Yom Kippur

Sep 6, 2021 | JMW News

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the highest Jewish holiday of the year and is observed as a day of fasting. On the eve of the festival, one eats abundantly once more time and then goes without food and drink for 25 hours. One spends a lot of time in the synagogue; even those Jewish women and men who are not particularly strict with their religion during the year take Yom Kippur very seriously. Since life is still more important than the law, children only fast half the day; sick and pregnant women do not fast at all. Bathing, putting on lotion, wearing leather shoes and making love are also prohibited. At the end of Yom Kippur, as at the Rosh Hashanah festival, the sound of the shofar horn, a hollowed-out ram’s horn, can be heard. The piercing, actually unpleasant sound reminds people of their religious duties.