Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, known as the Day of Atonement. It’s a day for meditation and prayer.
Up until this day, people tend to find rituals to purify themselves. On Yom Kippur, we receive God’s grace, love and compassion and are cleansed, forgiven and liberated in a very special way.
Yom Kippur commemorates the day when Moses descended from Mount Sinai with the second set of tablets (don’t think they were provided by Apple, though maybe) and a message of forgiveness for the Jewish people after the sin of the golden calf. Jewish sages say the first set of tablets were totally spiritual and the people were not able to understand the content. The second set of tablets were material and enclosed in moral directives. The second set of tablets were written by Moses and born out of the hard work of repentance for the Jewish people and the intercession of Moses.
Yom Kippur is a day to respond to our spiritual selves and that is why we do not tend to our bodies. We celebrate from the realm of our soul known as Chaya, that aspect of our soul self that is at one with all Creation. It’s a day to let go of past obstacles. It’s an intensive day of Teshuvah.
” In the silence between our thoughts, we find the possibilities of creative genius and spiritual awareness that elude us when we remain attentive only to our run-on thoughts.” – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
T’Shuvah
Teshuvah simply means to turn from our ordinary existence to our deep spirit within where the soul guides our lives. (To turn inward.) (The traditional definition is repentance.) On Yom Kippur there are restrictions such as fasting, to enable us to turn inward to help align ourselves with love, grace and forgiveness. It’s learning to listen to that still, small voice that resounds from our deep resources inside. T’shuvah is the art of shifting focus from our chaotic, frantic everyday world to our inner existence where thoughts and feelings reign. In that realm we become acquainted with the subtle energies that constitute our mental, emotional and spiritual worlds.. Self-discovery, the performance of turning inward, is the primary objective of T’Shuvah. You will discover the real you constitutes the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions..
The first question in the Torah is “Where are you?” You are summoned to be fully present. This primordial call from God to each of us, continues to hold true today. Listening to Gods ‘call, the small voice within, keeps us on track, gives us direction. This is the call for Teshuvah. God created each of us with a beautiful soul and body, yet we do not always live our lives with this awareness.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is a great gift we can give to another and it’s primarily an action of compassion toward ourselves. Anger and resentment keep us bound to limiting ideas of who we are – we feel like a victim, we feel stuck and so on. Forgiveness and compassion purify, heal & liberate – we feel whole and free. Make an effort to practice forgiveness and compassion. Forgiveness does not mean we condone negative behavior, nor do we deny our angry or hurt feelings. It asks us to see beyond the limits of our personality or that of the person who hurt us to see beyond the limits of our personality or that of the person that hurt us. Forgiveness is complete when we gain insight into how the challenges we have faced actually support our growth.
Observance
During the entire day of Yom Kippur there are repeated requests for forgiveness for individual and communal sins. Sin simply means to miss the mark – things that human beings do, think or feel that are not in line with their true nature. Since there are no distractions on Yom Kippur it is easy to release all the ways we have blocked the flow of goodness into our lives. The requests for forgiveness are said in the plural, rather than in the singular, to teach us about our interdependence and responsibility for each other. On Yom Kippur we are reminded of our unity and connection with each other. It’s a gift to pray in a congregation. For what we can do as a community is greater than what we can do alone. We receive more divine light and grace when we feel responsible for the community than we would as isolated individuals.
Yom Kippur is truly a joyous day. If we surrender to the energy of the holiday and allow ourselves to be purified and cleansed, we can open up to our divine nature. The holiday is a spiritual gift facilitating physical emotional, mental, spiritual release of all that which does not serve our highest and greatest good. By eliminating that which does not serve, we can open to the clarity of who we truly are.
The Ten Days of Awe
Rosh Hashanah is the first day of the ten days of Teshuvah, known in Hebrew as asceret yemei teshuvah. The Talmud tells us these ten days are the days when God is closer than any other time. Teshuvah, the returning to God, is facilitated by the shofar. The sound of the shofar during Rosh Hashanah emulate the cry of our own souls and enable us to turn inward to our deepest core. A basic and primal sound issuing from the horn of the ram, the shofar blast instantly puts us in touch with what is true and real. It awakens our spiritual potential. It inspires us to change and become better people. This is not insinuating we are bad people, we can always be better.
The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are devoted to healing our relationships with others. Forgiveness is a gift to yourself. Blaming others keeps you stuck in a victim role that keeps you from opening to your true freedom and the new possibilities available in this coming year. Being angry is a waste of your precious vital energy. We cannot embrace fully the newness of this coming year if we are carrying the jealousy, anger and resentments of past years. We cannot expect to receive God’s forgiveness without first trying to forgive and to receive the forgiveness of others.
Rosh Hashanah is all about being present. It’s about listening to the inner call within. Your own voice, your own guidance nudging you to be the best you can be. Yom Kippur is about releasing & receiving in order to grow spiritually.
The ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are known as asseret y’mai teshuvah (Ten days of repentance) are a time of self-reflection and spiritual alignment. Energetically we are aim at moving from judgment to compassion.
On Rosh Hashanah the story of creation is told. The shofar is intended to awaken us from our spiritual slumber and beckons us to give birth to ourselves so we may begin anew, free from the karmic residue of the past.
According to Kabbalah, the shofar is actually shaped like a birth canal, narrow at one end and broad at the other. It symbolizes the movement we attempt to effect within ourselves from the constricted space of din or judgment to the expansive state of rachamim, compassion and forgiveness. When we hear the sound of the shofar, we open up to that place inside that is gentle, compassionate and forgiving.
The Hebrew word rachamim comes from the same three-letter root word rechem, womb, suggesting that compassion is womblike, nurturing life. With compassion we enable all things to grow into their most beautiful and complete form.
Rosh Hashanah celebrates creation of the world is also a time of personal reckoning, judgment (evaluation), soul searching and repentance. It’s considered a day of judgment Yom ha’Din. It is believed when we lean into the quality of din (judgment) on Rosh Hashanah, we effect an opposite movement in the divine. This causes God to move from a throne of judgment to a throne of mercy. It’s like when a child makes a mistake and feels regret all on their own and take takes complete responsibility. When we lean into the quality of din on Rosh Hashanah, we become worthy of being forgiven on Yom Kippur. When Yom Kippur arrives we open ourselves to the divine face of love.
On Yom Kippur we chant the thirteen divine attributes of God, known as the shlosh esray midot rachamim, revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai following the sin of the golden calf. Moses pleads with God to “Show me your ways”, he is asking for spiritual guidance as to how he can be a more patient and compassionate leader. After this God pardons the Israelites for the sin of the golden calf.
The 13 Attributes of Mercy are based on two verses in Exodus: “The Lord! The Lord! God, Compassionate and Gracious, Slow to anger and Abundant in Kindness and Truth, Preserver of kindness for thousands of generations, Forgiver of iniquity, willful sin, and error, and Who Cleanses (but does not cleanse completely, recalling the iniquity of parents upon children and grandchildren, to the third and fourth generations)” (34:6-7).
L’Shana Tova,
Donna (Adira Yael)
Let us take this time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur for self-reflection and spiritual realignment.
LI Jewish Meditation 