Adath Jeshurun

Yom Kip­pur

The Day of Atone­ment is con­sid­ered the holi­est day of the Jew­ish year. It is a time for intro­spec­tion and to ask for­give­ness for our trans­gres­sions dur­ing the past year. It is cus­tom­ary to fast, pray and repent from before sun­down on Kol Nidre until past sun­down the fol­low­ing day, unless one’s phys­i­cal health would be put at risk.

Much of the 25 hour obser­vance of Yom Kip­pur occurs in the syn­a­gogue. Begin­ning in the evening with Kol Nidre it con­tin­ues the fol­low­ing morn­ing with an extended, spir­i­tu­ally intense ser­vice. It con­cludes at AJ with “Ask the Rab­bis” in the after­noon fol­lowed by Min­cha, Neilah, cel­e­bra­tory sho­far blow­ing and break­ing the fast with the community.

Read about the His­tory of Yom Kip­pur, Yom Kip­pur 101, Yom Kip­pur tra­di­tions in the home and in the com­mu­nity as well as the Yom Kip­pur prayer ser­vice.

KOL NIDRE Fri­day, Octo­ber 7th 6:30 p.m. — Evening Ser­vice
(no 5:45 p.m. Minyan) Kol Nidre is an Ara­maic pas­sage found toward the begin­ning of the evening ser­vice on Yom Kip­pur. It has acquired such sig­nif­i­cance that we refer to the entire evening ser­vice of Yom Kip­pur as Kol Nidre. The Kol Nidre ser­vice includes a haunt­ing melody, chanted in the pres­ence of two Torahs held by hon­ored mem­bers of the con­gre­ga­tion who con­sti­tute, along with the can­tor, a Beit Din, a sym­bolic Jew­ish court, with which to usher in the most solemn day of our litur­gi­cal year.

YOM KIPPUR MORNING Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 8th 9:00 a.m. — Tra­di­tional & Lay-Led Tra­di­tional Ser­vices 9:30 a.m. — Inter­gen­er­a­tional Service

YOM KIPPUR AFTERNOON & EVENING Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 8, 2011
5:15 p.m. Ask the Rab­bis
5:30 p.m. Min­cha in Shapira Sanc­tu­ary
7:00 p.m. Neilah in Shapira Sanc­tu­ary
7:55 p.m. Sho­far blow­ing fol­lowed by break the fast

Wear Your Sneak­ers on Yom Kip­pur
Yes, it’s strange. It’s jar­ring. There is some­thing that doesn’t feel right, wear­ing cloth sneak­ers with our dressi­est attire. Per­haps that’s the point.

Yom Kip­pur should make us think. Teshu­vah (repen­tance) means ques­tion­ing our rou­tine, break­ing with con­ven­tion. Dress­ing dif­fer­ently sets the stage for us to ask the ques­tion: How will we behave dif­fer­ently in the com­ing year? As Jews. As human beings.