Yom Kippur October 11th - 12th 2024

This year the members of KKSY will celebrate Yom Kippur from Friday evening, October 11th, through to Saturday night, October 12th. Known as the Day of Atonement this period of introspection is a time when Jews spend a full day in the synagogue praying and scrutinizing their actions over the past year. They resolve to do better in following religious teaching both in fulfilling commandments between God and people (such as observing the Sabbath) and between one person and another (such as being honest in business dealings). 

When people talk about Kippur, they often focus on the restrictions designed to encourage introspection and a sense of humility. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting when both men and women abstain from any eating or drinking. Congregants do not wear leather shoes. They do not use perfume. But if we solely focus on these restrictions we obscure the optimistic tenor of the day. Jewish thought assumes that people can improve their conduct. People do not have to repeat past mistakes. Each person at KKSY (as in all communities) has a chance at better behavior and a better future. 

In one prayer said several times during the day, Congregants confess as a community to a variety of sins. Here the important point is that the prayer not only seeks to get us to reform as individuals but as a community. 

As the sun sinks on the horizon, the Congregation says the Neilah prayers whose optimistic closing words include the phrase “for God has accepted your work.” The day ends with a blast from the Shofar last heard on Rosh haShanah, the Jewish New Year.  

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