Nadene Goldfoot
We are now in The Days of Awe. They are not to be sad days. Yom Kippur is the happiest day of the year coming next Sunday-Yom Kippur. This is when we receive G-d's forgiveness, an expression of His eternal, unconditional love. It is on this day that G-d reveals most clearly that our essence and His essence are one. On the level of the soul, the Jewish people are all truly equal and indivisible. The more we demonstrate our essential unity by acting with love and friendship amongst ourselves, the more fully G-d's love will be revealed to us. This year we will be celebrating Yom Kippur alone due to the pandemic and isolation of trying to rid our communities of this Corona Virus, AKA COVID 19. This once a year holiday was meant to be a time of being in the company of our fellow Jewish community. Pictured above is the blowing of the shofer, an important element in the services taking place in the synagogues all over the world each year in remembrance. 
Secular and religious Israelis at the conclusion of Yom Kippur services in the community center in Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv (Courtesy of Tzohar) Women are upstairs.
Yom Kippur is our day of atonement. We are asked by G-d to fast for 25 hours in the act of atoning for our sins of the past year. To atone means the expiation of a sin and its consequent forgiveness through appropriate repentance and reparation. Ever since the previous holiday of Rosh Hashana, the birthday of the world 10 days previous, called the Ten Days of Teshuvah (2 days of Rosh Hashana and 7 days following and Yom Kippur), our minds have been on such atonement with proper preparation. It's not something done at the snap of our fingers at the moment. It means "returning." Our essential nature, the divine spark of the soul, is good. True repentance is but achieved not through harsh self-condemnation, but through the realization that our deepest desire is to do good, in accordance with the will of G-d.
To do Teshuvah is to make amends. Monday: we can make amends for whatever wrong we may have done on all Mondays of the previous year--and so forth. This coming Shabbat is called Shabbat Shuvah after reading "Return, O Israel, for you have stumbled.." Today is a fast day, the Fast of Gedaliah, to remember the tragic assassination of Gedaliah, a great Jewish leader during the Babylonian exile.
The Shofar is sounded at the end of Yom Kippur.
This confession time, in Temple days led by the high priest, is phrased in the plural "We" because of the mutual responsibility of all Jews. The confession enumerates ethical lapses exclusively and covers almost the whole range of human failings.
Especially impressive are the Evening Service of Kol Nidre with its opening formula canceling rash vows between man and G-d and the Concluding Service of Neilah Service which ends with the invocation of the SHEMA and the declaration: "Next year in Jerusalem!
It is the day so long ago when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the 2nd set of tablets of the law and announced to the people the Divine pardon for the sin of the Golden Calf. Besides not working, using perfumes or lotions, washing for pleasure or wearing leather shoes, or eating, nor drinking even water, nor any sexual intercourse, the day was outstanding for the elaborate Temple ceremonial ritual of listening and saying prayers with the Cantor (our prayers are sung and led by this person-a man with a beautiful voice a cappella).
Long ago, the orthodox in the past days already would have included the dispatch of the scapegoat to the wilderness, laden with the sins of the congregation as a visual reenactment that became a ritual, a symbol.
In the days of the Temples, only on this day was the high priest allowed to enter the room called the Holy of Holies clad not in his golden vestments but in white linen, symbolic of purity and humility. He was regarded as the holiest man in the world and he was in the holiest place on earth, the Kodesh HaKadoshim of the Temple in Jerusalem, and he was in there to pray on behalf of his people. When he would then appear at the conclusion of the service, he was greeted with rejoicing by the people, confident that their sins had been forgiven. He was said to be radiant, like the iridescence of the rainbow, like a rose in a garden of delight, like the morning star sparkling on the horizen. Except for the absence of priestly ceremonial, the observance of this day in late Judaism is similar in character to that of Temple procedure.
So on the eve of Yom Kippur, we will feast with a special meal with not too much salt in it so as not to thirst so much on Yom Kippur.
And then there is the breaking of the fast, finally, as weak as you are, usually with friends or relatives, enjoying the first taste of special foods and drink after a long fast. You are proud of yourselves, in this group fast, for sticking to it till the end.
