yom kippur
Yom Kippur is the holiest and most solemn day of the Jewish year. It is the culmination of the Aseret Y’mei Tshuva (Ten Days of Repentance); the day on which, traditionally, our fates for the coming year are sealed in the Book of Life. For this reason, it is the only Holy Day on which the prohibitions on work are as severe as they are on Shabbat. While on other holidays we are allowed to carry, cook, and use fire, these actions are all prohibited on Yom Kippur.
The book of Vayikra (Leviticus), chapter 23 verse 27 says: "Also on the tenth day of this seventh month [Tishrei] there shall be a day of atonement; it shall be a holy gathering to you; and you shall afflict your souls . . ." The reason that we should "afflict our souls" is that the satiation of our bodily desires is considered the source of sin. The effort to suppress these desires, even for one day, is considered a good start toward t’shuva (repentance, or returning to the right path).
Those actions deemed forbidden by the Rabbis include eating, drinking, bathing, anointing ourselves, wearing leather shoes, and having conjugal relations (despite the latter’s status as a "double mitzvah" when done on Shabbat). Many of these prohibitions have exceptions: In the case of fasting, a sick person should follow the advice of his/her physician. A pregnant woman who wants to eat even though she understands the significance of fasting on Yom Kippur is permitted to eat until she is satisfied. A woman is prohibited from fasting for three days following her giving birth. From the third to the seventh day, she falls under the same category as a sick person. After that, she is considered to be like everyone else.
Bathing and washing for pleasure are forbidden, but washing the hands and face for hygienic purposes is permitted. Those required to bathe for medical reasons are permitted to do so.
There are three reasons for not wearing leather shoes on Yom Kippur: 1. Leather shoes used to be considered a luxury. Abstaining from wearing them is therefore considered a form of self-deprivation. 2. Since leather shoes were prohibited in the Beit Hamikdash, it would not be appropriate to wear them as we stand in judgment before God on the holiest day of the year. 3. Many, including Rabbi Moses Isserles (1520-1573), have suggested that since leather shoes are made from the skin of a once-living animal, on Yom Kippur we should "reach out for a higher moral standard than is expected of us on other days" and refrain from wearing them.
It is important to remember, as Rabbi Dr. Mordecai Kaplan reminds us, that these prohibitions should not be regarded as mortification of the flesh. While we are commanded to abstain from certain pleasurable activities, the Jewish religion is very much against self-torture, mutilation, etc. (hence the prohibition on tattoos).
Also, keep in mind that the focus of Yom Kippur should be on atonement, prayer, etc., not on what we AREN’T allowed to do. As it says in the book "The Meaning of God," p. 169, "When we refrain from indulging our physical appetites for a limited period, in order to devote ourselves for a time more exclusively to demands that rank higher in our hierarchy of values, we are not denying the physical appetites their just place in life; we are simply recognizing the need of putting them in their place."
Again, much of the inspiration for this drasha comes from "A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice" by Rabbi Isaac Klein.
This page was originally created by John Davis and Michael Kay, and can be found at http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/jdd16/guide/.
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