Yom Kippur 2024: Online Service for Sunday 13th October 2024

Opening Words Atonement Day by Chaim Stern

Once more Atonement Day has come.

All pretence gone, naked heart revealed to the hiding self.

We stand on holy ground, between the day that was and the one that must be. We tremble. At what did we aim?

How did we stumble? What did we take? What did we give? To what were we blind?

Last year’s confession came easily to the lips. Will this year’s come from deeper than the skin?

Say then: Why are our paths strewn with promises like fallen leaves? Say then: When shall our lust be for wisdom?

Say now: Love and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall embrace.

Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point. Words by Julie Nedin.

We gather together and, in lighting our chalice,

we witness a flame of hope.

Whatever has been our personal pathway here today

and wherever it takes us afterwards,

whatever our beliefs, religious heritage, faith, certainty and doubt:

we are all sisters and brothers in common humanity.
We join in this community seeking

the best way in which we can live our lives.

Opening Prayer

Spirit of Life and Love,

be with us as we gather for worship,

each in our own place.

Help us to feel a sense of community,

even though we are physically apart.

Help us to care for each other,

in this world in which Covid has not yet gone away,

and the clouds of war and climate change overshadow us.

May we keep in touch however we can,

and help each other, however we may.

May we be grateful for the freedoms we have

and respect the wishes of others.

May we hold in our hearts all those

who are grieving, lost, alone,

suffering in any way,

Amen

Reading from the Hebrew Testament, Leviticus 16: 29-34.

This shall be a statute to you forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall deny yourselves, and shall do no work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you. For on this day atonement shall be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Lord. It is a Sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall deny yourselves; it is a statute forever. The priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the linen vestments, the holy vestments. He shall make atonement for the sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. This shall be an atonement for the people of Israel once in the year for all their sins. And Moses did as the Lord had commanded for him.

Alternative Lord’s Prayer

Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,

May we be aware of your presence in our lives.

May our world be blessed.

May our daily needs be met,

And may our shortcomings be forgiven,

As we forgive those of others.

Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,

The inspiration and guidance to do right,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.

May we have compassion for all living beings,

And receive whatever life brings,

With courage and trust. Amen

Reading from Judaism: A Very Short Introduction by Norman Solomon

For at least part of the day [of Yom Kippur] (prayers continue throughout the day) synagogues are full to overflowing. Not all of those who attend are early seeking forgiveness of sin, or engaging solemnly in soul-searching and penitence, tempered by confident faith in God’s mercy and compassion on frail humanity. That is indeed what the day is about, and what the pious are about. For many people, however, putting in a brief appearance at the synagogue on Yom Kippur is a statement of Jewish identity rather than a religious commitment.

But it is a remarkable way to demonstrate identity, especially if – as it is often the case even with the minimally religious – it is combined with fasting. For on Yom Kippur, not only work is forbidden, as on the Sabbath, but there are five innuyim, or forms of self-discipline: the prohibitions of eating and drinking (counted as one), anointing with oils, sexual relations, washing (for pleasure), and wearing leather shoes.

Teshuva (penitence) atones (immediately) for minor sins, both positive and negative, but if a serious sin has been committed, it hands in suspense until Yom Kippur comes and atones. If someone says, ‘I shall sin and repent, I shall sin and repent’, he is not given an opportunity to repent. If someone says, ‘I will sin and I will atone’, Yom Kippur does not atone. Yom Kippur atones for sins between man and God, but it does not atone for offences against another person until reconciliation has been effected.

Prayer On Turning by Jack Riemer (adapted)

Spirit of Life and Love,

Now is the time for turning. The leaves are beginning to turn from green to red and orange. The birds are beginning to turn and are heading once more toward the South. The animals are beginning to turn to storing their food for the coming winter. For leaves, birds, and animals turning comes instinctively.

But for us turning does not come so easily. It takes an act of will for us to make a turn. It means breaking with old habits. It means admitting that we have been wrong; and this is never easy. It means losing face; it means starting all over again; and this is always painful. It means saying: I am sorry. It means recognising that we have the ability to change. These things are hard to do. But unless we turn, we will be trapped forever in yesterday’s ways.

God, help us to turn – from callousness to sensitivity, from hostility to love, from pettiness to purpose, from envy to contentment, from carelessness to discipline, from fear to faith.

Turn us around, O God, and bring us back toward You. Revive our lives, as at the beginning. And turn us toward each other, God, for in isolation there is no life.

May it be so, Amen

Reading Thought for the Day 29^th September 2006 by Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks [adapted]

The past Friday night was the beginning of the holiest day in the Jewish year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement; and it’s an extraordinary day. To begin with, it’s a 25 hour fast, unusual enough in a religion like Judaism where every other festival has its own kind of food. And it’s a kind of marathon of the soul. We spend the entire day in the synagogue, praying and confessing our sins. We go through the entire lexicon of offences against God and our fellow human beings, and we pray to God for forgiveness.

