The holiest day on the Jewish calendar starts at sunset tonight as the faithful set aside food, drink and other pleasures and turn their thoughts to God for the next 25 hours.
The fast of Yom Kippur starts with the chanting of Kol Nidre, an ancient text in which worshippers declare null and void any rash vows they may take in the coming year. Observant Jews will spend most of their waking hours in synagogues praying for forgiveness for their sins.
The shofar, or ram's horn, is usually associated with Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year celebrated last weekend. But it also will be sounded at the end of the Yom Kippur fast Monday night, Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, program director of the Orthodox Chabad House in Margate, told a half-dozen students at a workshop at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Galloway Township.
Jewish mystical tradition states that the shofar is supposed to be a simple cry, Rapoport said.
“It's not supposed to be music,” Rapoport told the students. “It's supposed to remind us of the cry coming out of each of our souls” wanting to connect to God.
Just like a business takes inventory of its finances every year, people need to take a spiritual inventory, Rapoport said. Jewish tradition sets aside the High Holidays for that purpose.
According to tradition, God judges of each person on Rosh Hashana and decides how they will fare in the upcoming year, Rapoport said before the presentation. The days until Yom Kippur are called the 10 days of repentance, when people have a chance to mend their ways, and God seals the judgment on Yom Kippur.
Jewish women age 12 and older and men age 13 and older are expected to fast for the 25-hour holiday, unless it would endanger their health, Rapoport said. The shrill cry of the ram's horn is sounded at the conclusion of the fast.
“It culminates the whole High Holiday season, (saying) with the sound of the shofar, we're confident we'll have a happy year, a blessed year,” Rapoport said.
The coming of the Messiah also will be accompanied by the sound of the shofar, so ending the holiday with the blast instills hope that that day will occur in the coming year, Rapoport said.
The students, who made their own shofars at the workshop, had different views of the holidays.
Sophomore Michael Kaminsky, of Livingston, said he would go to synagogue if he were at home, but will spend Monday going to class. He said he will observe the fast and go to lectures on an empty stomach.
Ian Bloom, a junior from Marlboro, said he will go back to his home synagogue for the holiday.
“I just like keeping my roots. That's how I was raised,” Bloom said. “It's something I do every year.”
Davidah Respes, of Mullica Township, said she comes from a religious family, and observing the holiday is “a part of me.”
“I don't consider it work or hard to observe it. It comes naturally,” Respes said. Just as Catholics confess their sins to God through a priest, “this is our time during the year set aside to God.”
The fast of Yom Kippur starts with the chanting of Kol Nidre, an ancient text in which worshippers declare null and void any rash vows they may take in the coming year. Observant Jews will spend most of their waking hours in synagogues praying for forgiveness for their sins.
The shofar, or ram's horn, is usually associated with Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year celebrated last weekend. But it also will be sounded at the end of the Yom Kippur fast Monday night, Rabbi Avrohom Rapoport, program director of the Orthodox Chabad House in Margate, told a half-dozen students at a workshop at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Galloway Township.
Jewish mystical tradition states that the shofar is supposed to be a simple cry, Rapoport said.
“It's not supposed to be music,” Rapoport told the students. “It's supposed to remind us of the cry coming out of each of our souls” wanting to connect to God.
Just like a business takes inventory of its finances every year, people need to take a spiritual inventory, Rapoport said. Jewish tradition sets aside the High Holidays for that purpose.
According to tradition, God judges of each person on Rosh Hashana and decides how they will fare in the upcoming year, Rapoport said before the presentation. The days until Yom Kippur are called the 10 days of repentance, when people have a chance to mend their ways, and God seals the judgment on Yom Kippur.
Jewish women age 12 and older and men age 13 and older are expected to fast for the 25-hour holiday, unless it would endanger their health, Rapoport said. The shrill cry of the ram's horn is sounded at the conclusion of the fast.
“It culminates the whole High Holiday season, (saying) with the sound of the shofar, we're confident we'll have a happy year, a blessed year,” Rapoport said.
The coming of the Messiah also will be accompanied by the sound of the shofar, so ending the holiday with the blast instills hope that that day will occur in the coming year, Rapoport said.
The students, who made their own shofars at the workshop, had different views of the holidays.
Sophomore Michael Kaminsky, of Livingston, said he would go to synagogue if he were at home, but will spend Monday going to class. He said he will observe the fast and go to lectures on an empty stomach.
Ian Bloom, a junior from Marlboro, said he will go back to his home synagogue for the holiday.
“I just like keeping my roots. That's how I was raised,” Bloom said. “It's something I do every year.”
Davidah Respes, of Mullica Township, said she comes from a religious family, and observing the holiday is “a part of me.”
“I don't consider it work or hard to observe it. It comes naturally,” Respes said. Just as Catholics confess their sins to God through a priest, “this is our time during the year set aside to God.”
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