Encouraging Individual Spirituality and World Peace
Yom Kippur - the Day of Atonement
Hi Common Ground Dove!
Tomorrow evening marks the beginning of what I consider to be the holiest of days in the Jewish faith - Yom Kippur. On Thursday, Jews come to synagogue and pray and fast all day.
I like to think of Yom Kippur as "confession in a day." On this day, we ask G-d (Jews do not write the name fully) to forgive all our sins of the past year, and to inscribe us anew into the book of life for the New Year. To this effect, tomorrow night, we will hear a special prayer, Kol Nidre, sung three times: In this prayer, we recognize that we are not perfect, and we may not have been able to do all we promised or all we set out to do. We ask G-d for a "clean slate." Here's the translation:
All vows:
Prohibitions, oaths, consecrations, vows that we may vow, swear, consecrate, or prohibit upon ourselves - from this Yom Kippur until the next Yom Kippur, may it come upon us for good -
regarding them all, we regret them henceforth. They will all be permitted, abandoned, cancelled, null and void, without power and without standing. Our vows shall not be valid vows; our prohibitions shall not be valid prohibitions; and our oaths shall not be valid oaths.
I've always found special meaning in Yom Kippur. Jews don't often pray for hours and hours upon end, standing and sitting and singing haunting melodies only heard once a year. It is a time for me to reflect and to think about how I can be a better person. Sometimes I do not go to synagogue, but rather prefer to spend time in the park, praying silently and in my own words. I try to do something particularly meaningful.
In addition, there is a tradition of settling all arguments and fights on Yom Kippur. We apologize to everyone we have hurt and strive to make more peace within our own lives and within the world.
So I will begin a discussion: How does your faith deal with the idea of sinning and forgiveness? What do you have to "do" in order to be forgiven? How do you ask G-d for forgiveness?
Also, does anyone have more ideas for a "creative" Yom Kippur activity? There are FREE Kol Nidre services at 8:15 in the village and all (even non-Jews) are invited to attend. I am going with my sister and David and please message me if you would like to come! On Thursday I will probably be spending the afternoon in the park. Would anyone like to join? Does anyone have an idea for a "creative" Yom Kippur spiritual option???
Tomorrow evening marks the beginning of what I consider to be the holiest of days in the Jewish faith - Yom Kippur. On Thursday, Jews come to synagogue and pray and fast all day.
I like to think of Yom Kippur as "confession in a day." On this day, we ask G-d (Jews do not write the name fully) to forgive all our sins of the past year, and to inscribe us anew into the book of life for the New Year. To this effect, tomorrow night, we will hear a special prayer, Kol Nidre, sung three times: In this prayer, we recognize that we are not perfect, and we may not have been able to do all we promised or all we set out to do. We ask G-d for a "clean slate." Here's the translation:
All vows:
Prohibitions, oaths, consecrations, vows that we may vow, swear, consecrate, or prohibit upon ourselves - from this Yom Kippur until the next Yom Kippur, may it come upon us for good -
regarding them all, we regret them henceforth. They will all be permitted, abandoned, cancelled, null and void, without power and without standing. Our vows shall not be valid vows; our prohibitions shall not be valid prohibitions; and our oaths shall not be valid oaths.
I've always found special meaning in Yom Kippur. Jews don't often pray for hours and hours upon end, standing and sitting and singing haunting melodies only heard once a year. It is a time for me to reflect and to think about how I can be a better person. Sometimes I do not go to synagogue, but rather prefer to spend time in the park, praying silently and in my own words. I try to do something particularly meaningful.
In addition, there is a tradition of settling all arguments and fights on Yom Kippur. We apologize to everyone we have hurt and strive to make more peace within our own lives and within the world.
So I will begin a discussion: How does your faith deal with the idea of sinning and forgiveness? What do you have to "do" in order to be forgiven? How do you ask G-d for forgiveness?
Also, does anyone have more ideas for a "creative" Yom Kippur activity? There are FREE Kol Nidre services at 8:15 in the village and all (even non-Jews) are invited to attend. I am going with my sister and David and please message me if you would like to come! On Thursday I will probably be spending the afternoon in the park. Would anyone like to join? Does anyone have an idea for a "creative" Yom Kippur spiritual option???
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by stephanie on -
julie, thank you for the discussion topic! pleasant surprise! great to see how your faith tradition affects you personally. really meaningful. the yom kippur tradition to settle arguments and fights, to apologize to others, to make peace within our lives and in others, is something huge, a reflection i hope everyone can learn from. i have not had much exposure to jewish tradition and didn't have a clue what yom kippur represented before you mentioned it. sharing is caring! so i really appreciate it, and guess others will, too... i am not an authority as to what my faith tradition teaches in terms of forgiveness, but i believe god (or g-d) loves us as a parent would, and forgiveness is a given, even when it seems we don't deserve it or haven't "earned" it. nonetheless, i think it's important for us to realize ways in which we can improve our relationships with god, ourselves, and others. sometimes in my prayers, i ask for forgiveness of my shortcomings and weaknesses. on a social level, it seems that in general it is difficult to forgive and to say sorry to another person. does yom kippur encourage ppl to apologize to g-d and to specific people in their lives (i.e. face-to-face)? perhaps each origami crane made during a creative session can symbolize a specific healing prayer. are earthly symbols accepted in judaism? if the invitation is still open, i hope i can attend yom kippur another time. tonight i had already scheduled to attend a lecture called, "francis and islam," about st. francis' efforts towards peace. i met a catholic girl whose muslim friends invite her to synagogue, ramadan fasting and eid ul-fitr feasting. how encouraging! i would love to be a part of an interfaith thanksgiving one day.
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