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Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, falls ten days after Rosh Hashanah. When the Temple stood in Jerusalem, the High Priest effected atonement for the entire people through an elaborate ritual. Today, in the absence of the Temple, each of us stands, alone, together, naked as it were, before God. Yom Kippur is the dramatic culmination of the entire season of teshuvah, repentance. On Yom Kippur, Jews abstain from eating, drinking, bathing, sexual relations, and the wearing of leather (a sign of luxury) for 25 hours. Jews dress in white and traditionally spend most of the day in synagogue.

Latest Rituals

“For the Regretter, a regretting song”

a person's silhouette sitting on a ledge looking out at a cloudy sky

“Holiness dwells in this day / and our souls are overwhelmed”

smoke swirling against a dark background

“For this is the day that G-d made / To lift you up from your sorrow and shame”

sunset

Humanist We Need Justice and Kindness (Avinu Malkeinu)

silhouette of a hand holding a small bonsai tree

A dramatic interpretation of the traditional Avodah service for Yom Kippur

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“The page is blank again. / Write! calls the king. / But what shall I write?”

a feather drops black ink onto a blank page

“There was a box of treasure / That I carried, / An offering / Of grace / And sin. / I will set fire to it.”

dark cloudy and starry sky overlooks a body of water surrounded by mountains

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief: a ritual for mourning the death of those we do not know during the High Holidays

candles flicker against a dark background

Questions to contemplate before Kol Nidrei

a golden singing bowl

A poem reflecting on how to release ourselves of guilt

Month-of-Elul

The Reconstructionist Network

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