![]() ![]() ![]() These prohibitions are intended to prevent worshippers from focusing on material possessions and superficial comforts.īecause the High Holy Day prayer services include special liturgical texts, songs and customs, rabbis and their congregations read from a special prayer book known as the machzor during both Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. Religious Jews heed additional restrictions on bathing, washing, using cosmetics, wearing leather shoes and sexual relations. The fast is believed to cleanse the body and spirit, not to serve as a punishment. The Torah commands all Jewish adults (apart from the sick, the elderly and women who have just given birth) to abstain from eating and drinking between sundown on the evening before Yom Kippur and nightfall the next day. Some congregations rent out additional space to accommodate large numbers of worshippers. Yom Kippur is Judaism’s most sacred day of the year it is sometimes referred to as the “Sabbath of Sabbaths.” For this reason, even Jews who do not observe other traditions refrain from work, which is forbidden during the holiday, and participate in religious services on Yom Kippur, causing synagogue attendance to soar. As a result, observant Jews consider Yom Kippur and the days leading up to it a time for prayer, good deeds, reflecting on past mistakes and making amends with others. Jewish law teaches that God inscribes the names of the righteous in the “book of life” and condemns the wicked to death on Rosh Hashanah people who fall between the two categories have until Yom Kippur to perform “teshuvah,” or repentance. The tradition is said to have continued until the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D it was then adapted into a service for rabbis and their congregations in individual synagogues.Īccording to tradition, God judges all creatures during the 10 Days of Awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, deciding whether they will live or die in the coming year. Through this complex ceremony he made atonement and asked for God’s forgiveness on behalf of all the people of Israel. There, he would perform a series of rituals and sprinkle blood from sacrificed animals on the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandments. Jewish texts recount that during biblical times Yom Kippur was the only day on which the high priest could enter the inner sanctum of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. ![]() When Koufax’s replacement Don Drysdale was pulled from the game for poor performance, he told the Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager Walter Alston, "I bet you wish I was Jewish, too." Because the Israelites atoned for their idolatry, God forgave their sins and offered Moses a second set of tablets.ĭid you know? Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, one of the most famous Jewish athletes in American sports, made national headlines when he refused to pitch in the first game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. Descending from the mountain, Moses caught his people worshipping a golden calf and shattered the sacred tablets in anger. According to tradition, the first Yom Kippur took place after the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and arrival at Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. ![]()
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