The Days of Awe: Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur
{continued}

Yom Kippur:  Yom Kippur is considered the holiest day in the cycle of the Jewish year.  It is a day of fasting & repentance.  After a pre-dusk "closing meal" [se'uda mafseket] before the beginning of Yom Kippur, one is required to fast completely, without either food or liquids, from the last light of the day until the first stars are seen on the evening following.  In fact, one of the indications of the solemnity of Yom Kippur is seen by the following:  While on other holy days where fasting may be required, if the holy day falls on the Sabbath, the fast is moved forward to the Sunday or back to the Thursday, on Yom Kippur, the fast is nonetheless required.  {Of course, there are various modifications of the requirement, depending upon age, health, etc.]  One is also supposed to refrain from either bathing or sexual relations.  In addition, one may also not wear leather shoes, which is why it is not unusual to see men dressed in suits, yet wearing canvas sneakers or other similar footwear, on their way to synagogue.

At synagogue on the first night, the evening service begins with the Kol Nidre, a solemn and beautiful chant which asks to be released from "all vows" made and not kept.  While this may seem somewhat presumptuous, in point of fact, it is not for vows made to others, but to G-d^.  In that context, it seems to apply primarily to the common practice of promising G-d^ that one will change one's life, usually dramatically and for the better, if only ... a practice not at all limited to Jews.  {Listen to the Kol Nidre.}

The service on the day of Yom Kippur often lasts from morning to nightfall, when the first stars become visible.  During the lengthy service, a prayer called the Al Khet ["for sins"] recurs.  In it, one confesses, as a people, to the multitude of sins committed during the year, gently beating one's breast while reciting each of the sins.  The sins confessed include wrongdoing to others, not showing honor to one's parents or teachers, swearing, dishonesty in business transactions, lying, and gossiping.  In addition, there is also a confession for "sins ... committed under duress," a confession which may strike many as strange.  This is explained somewhat by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in his Jewish Literacy, where he quotes former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis:  "The irresistible is often only that which is not resisted."

The afternoon minkha service includes a reading of the Book of Jonah.  The emphasis, as would be expected, is the showing of G-d's^ forgiveness of those who repent, particularly in the story of Jonah and the whale. 

When my life was ebbing away,
I called the Lord^ to mind;
And my prayer came before You,
Into Your holy Temple.
They who cling to empty folly
Forsake their own welfare,
But I, with loud thanksgiving,
Will sacrifice to You;
What I have vowed I will perform.
...
                                  Jonah 2: 8-10*

The final service for Yom Kippur is called Ne'ilah ["the shutting"].  It refers to the shutting of the gates, when G-d^ has decided the fate of all for the coming year.  Not only does the liturgy depict the event in vivid imagery, but, often, the prayers of the assembly become especially intense, in the hope of being admitted before the gates are closed.\

The end of the Yom Kippur service is marked by a long, single-note blast of the shofar.

*  This and other Torah text is taken from the Jewish Publication Society edition of The Tanakh, 1985.  The word for the Almighty, even when spelled out in the text, is truncated here as G-d.
#  Transliterations of Hebrew words are from a number of sources, q.v., below.
^  [Blessed Be He]

Sources:
   The Tanakh, Jewish Publication Society, NY, 1985.
   To Be a Jew: A Guide to Jewish Observance in Contemporary Life, Hayim Halevy Donin, Basic Books, NY, 1972.
   Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Wm. Morrow & Co., NY, 1991.
   On-Line: The Orthodox Union
                  Torah.org's Project Genesis
                  Virtual Jerusalem - Rosh Hashanah