If you were to devise a day calculated to drive people away from the synagogue you’d come up with something like the Day of Atonement. Yet the strange thing is that almost everyone is there, even those who don’t go the rest of the year. What is it about this day that has engraved it so deeply on the Jewish heart?

It’s about accepting responsibility. It’s about saying, in dozens of different ways, “Dear God, I blame no one but myself. Forgive me for the wrong I’ve done and give me the strength to put it right.

I sometimes wonder whether in our culture as a whole we’ve lost that sense of responsibility. Too often when things go wrong we tend to blame everyone except ourselves: the government, politicians, the media, our schools, our selfish genes. It’s their fault, not ours. They’re guilty; we’re the victims.

A culture like that can’t generate citizenship, which is all about accepting responsibility. If we believe that our rights are someone else’s responsibility, we become passive not active; done-to not doers. We come to expect unearned entitlements, and when we don’t get what we think we should, we can become prisoners of frustration and anger, resentment and rage.

The Day of Atonement Is about what it is to be a citizen of the universe under the sovereignty of God. God gives us responsibility. He invites us to become, in that great Jewish phrase, His partners in the work of creation. And yes, we fail time and again, but every failure is forgiven if we did our best and strive to do better next time. Responsibility matters not just because of what we achieve by it but also because of what we become through it: active citizens, co-creators of a better world.

Time of Stillness and Reflection For the Sunday near the Yom Kippur by Elizabeth Strong (adapted)

Let us join in a time of stillness and reflection …

We have returned again to the time of Atonement, the time to look back over our lives this past year and face the realities of when we have fallen short of the aims set forth in “Moments of high resolve.”

We have the opportunity, if we choose to take it, to hold ourselves to a standard that calls us to heed our faith’s principles in the life we live each day.

The Jewish New Year asks of us forgiveness and atonement: To be at one with each other in times of broken promises, that we might mend relationships; To be at-one with each other in times of pain that we might bring comfort in our compassion for the intensity of that pain: To be at one with each other in times of joy that we might enrich the shared laughter so necessary to our well-being.

Atonement is an attempt to be at one with the holy. For us it is also an attempt to create a wholeness of community among ourselves. Here is where the sacred and the holy enter, and the community we create brings a sense of at-one-ment not known elsewhere. Forgiveness, atonement, wholeness come together in this place as we become one gathered community of liberal religious seekers. Let us ponder these things in the silence …

[Silence]

Let us rejoice and be thankful that we are together again. Amen

Address Yom Kippur 2024

Like many folk, I make New Year’s resolutions on January 1^st. This year, mine included losing a stone in weight (epic fail) and continuing to write something every day. And now the year is nearly three-quarters over.

The Jewish New Year occurs in the Autumn. There is a festival called Rosh Hashanah, which literally means ‘head of the year’. It falls on the first day of the seventh Jewish month, Tishri. In 2024 it started on the evening of 3^rd October and ended on the evening of the following day. It is a day of rest and there are statutory religious services. In this festival three themes are interwoven: the anniversary of the world’s creation; the day of judgement; and the renewal of the bond between God and Israel. As with our secular New Year celebration, there are many customs which involve renewal and starting again: many have a haircut just before, and wear their best clothes, often white, to symbolise purity. Home rituals include dipping an apple in honey and eating it to symbolise their hopes for a sweet year to come.

But Rosh Hashanah also has a more serious purpose. It is the start of a ten-day period of self-examination known as the Days of Return that culminate in the festival of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which was celebrated last Wednesday and Thursday. Angela Wood and Hugo Gryn explain in Festivals in World Religions, “The heightened spiritual awareness and self-examination which began on New Year’s Day should continue throughout the period as individuals and communities prepare for forgiveness and atonement.”

As we saw in our first reading, the observation of Yom Kippur by Jews was laid down by God in the time of Moses. Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks calls it “the holiest day in the Jewish Year.” It is the time when Jews repent for their sins of the past year and resolve to do better in the next year. The Hebrew word for repentance is teshuvah – it also means returning. In other words, people have moved away from God because of their sins, but through teshuvah, they return to Him.

It is an obligation many Jews take very seriously. It is recognised that neither teshuvah nor Yom Kippur can cancel out the hurt between one person and another until that hurt has been healed. So on the eve of Yom Kippur, it is customary within the Jewish community for people to ask forgiveness of each other for any wrongs they may have committed or any pain they may have caused. As Wood and Gryn explain, “They must mend and heal all that they can, but some suffering cannot be relieved so easily. It is then gracious of the one who has suffered to forgive the one that caused it. After that, all are at liberty to begin Yom Kippur – a day of atonement between people and God, a day given in the Torah for human benefit.”

