Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 29, 2020

Yom Kippur comes 10 days after the beginning of the year. This is the day when God effects atonement (in Hebrew, the root is KPR) for the sins of humans.

For on this day He shall effect atonement for you to cleanse you. Before the Lord, you shall be cleansed from all your sins (Leviticus 16, 30). This special day is the most sacred day of the year for the Jewish nation. Even those whose Judaism is not reflected in their daily lives often come on Yom Kippur to a synagogue and participate in the special prayers of the day.

Another aspect of these days is expressed by the eternal words of the prophet Isaiah: Seek the Lord when He is found, call Him when He is near. The wicked shall give up his way, and the man of iniquity his thoughts, and he shall return to the Lord, Who shall have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will freely pardon (Isaiah 55, 6-7).

These verses allude to the fact that there are specific times when God is closer to people, days when God is more present. When are these days? The answer is in the Babylonian Talmud: These are the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (Tractate Rosh Hashanah, 18).

If so, the Aseret Yemei Teshuva are not only a chance for appeal, they are days meant fundamentally for closeness to God. The climax of these days is Yom Kippur, on which God calls upon us to atone before Him and embark on the new year cleansed of sins.

Toward the end of Yom Kippur, we get a sense of deep purity unlike any other. The last prayer on Yom Kippur, Neila, is one in which we plea, Open the [heavenly] gate for us at this time when the gate closes, for the day is fading away. This is seemingly the last opportunity to take advantage of Yom Kippur and leave it purified for the new year.

During the Neila prayer, we say the following from the slihot liturgy:

May it be Your will, You who hears the sound of weeping,

That You place our tears in Your flask permanently,

And that You rescue us from all cruel decrees,

For on You alone are our eyes fixed.

This prayer is based on the words of the Talmud: From the day the Temple was destroyed the gates of prayer were locked, but even though the gates of prayer were locked, the gates of tears were not locked (Tractate Baba Metzia, 59).

Read the original here:

Yom Kippur: Decisions and tears - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Talmud
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