For Yom Kippur

Atonement

Day by day, through all the year
In the Book that none may read
All my thoughts and deeds appear;
Now I count with hope and fear
Every thought and deed.

Day by day, through all this year
That is coming clean and new;
Let my heart Thy precepts hear,
And on the written page appear
Worthy of a Jew.
Jesse E. Sampter

About Yom Kippur:

Yom Kippur is a solemn day for fasting, prayer, reflection, and repentance. It's observed on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Tishre. We pray that God will forgive our sins of the past year and grant us good fortune in the year ahead.

It is a custom to wear white on Yom Kippur as a sign of purity. In some congregations only the rabbi and the cantor wear white. Traditional Jews don't wear leather shoes, bathe, or put on perfumes.

In our prayers are viddui, confessions, of our sins.

In the afternoon services, the book of Jonah is read to remind us how the people of Nineveh repented for their evil ways and were forgiven by God.

Neilah, the concluding prayers of Yom Kippur, are said as the sun is setting. During Neilah the curtains and doors to the Aron Kodesh -- the cabinet that holds the Torahs -- are open. In some congregations, people have the custom to smell sweet spices or rose water during Neilah so that they can make the appropriate blessing. At the end of Neilah three basic statements of faith are called out: the Shema, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one;” “May God's name be blessed forever and ever;” and “The Lord is God.”

At the end of Yom Kippur a shofar is sounded once and we pray that in the coming year we will all be together in the rebuilt city of Jerusalem.

Leshanah tovah tikatavu v'tikatem - May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.