Free Essays on Yom Kippur

On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, Jewish people fast and say prayers of atonement. As explained the essay, â€Å"Yom Kippur: The Day Without Forgiveness† written by Elie Weisel in 1968, this holiday seemed to cause more anguish and confusion to the people of the Jewish religion than anything else. In concentration camps during the holocaust, many people seemed to abandon their faith and began to hate the God and teachings that they had once believed in so adherently. Like many people thought the world, they seemed to turn their backs when they seemed to need their faith the most. If one came across a situation so bad that he would feel he had to give up on his beliefs, why should one bother belonging to a religion in the first place? In this work, by Weisel, we see a middle aged man, in the beginning, refusing to fast for the holiday and accusing his believed God to be a stranger. Through tradition and learned fundamentals of a religion, people, in a way, submit themselves to a higher being, to someone or thing that they believe will help them to live the way they should. If a person has enough faith in them to spend their whole lives praying and obeying a certain divinity, they should have no reason to abandon what they’ve known all their lives. Most religions seem to exist based on the need of a superior controller, a need of something to look to when they need help that they can’t seek anyone else for. Reliance on a distinguished existence seems to give people hope and assistance. I don’t see how one can be mad at their â€Å"Go d† for having someth! ing bad happen. If all people of every religion followed this lead, it would seem absurd having any kind of religion. In this essay, an older man, Pinhas, said to be about forty years old, talks to a fifteen-year-old boy, declaring that he is not going to fast for Yom Kippur in rebelliousness towards God and his teachings in the Jewish religion. If a per... Free Essays on Yom Kippur Free Essays on Yom Kippur Yom Kippur Yom Kippur is a holiday that relates to the Jewish community. Yom Kippur, which means "Day of Atonement," is the holiest day of the Jewish year. Yom Kippur is a day of "self-denial" so that they may be cleansed of their sins. It is observed eight days after Rosh Hashanah. It is believed that on Rosh Hashanah God inscribes all of their names in the "books", and on Yom Kippur the judgment entered in these books is sealed. The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are called the Days of Awe. Yom Kippur is, essentially, their last chance to demonstrate repentance and change the judgment. Repentance is the theme of Yom Kippur. While sins alienate people from God, our repentance reconciles us with God. On Yom Kippur, they will ask for God to forgive them for their sins. The first Yom Kippur occurred when Moses descended Mount Sinai with the second set of Tablets, a symbol of the renegotiated covenant between God and the Jewish People. God decreed the tenth day of the month of Tishrei as a day of atonement: Let it be a statute for you forever: in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you shall starve your vital energies and do no manner of work.... For on this day it shall bring atonement upon you, to purify you, before God shall you become pure of all your aberrations. (Leviticus 16: 29-30) Yom Kippur is the only fast day decreed in the Bible. It is a complete, 25-hour fast beginning before sunset on the evening before Yom Kippur and ending after nightfall on the day of Yom Kippur. The Jewish communities are supposed to refrain from eating and drinking (even water) on Yom Kippur. It is a day set aside to "afflict the soul," to atone for the sins of the past year. On Yom Kippur they focus on spiritual elevation. One way to do this is to abstain from the physical such as food, sex, work, material possessions, and superficial pleasures. More specifically, these five physical activities are forbidde... Free Essays on Yom Kippur On Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, Jewish people fast and say prayers of atonement. As explained the essay, â€Å"Yom Kippur: The Day Without Forgiveness† written by Elie Weisel in 1968, this holiday seemed to cause more anguish and confusion to the people of the Jewish religion than anything else. In concentration camps during the holocaust, many people seemed to abandon their faith and began to hate the God and teachings that they had once believed in so adherently. Like many people thought the world, they seemed to turn their backs when they seemed to need their faith the most. If one came across a situation so bad that he would feel he had to give up on his beliefs, why should one bother belonging to a religion in the first place? In this work, by Weisel, we see a middle aged man, in the beginning, refusing to fast for the holiday and accusing his believed God to be a stranger. Through tradition and learned fundamentals of a religion, people, in a way, submit themselves to a higher being, to someone or thing that they believe will help them to live the way they should. If a person has enough faith in them to spend their whole lives praying and obeying a certain divinity, they should have no reason to abandon what they’ve known all their lives. Most religions seem to exist based on the need of a superior controller, a need of something to look to when they need help that they can’t seek anyone else for. Reliance on a distinguished existence seems to give people hope and assistance. I don’t see how one can be mad at their â€Å"Go d† for having someth! ing bad happen. If all people of every religion followed this lead, it would seem absurd having any kind of religion. In this essay, an older man, Pinhas, said to be about forty years old, talks to a fifteen-year-old boy, declaring that he is not going to fast for Yom Kippur in rebelliousness towards God and his teachings in the Jewish religion. If a per...