HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
|
| Yom Kippur | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Yom Kippur in the synagogue, painting by Maurycy Gottlieb (1878) | |
| Official name | Hebrew: יוֹם כִּפּוּר or יום הכיפורים |
| Observed by | Jews |
| Type | Jewish |
| Significance | Soul-searching and repentance |
| Date | 10th day of Tishrei |
| 2008 date | Sunset, October 8 – nightfall, October 9 |
| 2009 date | Sunset, September 27 – nightfall, September 28 |
| Observances | Fasting, prayer, abstaining from physical pleasures, refraining from work |
Contents |
Yom Kippur is the climax of the Yamim Noraim ("Days of Awe"), and with Rosh Hashanah forms the Jewish High Holy Days. In accordance with Leviticus 23:27 the date of Yom Kippur is the 10 Tishrei ("the tenth day of the seventh month") in the Hebrew calendar.
| Yom Kippur | Starts (at sundown) | Ends (at night) |
|---|---|---|
| 5768 | 2007-09-21 | 2007-09-22 |
| 5769 | 2008-10-08 | 2008-10-09 |
| 5770 | 2009-09-27 | 2009-09-28 |
| 5771 | 2010-09-17 | 2010-09-18 |
Leviticus 23:27 decrees that Yom Kippur is a strict day of rest and of fasting.
Five additional prohibitions are traditionally observed, as detailed in the Jewish oral tradition (Mishnah tractate Yoma 8:1):
Total abstention from food and drink usually begins 30 minutes before sundown (called tosefet Yom Kippur lit. Addition to Yom Kippur ), and ends after nightfall the following day. Although the fast is required of all healthy adults, it is waived in the case of certain medical conditions. Virtually all Jewish holidays involve a ritual feast, but since Yom Kippur involves fasting, Jewish law requires one to eat a large and festive meal on the afternoon before Yom Kippur, after the mincha prayer. Wearing white clothing is traditional to symbolize one\'s purity on this day. Many Orthodox men immerse themselves in a mikvah on the day before Yom Kippur.
Erev Yom Kippur ( lit. yom kippur eve) is the day before the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. It falls on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei. The day is commemorated with a festive meal, giving of charity, and visiting others to seek or give forgiveness.
Before sunset on the eve of Yom Kippur ("Day of Atonement"), the congregation gathers in the synagogue. The Ark is opened and two people take from it two Torah scrolls. Then they take their places, one on each side of the cantor, and the three recite:
In the tribunal of Heaven and the tribunal of earth, by the permission of God — praised be He — and by the permission of this holy congregation, we hold it lawful to pray with transgressors."
The cantor then chants the Kol Nidre prayer (Hebrew: כל נדרי) in Aramaic, not Hebrew. Its name is taken from the opening words, meaning "All vows":
All personal vows we are likely to make, all personal oaths and pledges we are likely to take between this Yom Kippur and the next Yom Kippur, we publicly renounce. Let them all be relinquished and abandoned, null and void, neither firm nor established. Let our personal vows, pledges and oaths be considered neither vows nor pledges nor oaths.Translation of Philip Birnbaum, from High Holyday Prayer Book, Hebrew Publishing Company, NY, 1951
The leader and the congregation then say together three times "May all the people of Israel be forgiven, including all the strangers who live in their midst, for all the people are in fault." The Torah scrolls are then replaced, and the customary evening service begins.
Many married men wear a kittel, a white robe-like garment for evening prayers on Yom Kippur. They also wear a tallis, the only evening service of the year in which this is done. Prayer services begin with the prayer known as "Kol Nidre," which must be recited before sunset, and follows with the evening prayers (ma\'ariv or arvith), which includes an extended Selichot service.
The morning prayer service is preceded by litanies and petitions of forgiveness called selichot; on Yom Kippur, many selichot are woven into the liturgy. The morning prayers are followed by an added prayer (musaf) as on all other holidays. It is followed by mincha (the afternoon prayer) which includes a reading (Haftarah) of the Book of Jonah. This is due to its story of God\'s willingness to forgive those who repent. The service concludes with the ne\'ilah prayer, a prayer specifically for Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur comes to an end with a recitation of Shema Yisrael and the blowing of the shofar, which marks the conclusion of the fast.
