Yom Kippur
B"H
Yom Kippur
There are five parts of the prayer: Evening Service, Morning Service, Musaph, Mincha and Neilah against 5 interdictions:
Cannot eat, drink, wash yourself, wear leather shoes or have marital relations. The purpose is to touch the 5 degrees of the soul. The goal is to let our complete neshama become One with G. in our human form.
This day has the force of Kaparah . La kaparah is a gift that G. gave us to clean our mistakes and start in a clean slate. The sin separates us from G. When we transform our mistakes, then, we can be closer to G. and at the same time become a better person.
Morning Service:
We begin with prayers of thanksgiving for the blessings of life. Then we praise G. and we proclaim G. our King pledging the highest loyalty to Him. It is a symbolism to develop a personal relationship of dependence, love, fear.
Piyutim petitioning G. for light: Yotser Or. Section of Yotzot: He who gives light to the eyes of those who wait for pardon. He who forms light and darkness.
Torah is referred as the Eternal light. G. permits man to discover goodness, knowledge and truth. Light means joy, happiness & comfort. Light is Scripture means freedom. In darkness we fear.
Next it is the section with prayers proclaiming the holiness of G. It opens with the vision of Isaiah portraying angels and all heavenly hosts worshipping G. Kadosh, Kadosh.
Shema Section: "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord". Fear & Love
Amidah and the repetition of the Amidah: repetition is basic in our learning process. Amidah piyutim are added which amplify the basic prayer as a commentary . Beautiful poetry survived in the machzor. Many are written over a thousand years ago, coming from different lands.
Torah
Haftorah: Isaiah( 57:14-58:14), chastises those who adhere to fasting but violate the spirit of Yom Kippur. If the ceremony does not lead to higher morality, then it is inanity. It is a day to demonstrate self-discipline, repentance, enhance appreciation of our blessings.
Musaph:
We say Unesane Tokef. It pictures G. judging mankind one by one as a shepherd counts his sheep. G. reviews the deed and determines the destiny of each one. On Yom Kippur He seals the decree. Repentance, prayer and charity have the power to change man's fate and to avert an evil decree.
The Avoda is the service of the High Priest in the
The Martyrology is the story of the ten sages who suffered martyrdom.
The Confession. "For all these, Oh G. of forgiveness, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement", suggest the three stages of rehabilitation from sin:
- Tefila- involves self evaluation
- Teshuva- reeducation to new perspectives
- Tzedakah- new motivation to independence and assurance against relapse
Mincha:
Torah reading:
· Marriages which are permissible
· Sexual perversions
· Permitted relations in times that are forbidden
Family purity and moral integrity are the core of Jewish practice.
Haftora- Jonah
"Jonah had fled from the presence of the Lord". Lesson: Failing duties toward one another by evading responsibility, we invite big problems. The Torah teaches us that harmful decrees can befall on us unless we truly repent and that G. sends us messages so we can understand.
Neilah:
The
Our final plea" Open the Gates of Heaven", we repeat the last confessional, Ashamnu and Avinu Malkenu
Then, we say:
- Shema
- Baruch Shem Blessed be His Kingdom- we repeat three times extending over past, present & future.
- Adonay Hu HaElohim- we repeat seven times as a symbol of the seven Heaven God opened when He gave us the Torah and which he opens to our prayers to be able to reach His Throne.
Next year in
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