Yom Kippur calls for one factor of us, it’s an acknowledgment of our fragile grasp on life. On the heart of the vacation is a studying, Unetaneh Tokef, that imagines – actually – how any worshiper would possibly die within the coming yr.

Take a look at the sharp edges of the world, it appears to say, see the way you would possibly impale your self? Don’t suppose your self too huge, too invincible: You would possibly overlook that life is a valuable factor to be honored with good dwelling.

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However the good life imagined on Yom Kippur just isn’t predicated on indulgence – it calls for acts of loving kindness: extra wealth shed to these in want, endurance for pals in instances of wrestle, sticking your arm out to cease the subway doorways so a dashing commuter could make it inside.

The world is, finally, extra prone to be repaired with small bits of spackle than with a grand reworking.

Humble your self

“All of us reside with a gun to our head and nobody is aware of when it’s going to go off,” Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles instructed a New York Occasions columnist in 2018.

Yom Kippur gives us the prospect to droop our retinol-fueled quest for everlasting youth and humbly acknowledge that no tomorrow is ever assured, regardless of our greatest efforts.

Asking for forgiveness additionally requires humility. Yom Kippur just isn’t a passive vacation. You need to take your atonement out into the world, humble your self in entrance of others, and supply honest apologies with out the assure that you can be granted forgiveness.

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In doing so, worshipers should carry out good acts with out the protection of reward on the opposite finish.

Goodness can not exist as a mere gateway to acknowledgment or affirmation; it needs to be self-propagating.

Make room for hope

There’s a purpose Yom Kippur exists facet by facet with Rosh Hashanah. We glance again on our shortcomings – individually and as humanity – for the aim of ushering in a greater yr.