A recitation of the sacrificial service of the Temple in Jerusalem traditionally features prominently in both the liturgy and the religious thought of the holiday. Specifically, the Avodah ("service") in the musaf prayer recounts the sacrificial ceremonies in great detail.
This traditional prominence is rooted in the Babylonian Talmud\'s description of how to attain atonement following the destruction of the Temple. According to Talmud tractate Yoma, in the absence of a Temple, Jews are obligated to study the High Priest\'s ritual on Yom Kippur, and this study helps achieve atonement for those who are unable to benefit from its actual performance. In Orthodox Judaism, accordingly, studying the Temple ritual on Yom Kippur represents a positive rabbinically-ordained obligation which Jews seeking atonement are required to fulfill.
In Orthodox, most Conservative, and some progressiveAn abbreviated version of the Seder Avodah is used in Yom Kippur services at the Hebrew Union College Jerusalem campus synagogues a detailed description of the Temple ritual is recited on the day. In most Orthodox and some Conservative synagogues, the entire congregation prostrates themselves at each point in the recitation where the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) would pronounce the Tetragrammaton (God\'s holiest name, according to Judaism).
The main section of the Avodah is a threefold recitation of the High Priest\'s actions regarding expiation in the Holy of Holies. Performing the sacrificial acts and reciting Leviticus 16:30, "for on this day atonement shall be made for you, to atone for you for all your sins, before God..." (he would recite the Tetragrammaton at this point, to which the people would prostrate to the ground) and after extending the Name, he would finish the verse "...you shall be purified." He would first ask for forgiveness for himself and his family ("Your pious man"), then for the priestly caste ("Your holy people"), and finally for all of Israel ("Your upright children"). (These three times, plus in some congregations the Alenu prayer during the Musaf Amidah on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, are the only times in Jewish services when Jews engage in complete full-body prostration, with the exception of some Yemenite Jews and talmedhei haRambam who may prostrate themselves on other occasions during the year). A variety of liturgical poems are added, including a poem recounting the radiance of the countenance of the Kohen Gadol after exiting the Holy of Holies, traditionally believed to emit palpable light in a manner echoing the Bible\'s account of the countenance of Moses after descending from Mount Sinai, as well as prayers for the speedy rebuilding of the Temple and the restoration of sacrificial worship. There are a variety of other customs, such as hand gestures to mime the sprinkling of blood (one sprinkling upwards and seven downwards per set of eight).
Orthodox liturgies include prayers lamenting the inability to perform the Temple service and petitioning for its restoration, which Conservative synagogues generally omit. In some Conservative synagogues, only the Hazzan engages in full prostration. Some Conservative synagogues abridge the recitation of the Avodah service to varying degrees, and some omit it entirely. Many Reform and Reconstructionist services omit the entire service as inconsistent with modern sensibilities.
Yom Kippur is considered one of the holiest of Jewish holidays, and its observance is held even among the majority of secular Jews who may not strictly observe other holidays. Many secular Jews will fast and attend synagogue on Yom Kippur, where the number of worshippers attending is often double or triple the normal attendance.
"Festival of Bicycles"
By law, there are no radio or television broadcasts on Yom Kippur, airports are shut down, there is no public transportation, and all shops and businesses are closed."Sounds of The City", article from Israel Insider, October 14, 2005 In 1973, an air raid siren was sounded on the afternoon of Yom Kippur and radio broadcasts were resumed to alert the public to the surprise attack that launched the Yom Kippur War.
Beyond state-enforced restrictions, it is considered bad form to eat in public on Yom Kippur or drive a motor vehicle. Allowance is only made for ambulances and emergency vehicles. Over the last few decades, bicycle-riding on the empty streets has become a new "tradition" among secular Israeli youngsters, especially on the eve of Yom Kippur.Yom Kippur: Nearly 2,000 injured. Ynetnews (2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-02. In consequence, Yom Kippur is jocularly referred to as the "Festival of Bicycles." See for instance uses at [1], [2] Bicycle sales rise in the weeks before Yom Kippur, and companies have taken to advertising children\'s bicycles as "Yom Kippur specials."
| This short section requires expansion. |
The central themes of atonement and repentance. Repentance includes both sins against God and one\'s fellow man.
