we call Yom Kippur to Day of Atonement within the Jewish religion. In this celebration fasting, prayer and also abstention from work and physical pleasures are carried out to give rise to reflection and repentance. It is a spiritual holiday in which each one tries to examine how their year has been and what has to change for the new Jewish year that begins.
What is Yom Kippur and when is it celebrated?
Yom Kippur is the holiest Jewish holiday of the year as it marks the end of the days of penance that began with Rosh Hashanah to give way to the Day of Atonement, as this celebration is also known.
This year, Yom Kippur is celebrated from the first star of the afternoon of Sunday, September 25 to Wednesday, September 27, 2022.
Origin and meaning of Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur, as we have said, is a day dedicated to forgiveness. Therefore, the center of this celebration, as in many religions, is fasting. After the first 10 days of the Jewish New Year comes the time for analysis and prayer, which is why it is celebrated with fasting (from which sick people and pregnant women are usually exempted).
On this day, in Israel and in all Jewish communities around the world, All activities stop from 2:00 p.m. (including air transport, circulation in the streets, shops, businesses are closed…only being able to use vehicles without motor). Some of the things that are prohibited during this time is wearing cosmetics, leather clothing, or playing instruments. Weight bearing is also prohibited.
The origin of Yom Kippur dates back to the liberation of the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery and the experience that arose on Mount Sinai with the encounter with God and where the 10 commandments were heard for the first time.
According to this story, Moses went up the mountain to receive the two stone slabs with the 10 commandments that, when he saw his people worshiping the golden calf, he decided to break because he understood that his people had surrendered to sin. So the people of Israel needed God’s forgiveness. To do this, Moses climbed the mountain again in the last month of the Hebrew calendar known as Elul.
Going down again with the tablets, what Moses found was very different: the people were repentant and wanted to prove their faith to God. This happened on tenth day of Tishri, the first month of the Hebrew calendar, and thus was the celebration of the first Yom Kippur in history. Since then it is said that on this day God listens to the prayers and supplications willing to forgive men, for which men need to forgive each other first.
Yom Kippur celebration
As we said before, the center of this celebration is the fast that begins its preparation at dinner the day before fasting, through these rules:
- Can’t drink alcoholic beverages
- A light dinner is eaten, without much salt or spices and without fat
Some of the typical pre-fast dinner meals are as follows:
- Rice
- Pasta
- Potatoes
- Fish
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Meat
- tofu
- Egg
- Cheese
- Cooked vegetables
- soups
- Humus
- Tea
Another of the traditions throughout the celebration of the Jewish New Year and also on Yom Kippur is to eat apples with honey, pomegranates and dates that represent abundance. Fish heads are also often taken because it represents the desire to be the head and not the tail in the new year.