Yom Kippur

The Yom Kippur is approaching.
The most holy day in Judaism!

At Jewish New Year - Rosh Hashana - that I was writing about it is believed that people are to be inscribed into books of life for the following year (or not), but the verdict is sealed 10 days later on the Day of Atonment - Yom Kippur.

We have these 10 days to apologies, regret, seek forgiveness and grant forgiveness to those who are seeking it from us.

Yom Kippur is the holiday kept often even by otherwise totally secular Jews. It is the day when many go to synagogues even if it is the only occasion for them during the year when they do so.
Also all observant Jews (and quite a number of secular ones) fast on this day abstaining from work, food, drinks (water included) and sex.

In Israel on Yom Kippur one of the popular activities is hiking the highways as no traffic is present on this day. You may enjoy long walks on routes beaming with traffic on any other day and  it is definitely a unique possibility to experience them on foot :).

On the eve of Yom Kippur the special prayer - very well know for its melody - is intoned: Kol Nidre.

It is to free praying form all vows undertaken and not fulfilled during the previous year.
This was used by anti-Semites throughout centuries to point a finger at Jews as not trustworthy as they will free from obligations on the eve of Yom Kippur. But this accusation only shows lack of understanding of what Kol Nidre is. It has nothing to do with obligations between people which of course must b kept. It is to atone and apologies and free from vows to God specially taken at times of fear or despair or under a pressure (like forced conversion at the time of inquisition). So it "only" deals with relation between human and God and is specially focused on human weakness that makes one make vows frivolously or under threat and than not keep them.

There is one more - historic - occasion we should remember. The Yom Kippur war of 1973 when on the dawn of this highest holiday when most of soldiers were on a leave at homes joined armies of Syria and Egypt attacked Israel without provocation. For months Egypt and Syria were preparing this strike helped by USSR exporting large quantities of weapons into these countries. The war during the first 3 days brought Israel on a verge of destruction (and of course this is what Egypt and Syria were after) and only during subsequent weeks things changed but with heavy casualties on both sides.
And we owe it to honesty, ourselves and our critical senses to remember this treacherous attack so often forgot today...

May you all find yourselves in the books of life!