The Torah calls the day Yom HaKippurim (יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים) and in Leviticus 23:27 decrees a strict prohibition of work and affliction of the soul upon the tenth day of the seventh month, later known as Tishrei. The rites for Yom Kippur are set forth in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus (cf. Exodus 30:10; Leviticus 23:27-31, 25:9; Numbers 29:7-11). It is described as a solemn fast, on which no food or drink could be consumed, and on which all work is forbidden.
The midrashim described in this section need sources cited from Midrashic literature
Traditionally, Yom Kippur is considered the date on which Moses received the second set of Ten Commandments. It occurred following the completion of the second 40 days of instructions from God. At this same time, the Israelites were granted atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf, hence its designation as the Day of Atonement.Spiro, Rabbi Ken. Crash Course in Jewish History Part 12 - The Golden Calf. Aish HaTorah. accessed April 29, 2007
According to textual scholars, the biblical regulations covering Yom Kippur are spliced together from multiple source texts,Jewish EncyclopediaCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica as indicated by evidence such as with the duplication of the confession over the bullock,Leviticus 16:6 and Leviticus 16:6 and the incongruity in one verse stating that the high priest shouldn\'t enter the Holy of Holies (with the inference that there are exceptions for certain explicitly identified festivals),Leviticus 16:2 and the next verse indicating that they can enter whenever they wish (as long as a specific ritual is carried out first).Jewish Encyclopedia Although Rashi tried to find a harmonistic explanation for this incongruity, the Leviticus Rabbah maintains that it was indeed the case that the high priest could enter at any time if these rituals were carried out.Leviticus Rabbah 21 Textual scholars argue that the ritual is composed from three sources, and a couple of redactional additionsJewish EncyclopediaCheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica:
According to biblical scholars, the original ceremony was simply the ritual purification of the sanctuary from any accidental ritual impurity, at the start of each new year, as seen in the Book of Ezekiel,Jewish Encyclopedia, Day of Atonement which textual scholars date to before the priestly source, but after JE.Jewish Encyclopedia, Priestly SourceRichard Elliott Friedman, Who wrote the Bible According to the Book of Ezekiel, the sanctuary was to be cleansed by the sprinkling of bullock\'s blood, on the first day of the first and of the seventh monthsEzekiel 45:18-20 - near the start of the Civil year and of the Ecclesiastical year, respectively; although the masoretic text of the Book of Ezekiel has the second of these cleansings on the seventh of the first month, biblical scholars regard the Septuagint, which has the second cleaning as being the first of the seventh month, as being more accurate here.Jewish Encyclopedia, Day of Atonement It appears that during the period that the Holiness Code and the Book of Ezekiel were written, the new year began on the tenth day of the seventh month,Leviticus 25:9Ezekiel 40:1 and thus biblical scholars believe that by the time the Priestly Code was compiled, the date of the new year and of the day of atonement had swapped around.Jewish Encyclopedia
The following summary of the Temple service is based on the traditional Jewish religious account described in Mishnah tractate Yoma, appearing in contemporary traditional Jewish prayerbooks for Yom Kippur, and studied as part of a traditional Jewish Yom Kippur worship service. Arnold Lustiger, Michael Taubes, Menachem Genach, and Hershel Schacter, Kasirer Edition Yom Kippur Machzor With Commentary Adapted from the Teachings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. New York: K\'hal Publishing, 2006. pp. 588-589 (summary); 590-618.
While the Temple was standing in Jerusalem (from Biblical times through 70 C.E.), the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) performed a complex set of special services and sacrifices for Yom Kippur. These services were considered to be the most important parts of Yom Kippur, as through them the Kohen Gadol made atonement for all Jews in the world. During the service, the Kohen Gadol entered the Holy of Holies in the center of the Temple, the only time of the year that anyone went inside. Doing so required special purification and preparation, including five immersions in a mikvah (ritual bath), and four changes of clothing.
