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

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2 months ago

October 14, 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 12 months. What follows is the good Jewish anti-celebration: Yom Kippur.

Crucial day on the Jewish Calendar, Yom Kippur – or the day of atonement – presents the possibility to make an apology. It concludes the “10 Days of Awe” that, sandwiched between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, provides a quick window for Jews to carry out “teshuvah,” or repent.

Rising up, I had a form of begrudging appreciation for Yom Kippur. The companies have been lengthy and the fasting uncomfortable, however I valued the way in which it demanded stillness. Whereas there was all the time extra prayer for individuals who sought it, my household often returned residence after the principle 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 often appeared at our neighborhood break quick.

This 12 months, because the world feels more and more un-still, the possibility to dedicate a day solely to solemn reflection feels significantly essential.

Yom Kippur dictates a generosity of spirit, imagining that God will see the most effective components of us and that we would be capable of find them ourselves. Within the identify of that generosity, I’m providing up a information – to Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike this 12 months.

Right here’s easy methods to hack atonement.

Take into account mortality

If Yom Kippur calls for one factor of us, it’s an acknowledgment of our fragile grasp on life. On the middle of the vacation is a studying, Unetaneh Tokef, that imagines – actually – how any worshiper would possibly die within the coming 12 months.

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

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

The world is, in the end, extra more likely to be repaired with small bits of spackle than with a grand reworking.

Humble your self

“All of us dwell 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 Instances columnist in 2018.

Yom Kippur presents us the possibility 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 isn’t a passive vacation. You must 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’t exist as a mere gateway to acknowledgment or affirmation; it must be self-propagating.

Make room for hope

There’s a motive 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 12 months.