Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is the Jewish festival of the Day of Atonement. The Bible calls the day Yom Hakippurrim (Hebrew, "Day of the Atonements"). It is one of the Yamim Noraim (Hebrew, "Days of Awe"). The Yamim Noraim consist of Rosh Hashanah, the ten days of repentance, and culminate with Yom Kippur.

In the Hebrew calendar Erev Yom Kippur begins at nightfall on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Tishri (which falls in September/October), and continues into the next day until nightfall.

Biblical origin

The rites for Yom Kippur are set forth in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus (cf. Exodus 30:10; Leviticus 23:27-31, 25:9; Numbers 29:7-11). It is described as a solemn fast, on which no food could be taken, and on which all work is forbidden. Sacrifices were offered in the Temple in Jerusalem.

In Jewish thought

Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of repentance, considered to be the holiest and most solemn day of the year. Its central theme is atonement and reconciliation. Eating, drinking, bathing, cosmetics, leather shoes, and conjugal relations are prohibited. Fasting - total abstention from all food and drink - begins a bit before sundown (called 'tosephet' Yom Kippur, the 'addition' of fasting a bit of the previous day is required by Jewish law), and ends after nightfall the following day.

Prayer services begin with the prayer known as "Kol Nidre", which must be recited before sunset. Kol Nidre, Aramaic for "all vows," is a public annullment of vows made to God during the preceding year. It does not cancel or nullify vows made between people.

Yom Kippur completes the penitential period of ten days that begins with New-Year's Day, the season of repentance and prayer; for though prayerful humiliation be acceptable at all times, it is thought to be peculiarly potent at that time.

The morning prayer service is preceded by litanies and petitions of forgiveness called selihot; On the Day of Atonement, many selihot are woven into the liturgy.

According to Maimonides "All depends on whether a man's merits outweigh the demerits put to his account", so it is therefore desirable to multiply good deeds before the final account on the Day of Atonement (ib. iii. 4). Those that are found worthy by God are said to be entered in the Book of Life. Hence the prayer: "Enter us in the Book of Life". Hence also the greeting "May you be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for a happy year." In letters written between New-Year and the Day of Atonement, the writer usually concludes by wishing the recipient that God may seal his fate for happiness. In late Judaism, features that were originally peculiar to New-Year's Day were transferred to the Day of Atonement.

The Day of Atonement survived the cessation of the sacrificial service in the year 70 CE. "Though no sacrifices be offered, the day in itself effects atonement" (Midrash Sifra, Emor, xiv.). Jewish texts teach that the day avails nothing unless repentance be coupled with it. Repentance was the indispensable condition for all the various means of atonement.

Penitent confession was a requisite for expiation through capital or corporal punishment. "The Day of Atonement absolves from sins against God, but not from sins against a fellow man unless the pardon of the offended person be secured" (Talmud Yoma viii. 9). Hence the custom of terminating on the eve of the fastday all feuds and disputes. Even the souls of the dead are included in the community of those pardoned on the Day of Atonement. It is customary for children to have public mention made in the synagogue of their departed parents, and to make charitable gifts on behalf of their souls.

The Liturgy

A Tallit (four-cornered prayer garment) is donned for evening prayers - the only evening service of the year in which this is done. The Ne'ilah service is a special service held only on the day of Yom Kippur, and deals with the closing of the holiday. Yom Kippur comes to an end with the blowing of the shofar, which marks the conclusion of the fast. It is always observed as a one day holiday, both inside and outside the boundaries of the land of Israel.

The service in the synagogue opens in the evening with the Kol Nidre. The devotions during the day are continuous from morning until evening. Much prominence is given to the liturgical pieces in which the Temple ceremonial is recounted.

According to the Talmud, God open three books on the first day of the year; one for the thoroughly wicked, another for the thoroughly pious, and the third for the large intermediate class. The fate of the thoroughly wicked and the thoroughly pious is determined on the spot; the destiny of the intermediate class is suspended until Yom Kippur, when the fate of everyone is sealed. The liturgical piece Unetanneh Tokef, states:

God, seated on His throne to judge the world, at the same time Judge, Pleader, Expert, and Witness, opens the Book of Records. It is read, every man's signature being found therein. The great trumpet is sounded; a still, small voice is heard; the angels shudder, saying, "this is the day of judgment": for God's very ministers are not pure before God. As a shepherd musters his flock, causing them to pass under his rod, so dooes God cause every living soul to pass before Him, to fix the limit of every creature's life and to ordain its destiny. On New-Year's Day the decree is written; on the Day of Atonement it is sealed; who shall live and who are to die....But penitence, prayer, and charity may avert the harsh decree."

Ibn Gabirol's "Crown of Royalty" is appended to the Sephardic liturgy for the evening service, and is also read in a few Ashkenazic synagogues. In the center of the older liturgy is the confession of sins. "For we are not so bold of face and stiff-necked as to say to Thee, We are righteous and have not sinned; but, of a truth, we are sinners. . . . May it be Thy will that I sin no more; be pleased to purge away my past sins, according to Thy great mercy, only not through severe chastisements."