Seven days prior to Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol was sequestered in the Parhedrin chamber in the Temple, where he reviewed the service with the Temple sages, and was sprinkled with spring water containing ashes of the Red Heifer as purification. The Talmud (Tractate Yoma) also reports that he practiced the incense offering ritual in the Avitnas chamber.
On the day of Yom Kippur, the Kohen Gadol had to follow a precise order of services, sacrifices, and purifications:
The Kohen Gadol wore five sets of garments (three golden and two white linen), immersed in the mikvah five times, and washed his hands and feet ten times. Sacrifices included two (daily) lambs, one bull, two goats, and two rams, with accompanying mincha (meal) offerings, wine libations, and three incense offerings (the regular two daily and an additional one for Yom Kippur). The Kohen Gadol entered the Holy of Holies three times. The Tetragrammaton was pronounced three times, once for each confession.Arnold Lustiger, Michael Taubes, Menachem Genach, and Hershel Schacter, Kasirer Edition Yom Kippur Machzor With Commentary Adapted from the Teachings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. New York: K\'hal Publishing, 2006 pp. 588-589 (summary); 590-618.
In Christianity the phrase Day of Atonement is usually taken to refer to a more singular eschatological event also known as Judgment Day, and most Christians ignore Yom Kippur as they do not consider it to be part of the New Covenant. However, many Christian theologians and scholars acknowledge that there is a strong connection between the two days; for example, one Christian theologian argues that Yom Kippur is the foreshadowing pre-text of Christ\'s future judgment of mankind.Sausa, Diego D. Kippur - the Final Judgment: Apocalyptic Secrets of the Hebrew Sanctuary, Fort Myers, FL: The Vision Press, 2006. ISBN 0-9788346-1-5.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Fast Day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is observed on September 14 in the Julian Calendar, roughly coinciding with Yom Kippur (which oscillates with respect to the Julian and Gregorian Calendars). One Orthodox priest – Rev. Patrick Reardon – argues that it is obviously derived from Yom Kippur, and that everyone realizes this.http://www.ancientfaithradio.com/specials/allsaints/ The Amish Christians also observe a Fast Day on October 11 in the Gregorian Calendar, which similarly coincides roughly with Yom Kippur.http://www.dutchcrafters.com/aboutamish.aspx
However, Yom Kippur is most comparative with the Christian holy day of Good Friday. As Yom Kippur is seen as the day for atonement of sins, so is Good Friday depicted as the event which Christ granted humanity atonement through his blood.
According to Sunni tradition, When Muhammad arrived in Medina in 622 CE, he found that the Jews there fasted on the 10th day of Muharram and asked them the reason for their fasting on this day. They said, “This is a blessed day. On this day Allah saved the Children of Israel from their enemy (in Egypt) and so Moses fasted on this day giving thanks to Allah.” Muhammad said, “We are closer to Musa than you are.” He fasted on that day and commanded Muslims to fast on this day. Al-Bukhari This day is known as Ashura.
The fasting suggests Yom Kippur while the Exodus story suggests Passover. Later, Muhammad mentioned that Muslims would have their sins forgiven if they repented sincerely and fasted on Ashura. There are conflicting accounts as to whether it corresponds with Passover or with Yom Kippur. Furthermore, Ashura no longer generally coincides with either days, since the Quran prohibited intercalation into the lunar calendar,Qu\'ran 9:36 resulting in the gradual shift of the start of the 354 day Islamic year with respect to the solar year, while the lunisolar Hebrew Calendar retains intercalation.
| Jewish holidays | |
|---|---|
| Jewish holidays |
Shabbat · Rosh Chodesh · Rosh Hashanah · Fast of Gedalia · Yom Kippur · Sukkot and Hoshana Rabbah · Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah · Hanukkah · Tenth of Tevet · Tu Bishvat · Fast of Esther and Purim · Fast of the Firstborn and Pesach · Pesach Sheni · Lag Ba\'omer · Shavuot · 17th of Tammuz · The Three Weeks · The Nine Days · Tisha B\'Av · Tu B\'Av |
| Hebrew calendar months | Tishrei · Cheshvan · Kislev · Tevet · Shevat · Adar · Nisan · Iyar · Sivan · Tammuz · Av · Elul |
| Jewish holidays 2000-2050 | |
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
