Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the month of Tishrei: September 21, 2026, 10 Tishrei 5787. Like every Jewish day, it begins the evening before, at sunset on September 20, and lasts until the stars come out the following evening.

A seal for the year. The ten days from Rosh Hashanah are called the Days of Awe. Rosh Hashanah is the judgment; Yom Kippur is the day when, according to tradition, the decision is sealed. All this time the door is open: you can return, change your mind, ask for forgiveness. That is why Yom Kippur is not about fear but about hope, about the fact that a person is not judged once and for all.

Kol Nidrei. The holiday opens as the day ends with the prayer Kol Nidrei, an ancient Aramaic text about the annulment of vows. It is sung to a special melody that even those who come to synagogue once a year recognise. On this evening many wear white: here white speaks both of purity and of the fact that everyone is equal before Heaven.

A day of fasting. For a whole day it is customary to go without food and drink and to set ordinary things aside. The point is not exhaustion: when the body falls silent, everything else becomes easier to hear. The fast has its limits: children, pregnant women, the sick. What to do in such cases is a question for a rabbi, and there is nothing shameful in asking.

What we ask for. Almost all the prayers of the day are in the plural: "we have sinned", "forgive us". No one stands apart from the others. Tradition says that Yom Kippur reconciles a person with the Creator, but not with people: if you have hurt someone, you first go to that person to ask forgiveness, and often this is the hardest part of the day, not the hunger at all. In the afternoon the Book of Jonah is read, a story about how you cannot run away from yourself, and about a mercy great enough for a whole city.

Neilah. The last prayer is called Neilah, "the closing of the gates". The sun is setting, strength is running out, and it is exactly then that the synagogue becomes especially quiet and powerful. It all ends with one long blast of the shofar, and at once everything feels light: the year is open, life can go on.

A woman on this day. Before lighting the candles in the evening, many mothers bless their children in their own words, without a book. And after Yom Kippur, having barely broken the fast, many homes already hammer the first nail into the sukkah: autumn moves on, and Sukkot is ahead.