The traditional melodies with their plaintive tones endeavor to give expression alike to the individual's awe before the uncertainties of fate and to a people's moan for its departed glories. On the Day of Atonement the pious Jew becomes forgetful of the flesh and its wants and, banishing hatred, ill-feeling, and all ignoble thoughts, seeks to be occupied exclusively with things spiritual. Jewish prayerbooks note that while public acts of contrition are mandated, the most effective corrective is that stated by the Biblical propehts, who teach that the true fast-day in which God delights is a spirit of devotion, kindliness, and penitence.

The serious character impressed upon the day from the time of its institution has been preserved to the present day. No matter how much else has fallen into desuetude, so strong is its hold upon the Jewish conscience that few Jews, unless they have cut themselves entirely off from the synagogue, will fail to observe the Day of Atonement by resting from their daily pursuits and attending service in the synagogue. With a few exceptions, the service even of the Reform Jewish synagogues is continuous through the day.

The scapegoats

In Biblical times, the most distinctive ceremony was the offering of the "emissary goats", or "scapegoats" (Leviticus 16:8-10) which are sent to Azazel. Azazel is an obscure word which occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. The word may come from two root words, aze, meaning goat, and azel, meaning departure. Various attempts have been made to interpret its meaning. Some have taken it for the name of a precipice where the sacrificial goat was killed. Others, take it for the name of an evil spirit; a spirit of this name is mentioned in the Apocryphal Book of Henoch, and later in Jewish literature. On this interpretation the idea of the ceremony would seem to be that the sins were sent back to the evil spirit to whose influence they owed their origin. It has been noted that somewhat similar rites of expiation have prevailed among heathen nations. Modern biblical critics, who refer the above passages to the Priestly code, and to a post-Exilic date, are disposed to regard the sending of the goat to Azazel as an adaptation of a pre-existing ceremony.

Some more conservative biblical scholars have noted that the place the goat would be taken is merely the "wilderness", outside the city, and that there is not a place called Azazel. Their view is that the "goat of departure" was merely "let go."

There is also a book by Isaac Asimov entitled Azazel.

Synonyms within Context: Yom Kippur

Commercial Usage: Yom Kippur

Domain	Title
Books	All About Yom Kippur (reference) Machzor: Yom Kippur (Seif) (reference) Uncle Eli Repents: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Prayer Book = Mahazor Le-Rosh Ha-Shanah Ve-Yom Ha-Kipurim (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Days of Awe: Music for Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur (reference) Birthday of the World, Part 2: Yom Kippur (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Image Slideshow: Yom Kippur

Photo Album: Yom Kippur

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Two years after the Yom Kippur War : beyond the interim accord. Credit: Library of Congress.		By order of the government : no services on Yom Kippur. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Non-Fiction Usage: Yom Kippur

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Israel	The years after the 1973 Yom Kippur War were a lost decade economically, as growth stalled and inflation reached triple-digit levels. (references)
Travel	Croatia	The following holidays may be observed by Croatian citizens of a particular religion: January 7 (Orthodox Christmas), Ramadan Bairam (Muslim), Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah (Jewish). (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expression: Yom Kippur

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Yom Kippur

Modern Translation: Yom Kippur

Language		Translations for "Yom Kippur"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
French		jour du Grand Pardon, fête de l'expiation. (various references)

German		Versöhnungstag (Day of Atonement), Versöhnungsfest (Day of Atonement), Versöhnungsfeier (Day of Atonement), langer Tag (Day of Atonement), Jom Kippur (Day of Atonement). (various references)

Italian		Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), giorno dell'Espiazione (Day of Atonement). (various references)

Pig Latin		yomay ippurkay

Portuguese		Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), festa da expiação (Day of Atonement). (various references)

Spanish		Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), día de la expiación (day of atonement). (various references)

Swedish		yom kippur. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Misspellings: Yom Kippur

Anagrams: Yom Kippur

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "i-k-m-o-p-p-r-u-y"
	-4 letters: mirky, murky, opium, porky, primo, primp, roupy.
	-5 letters: mirk, miry, mopy, murk, pimp, pipy, poky, pomp, pork, pour, prim, prom, prop, pump, puri, rimy, romp, ropy, roup, rump, your.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Domain	Definition
History & Folklore	A solmn Jewish fast day falling on the 10th day of Tishri. . . Source: European Union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Rite	Passover; Shabuoth; Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement; Rosh Hashana, New Year; Hanukkah, Chanukkah, Feast of Lights; Purim, Feast of lots.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Expression	Frequency per Day
yom kippur	112
yom kippur war	90
yom kippur 2003	18
bet mishpachah yom kippur morning 5760	8
yom kippur date	5
when is yom kippur	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expression using "Yom Kippur": Yom Kippur War. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Misspellings
	"Yom Kippur" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: yom kipur. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Yom Kippur

Definition: Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur

Noun

Specialty Definition: Yom Kippur

Specialty Definition: Yom Kippur

Synonym: Yom Kippur

Synonyms within Context: Yom Kippur

Rite

Crosswords: Yom Kippur

Commercial Usage: Yom Kippur

Books

Music

Image Slideshow: Yom Kippur

Illustrations:Yom Kippur

Computer Images:Yom Kippur

Photo Album: Yom Kippur

Non-Fiction Usage: Yom Kippur

Expression: Yom Kippur

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Yom Kippur

Modern Translation: Yom Kippur

French

German

Italian

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Spanish

Swedish

Misspellings: Yom Kippur

Misspellings

Anagrams: Yom Kippur

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

INDEX

Illustrations:
Yom Kippur

Computer Images:
Yom Kippur