Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur 2022 / 04-05 October /
Article
Yom Kippur
Fr Dr M. D. Thomas
Director, Institute of
Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi
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‘Yom Kippur’ is a Jewish festival.
The word means ‘Day of Atonement’. The festival is celebrated this year from
the evening of the 04th day to the evening of the 05th
day of October. It is the holiest day of the year in Judaism.
Torah, the Jewish Scripture, reads,
“on the 10th day of the seventh month is the day of ‘kippurim’ unto
you”. ‘Kippurim’ means ‘cleansing’ and it is a day to atone for misdeeds and to
be purified from them.
The central theme of Yom Kippur is
‘atonement and repentance’. The observance of the day includes a day long fast,
confession, intensive prayer, and the like. Often, the entire day is spent in
the services at synagogue, the Jewish temple.
‘Yom Kippur’ is known as the ‘Sabbath
of Sabbaths’. Often, it commences with ‘Rosh Hashanah’, the first day of the
month in the Hebrew calendar. The ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur
correspond to the 40 day period Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the second
set of tablets, called ‘the Ten Commandments’.
Jewish tradition has it that God
inscribes on ‘Rosh Hashanah’ each person’s fate for the coming year into a
book, called ‘the Book of Life’, and waits until Yom Kippur to seal the
verdict. During the ‘Days of Awe’, Jews try to amend their behaviour and seek
forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other human beings.
The evening of the day is set aside
for public and private petitions and confessions of guilt. At the end of Yom
Kippur, Jews hope that they have been forgiven by God. Yom Kippur has five
prayer sessions, unlike Sabbath and regular days, which have four and three in
that order.
Yom Kippur is a holiday and a holy
day of cultural significance. No wonder, Yom Kippur, as a ‘High Holy Day’, is
observed by most secular Jews, who aren’t keen on being part of regular
services of the synagogue.
The oral tradition of the Jews has five prohibitions
for the day of Yom Kippur. They are – ‘no eating and drinking, no wearing of
leather shoes, no bathing or washing, no anointing oneself with perfumes or
lotions and no marital relations’.
The total abstention from food and drink, along with
other observances, begins at sundown and ends after nightfall the next day. The
prohibitions and abstentions make one uncomfortable and it is ‘an opportunity
to feel what it means to others when they are in pain’. This is a creditable
tradition, indeed so.
All the Jewish festivals involve good meals. But, Yom
Kippur enforces strict observance of abstaining from food and drink, of course,
along with considerations of age and health. This is in view of immersing in
the spirit of repentance and atonement. However, a festive meal on the previous
day of Yom Kippur allows sufficient stamina to pay the price of atonement.
On Yom Kippur eve, worshippers gather in the
synagogue. The Ark is opened and the Torah scrolls are taken out. Then, the
leader and the congregation say together three times, “may the people of Israel
be forgiven, including the strangers who live in their midst, for all the
people are in fault”. Then, the Torah scrolls are placed back into the Ark.
The Talmud, the Jewish civil and ceremonial law,
states “Yom Kippur atones for those who repent and does not atone for those who
do not repent”. Repentance would mean regretting the sins committed and
resolving not to commit that sin in the future and to confess it before God.
This is a meritorious practice, too.
Yom Kippur is a legal holiday in the modern state of
Israel. There are no radio or television broadcasts; airports are shut down;
there is no public transportation; and all shops and businesses are closed.
More than legal prohibitions, these are general practices. Even prominent
players refused to play even international games on the day of Yom Kippur.
On the day of Yom Kippur, it is common in Israel to
wish one another ‘Tsom Kal’, meaning ‘easy fast’, or ‘Tsom Mo’il’, meaning
‘benefiting fast’. Obviously, the greeting has positive and appreciative tones,
in line with the spirit of the festival.
Coming to the day-to-day context of
our country and beyond, we find a strong tendency of not regretting one’s
crimes and failures. The conscience of several rulers and civilians alike seems
to be frozen, so much so that crime and carelessness become almost an
irreparable habit, increasingly so. In the wake of such a lawless and
ethics-less state of affairs, the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur comes to us as
an irrefutable ‘whistle blower’.
‘Yom Kippur 2022’ is an auspicious
occasion for the members of the Jewish community in special and all the citizens
of India and the world beyond in general for imbibing the spirit of Yom Kippur for
finding oneself motivated, in favour of making the minds, hearts and spirits
awake and of keeping the conscience clean! The brighter future of India and the
world society is certainly is the sure destination of such a thoughtful
measure. ‘Tsom Kal’! ‘Tsom
Mo’il’!
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The author is Director, Institute of Harmony and Peace Studies, New Delhi, and has been committed to cross-cultural perspectives, cross-scriptural values, constitutional values, interfaith relations, communal harmony, national integration and social wellbeing, for the past over 40 years. He contributes to the above cause through lectures, articles, video messages, conferences, social interactions, views at TV channels, and the like.
He
could be viewed, listened to and
contacted at the following portals – websites ‘www.mdthomas.in’ (p), ‘https://mdthomas.academia.edu’ (p), ‘https://drmdthomas.blogspot.com’(p) and ‘www.ihpsindia.org’ (o); social media ‘https://www.youtube.com/InstituteofHarmonyandPeaceStudies’ (o),
‘https://twitter.com/mdthomas53’ (p), ‘https://www.facebook.com/mdthomas53’ (p);
email ‘mdthomas53@gmail.com’
(p) and telephone 9810535378 (p).
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