Yom Kippur (“Day of Atonement”) is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. It lasts 25 hours.
On Yom Kippur, Jews repent and ask G-d’s forgiveness for all their sins over the past year.
Yom Kippur asks people to look beyond their physical bodies. To do this, many people fast from sunset to sunset. Many people also avoid things like washing, using perfumes and lotions, and wearing leather.
People also go to synagogue for five prayer services.
Traditionally, people wear a tallit at all times in the synagogue on this day. Some also wear white.
Tradition says that G-d writes the fate of each person into the Book of Life or Book of Death (or a third in-between book) on Rosh Hashanah. On Yom Kippur, G-d seals the books. During the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, people ask G-d to forgive them for their sins. They also ask forgiveness from anyone they might have hurt in the last year.
For many Jews, the Book of Life is not literal but is a metaphor to help people reflect on their actions and repair their relationships. For some people, Yom Kippur is the day when people are closest to G-d and most connected to their spiritual selves.
Text adapted from Simple English Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.
