By Joyce Zonana,
It’s the holiest day of the Jewish year, the day on which one’s fate for the year to come is sealed. Observant Jews around the world fast for 24 hours on Yom Kippur and often spend the entire day in synagogue, praying and seeking to atone for misdeeds and to be cleansed and purified. It is a day of introspection, as we seek to deepen our relationship with the Divine—or with our highest, truest Self.
Although I am not a formally observant Jew, I can never escape the pull of Yom Kippur, a day that always marks for me a break from the ordinary, a retreat into a realm of purity and peace. Sometimes called the “sabbath of sabbaths,” it is a day when we suspend our engagement with the world in order to more fully experience our connection with the Divine.
Rosh Hashanah (The Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur occur in the Hebrew month of Tishrei, which usually corresponds to September in the Gregorian calendar. When I was growing up in Brooklyn, the ten “Days of Awe” between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur always seemed to be sunlit, crystal-clear days, when the ocean and the river sparkled and our lives felt refreshed as we began the new school year. Wearing new outfits, my best friend Deborah Saltz and I would spend Yom Kippur walking through Brooklyn, then return to our homes for a festive “break-fast” meal with our families. While our fathers (and my brother) spent the day indoors in synagogue, we were free to enjoy the fresh air and magical light reflecting off the water. To this day, that is Yom Kippur for me—a time of magic and communion, friendship and sunlight, discovery and freedom.
This year, I will be at a yoga retreat during Yom Kippur. I will fast to mark the day as I seek to renew my commitment to goodness in my daily life and thoughts, grateful for the circle/cycle of the year, for the ever-present opportunity to return and return again.
From the Yom Kippur Morning Prayer:
Return again, return again,return to the land of your soul.
Return to who you are.Return to what you are.Return to where you are bornand reborn.
Joyce Zonana, a regular contributor to the online journal Feminism and Religion, is a writer and literary translator. Her most recent translation is Tobie Nathan’s novel, A Land Like You, a celebration of Jewish life in Egypt in the first half of the twentieth century. She is also the author of a memoir, Dream Homes: From Cairo to Katrina, an Exile’s Journey.
“New Year Reflections” art used by permission of the artist, Deborah Saltz Amerling.