Yom Kippur

The Day of Atonement — the holiest day of the year, observed with a 25-hour fast, five services, and white garments.

By The EditorsEssential

Sacred Time · 4 minute read

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Summary. Yom Kippur, the 10th of Tishrei, is the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year. The Torah commands a 25-hour fast (Vayikra 23:27–32); five prohibitions of pleasure (eating, drinking, washing, anointing, marital relations, and the wearing of leather shoes); and a day of prayer and confession. Five services are conducted: Kol Nidrei (evening), Shacharit, Musaf (with the Avodah service recalling the High Priest's Temple service), Mincha, and Ne'ilah (the "closing of the gate," the most intense service of the year). The shofar is sounded one final time at the close. The Mishnah teaches: "For sins between a person and God, Yom Kippur atones; for sins between persons, Yom Kippur does not atone until one has appeased the other."

The Five Prohibitions

The Mishnah (Yoma 8:1) lists five categories of inuyim (afflictions) on Yom Kippur: no eating or drinking; no washing (for pleasure); no anointing (with oils or lotions); no marital relations; no wearing of leather shoes. The fast begins at sundown the evening before (Erev Yom Kippur) and ends at nightfall (the appearance of three stars) the next day. The fast is mandatory for adults; children begin training in fasting at roughly age 9 by fasting for a few hours and gradually building up to the full fast by Bar/Bat Mitzvah. The very young, the sick, the pregnant, and the nursing have specific halachic exemptions; consult a rabbi.

Erev Yom Kippur

The eve of Yom Kippur is itself a substantial preparatory day. Customs include: an early afternoon meal (the seudah mafseket, the "breaking meal"); the ritual of kapparot (in some communities, swinging a chicken — or, in the modern practice of many, swinging a sum of money — around the head with a recitation that transfers one's sins to it; the chicken is then slaughtered and given as charity, or the money is given as charity); the lighting of a yahrzeit candle for departed parents; the lighting of the holiday candles by the woman of the house; the recitation of Birkat HaBanim (the blessing of the children) by parents before leaving for shul.

Kol Nidrei

The Yom Kippur evening service opens with the haunting Kol Nidrei ("all vows"), an Aramaic legal formula declaring null all personal vows of the coming year. The melody, of Eastern European origin, is one of the most recognizable in Jewish music. Three Torah scrolls are taken out of the ark; the entire community participates in the standing recitation. The legal status of the formula was historically controversial (some rabbis sought to remove it; the Reform movement classically did remove it before restoring it), but its emotional power has secured its place.

The Avodah

The Musaf service includes the Avodah — a liturgical poem recapitulating the High Priest's Temple service on Yom Kippur (Vayikra 16). The High Priest entered the Holy of Holies (the only person to do so, on the only day of the year permitted) and pronounced the ineffable Name of God ten times. Each time the Name is mentioned in the Avodah, the congregation falls to its knees and prostrates fully to the floor — one of only a few times in the year prostration is performed in Ashkenazi practice — Ashkenazim also prostrate during the Aleinu of Musaf on Rosh Hashanah. (Some Sephardic and Yemenite communities prostrate at other points; Hasidic communities follow the Ashkenazi pattern.)

Ne'ilah

Ne'ilah ("closing") is the final service of Yom Kippur, recited as the sun is setting. The metaphor is the closing of the gates of heaven; the petition is for inscription in the Book of Life. The Ark stands open throughout. The service ends with the recitation of Shema Yisrael (once), Baruch Shem K'vod (three times), and Hashem Hu HaElohim ("The Lord is God," seven times — echoing the people's declaration on Mount Carmel after Eliyahu's victory over the prophets of Baal, Melachim I 18:39) — and only then is a single, long tekiah gedolah blast sounded on the shofar. The fast is then broken.

White Garments

Many observant Jews wear white on Yom Kippur — a kittel (a simple white robe) over weekday clothing. The kittel evokes the angels (white-clad in the prophetic visions), the burial shroud (a reminder of mortality), and the High Priest's linen garments. White, the color of forgiveness (Yeshayahu 1:18: "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow"), unifies the visual aesthetic of the day.

Where Denominations Diverge

Universal observance, with some denominational variation in liturgical content. Reform classically removed Kol Nidrei (1840s) and restored it (1961); Reform machzorim retain Yom Kippur as a major day with adapted text. Conservative observance is essentially traditional. Sephardic and Mizrahi liturgies have distinct piyyutim and customs.