An important part of the real repentance is confession: unlike Roman Catholics, Jews have no human being to confess to, no mediator and no intercessor, for they do not believe that anyone should come between a person and God, or that anyone can play the part of God. So their sins are confessed directly to God, as they believe that only God can forgive and take away guilt. An important part of the Yom Kippur services is a formal confession by the whole congregation. This has two purposes: it allows individuals to avoid personal embarrassment, and secondly, and more importantly, every Jew present is accepting responsibility for every other Jew’s actions by saying “We have sinned …”

The other major way that Jews mark Yom Kippur is by fasting for 25 hours, from sunset to sunset. This only applies to adults who are fit and healthy – saving life and being healthy are very important to Jews, and it is recognised that no-one should risk their health by fasting. So Jews who are sick or weak, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers are exempt from this obligation. Children are also not required to fast, although as they get older, they may do without food or drink for part of the day. Nine-year old Joanna explains, “I don’t have breakfast and I fast as much as I can. I wasn’t allowed to fast when I was younger. I feel very grown up when I fast. It helps me think of people who are starving. But I don’t really know what they feel, because they haven’t eaten for days and I haven’t eaten for just a few hours, so it isn’t the same. We fast so that we don’t spend the whole time thinking about food. We think about God instead. If we’re sorry, God forgives us.”

As well as fasting, Jews also refrain from washing, anointing, wearing leather and sexual intercourse. The reason for not wearing leather is that it is made from a dead animal, and to do so would not be right on a day of praying for God’s mercy, which is for all creatures. “Anointing” these days would include applying make-up, hair or skin cream, or wearing perfume or jewellery.

Wood and Gryn give four main reasons for fasting on Yom Kippur: “it is, first, a way of showing sincerity, that the desire for forgiveness is genuine; that the Jew is willing to give something up and feels that punishment would be fair – even though God is not punishing him or her. Second, fasting requires self-discipline and this can lead to betterment in other aspects of the personality. Third, if the body is ignored for a day, then the person can concentrate on the spirit. Fourth, fasting can make a person more compassionate, more sensitive to the needs of others.” So it is quite a serious undertaking.

The day before Yom Kippur, Jews have to prepare themselves. They will use the mikveh, a special bath used for religious purposes to purify themselves. The meal before the fast begins is special. Festival candles are lit and so are yahrzeit or anniversary candles, because Yom Kippur is a day on which Jews recite Yizkhor – a memorial prayer of close ones who have died. Everyone dresses up in their best and serves good food. Then the 25-hour fast begins.

Throughout this special time, there are services at the synagogue. They begin in the evening, then start again in the morning and go on all day. There is an extra service just before sunset. In the synagogue, the coverings which go round the Torah (that is, Jewish scripture) scrolls and the curtains which go round the Ark of the Covenant are white, to symbolise purity. Many Jews also wear white clothes. When Yom Kippur is over, there is one long blast on the shofar, a special instrument made out of a ram’s horn, to signify that fasting can stop and that God’s forgiveness has come.

I think that the purpose of Yom Kippur is a very important one that all human beings could benefit from – the injunction, once a year, to look back on how we have done, what we have done well, what we could have done better, and to make resolutions for the year ahead.

The nearest equivalent to Yom Kippur in the Christian religious year is Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent. In the past, people used up all the good things, such as butter and eggs, before they began the Lent fast. To be shriven is to be forgiven, so shrove means “being forgiven”. This is the time when many Christians confess their sins and ask God to forgive them. Some may go to a priest who gives them absolution. Then on the following day, Ash Wednesday, they show that they are sorry for the things they have done wrong. Some go to a special church service where the priest smears a cross of ash on their foreheads. Then they feel that they can prepare for Easter without the burden of sin.

One of my favourite theologians is the wonderful Rabbi Lionel Blue. Many of us will remember his Thoughts for the Day on Radio 4. I have most of his books, which I have read and re-read, and was lucky enough to go and see him “live” a few years ago. Sadly, he is no longer with us, although his wisdom remains, in his wonderful books. Over the years, he has taught me that the only thing that God wants from us is for us to be more kind, more generous to everyone (including ourselves) and more honest, both with ourselves and our fellow travellers in the world. It is about listening to that inner voice, whether we call it God, or the light within, or our conscience, and about doing the right thing rather than the easy one.

I would like to share some of his wisdom with you. In one of his last books, The Godseeker’s Guide, he writes, “So the problem is, ‘How do you teach kindness?’ … Perhaps by remembering the kindnesses you’ve received and the unkindnesses you’ve suffered and what both felt like, and also the kindnesses you’ve shown and the unkindnesses you’ve inflicted, and how you catch kindness from people, like measles, not from books. A lot of unkindness comes because people don’t like themselves. So, take credit for the good you’ve done, treat yourself kindly and you’ll be kinder to others.”

I believe that we, as Unitarians, could learn much from the customs and rituals of Yom Kippur. The process of self-examination is not an easy one, but it is so very worthwhile. The thing that makes this deeper process possible for me is the hope that comes from being part of a loving, living Unitarian community. Here is the place where I can think and reflect on these matters, secure in the knowledge that there are loving arms to catch me, if I fall. I think that sometimes we underestimate the importance of our own Unitarian communities to their members. There is nowhere else that I can think of where it is possible to bring your whole self, and be wholeheartedly accepted, warts and all. And that is so precious.

Long may it continue, Amen

Closing Words A Litany of Atonement by Robert Eller-Isaacs

For remaining silent when a single voice would have made a difference