Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, marks the end of
the Yamin Noraim (Days of Awe) and falls on the 10th day of Tishrei
(Tishri), the seventh month in the Jewish calendar. Many Jewish
communities engage in intense prayer and fasting.
What do people do?
Many Jewish people around the world observe Yom Kippur each year.
Many Jewish people prepare and eat a festive meal on the day before
the holiday starts. They also give to charity and visit people to
seek or give forgiveness. Many also gather in a synagogue before
sunset for a prayer service. Particular customs are associated with
this service in some communities. Men may wear a kittel or
sargenes (a white robe) and a tallit (prayer
shawl).
Many people of Jewish faith do not eat or drink, wear leather
shoes, wash themselves, or use perfumes for about 25 hours. Many
choose to wear white clothes as a symbol of ritual purity. Outside
of Israel, some Jewish people may take some of their annual leave at
this time to allow them to mark Yom Kippur.
Public life
Yom Kippur is a public holiday in Israel, in which stores, post
offices and other businesses are closed. Public transit services do
not run and there are no radio or television broadcasts in Israel on
this day. It is considered impolite to eat in public or drive a
motor vehicle, although secular Jews may ride bicycles, particularly
on the eve of Yom Kippur.
Yom Kippur is not a nationwide public holiday in countries such
as
Australia,
Canada,
the
United Kingdom and
the
United States. However, many Jewish businesses, organizations
and schools may be closed on this holiday and the streets around
synagogues may be busy.
Background
Yom Kippur is often considered the holiest day in the Jewish
calendar. Yom Kippur’s origins lie in a ritual purification of the
Temple in Jerusalem from any accidental ritual impurities that had
occurred in the past year. The Kohen Gadol (high priest)
entered the Holy of Holies at the center of the temple on Yom
Kippur. It was important that he was spiritually and physically as
pure as possible.
Many rituals were carried out to ensure that the Kohen Gadol
was pure and that he did not carry any ritual impurities into the
Holy of Holies. Yom Kippur became a more somber holiday after the
Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. The Torah calls the day Yom
HaKippurim and Leviticus 23:27 decrees a strict prohibition of
work and affliction of the soul upon the 10th day of the seventh
month, known as Tishrei.
Symbols
Many Jewish men wear a kittel or sargenes and a
tallit on Yom Kippur. A kittel is a
simple white robe that is also used as a shroud and is worn by
bridegrooms in some Jewish communities. A tallit (tallis,
taleysm) is a prayer shawl with tzitzis strings
tied through each of the four corners. The strings are tied in
different ways in accordance with the wearer’s tradition. One or
more of the strings were traditionally dyed using a blue dye known
as tekhelet, which may come from the murex trunculus, a type of sea
snail. |
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