Summary of the festival

Yom Kippur (10 Tishrei) is the holiest day of the year, a Shabbat Shabbaton on which we fast for about twenty-five hours and pray five services. It is the end of the Ten Days of Repentance, the day on which “on this day atonement shall be made for you, to purify you; from all your sins you shall be pure before the Lord” (Leviticus 16:30). In the synagogue we wear white (many wear a kittel), we do not wear leather, and we pray from the evening until nightfall the next day.

The mitzvot of the day

• The five afflictions (Mishnah Yoma 8:1): eating and drinking, washing, anointing, wearing leather shoes and marital relations. The fast begins before sunset in the evening and ends at nightfall the next day.
• A final meal (seudah mafseket) before the fast, with a good sense of calm and forgiveness.
• Kol Nidrei: the declaration that opens the evening, said before Maariv, which annuls vows we made to ourselves and did not keep. It applies only to vows between a person and themselves.
• Confession (vidui): “Ashamnu” and “Al chet”, said in every service, quietly, in the plural, because all of Israel is responsible for one another.
• Selichot and piyyutim, including the thirteen attributes (“Hashem, Hashem, merciful and gracious”), and the Avodah in Musaf, which describes the High Priest’s service.
• Yizkor at Shacharit (the custom of most communities), and the blowing of the shofar at the end of Ne’ilah.
• Making peace with others before the day: “Yom Kippur does not atone for sins between a person and a fellow person until the fellow person is appeased” (Yoma 85b).

Origin in history

The Torah commands the day twice: “It shall be a statute for you for ever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls” (Leviticus 16:29), and “On the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement” (23:27). In the days of the First and Second Temples the High Priest served in white garments, brought incense into the Holy of Holies and drew lots over the two goats (“for the Lord and for Azazel”). According to tradition (Ta’anit 30b), it is also the day on which Moses came down with the second tablets, after God had forgiven the Calf. In the Second Temple period, “there were no happier days for Israel than the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur” (Mishnah Ta’anit 4:8).

The message for today

Maimonides (Laws of Repentance 2:2) defines four steps of repentance: abandoning the sin, regret, confession, and resolving for the future. Yom Kippur is the day on which this process moves from theory to practice. Rabbi Akiva says at the end of tractate Yoma: “Happy are you, Israel! Before whom are you purified, and who purifies you? Your Father in heaven” (Mishnah Yoma 8:9): as the mikveh purifies the impure, so God purifies Israel.

The Zohar calls the day “Yom Ki-Purim”, “a day like Purim” (Tikkunei Zohar 57b), comparing it to Purim: one day we fast and on the other we celebrate, and both are days of rescue. Throughout the generations, in North African communities too, Yom Kippur has been the day when the whole family, even those who are distant, comes to the synagogue. It reminds us that teshuvah is open to everyone.