Yom Kippur, the Jewish “day of atonement,” marks the end of the high holy days and offers a chance for people to change their fate through prayer, repentance, and charity, National Geographic reports.
The shofar in Jerusalem (iStockPhoto)The high holy days begin with Rosh Hashana and conclude at sundown on the 10th day, Yom Kippur, after what is usually 25 hours of fasting, refraining from work and other activities, and prayer.
Yom Kippur is a holiday that celebrates God’s forgiveness. Tradition holds that God writes everyone’s name in one of three books at the beginning of the year: a book of righteous people, a book of evil people, and a book of people who are neither totally good nor totally evil.
Jews believe that praying, repenting, and being charitable during the holy days will influence God and can change how God classifies them. When the ram’s horn, the shofar, is blown on Yom Kippur, the books are sealed and the gates of heaven closed. This is why Yom Kippur is really the holiest of holy days for Jews around the world.
Like Christmas or Easter for Christians, if there is only one day a year that a Jewish person will attend services at a synagogue, that day would be Yom Kippur.
For Rosh Hashana, the 10 days leading up to Yom Kippur, “We usually have one dinner with my grandparents, their friends, and their friend’s families,” Isabel Baldassaro quoted one Jewish student as saying at Shawnee Mission East High School in Prairie Village, Kansas. “It’s really fun to be with all of the generations. Then we have dinner with just our grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and parents.”
