What does Yom Kippur mean to you?

[The Grovers Corners Yenta]

Posted: 10/1/06 at 11:52am

Aside from fasting, what does this holiday mean to you? Discuss.

[bwaylvsong]

Posted: 10/1/06 at 12:10pm

I'm hungry.

[afaye11]

Posted: 10/1/06 at 12:11pm

To me it is a day of forgiveness.

[shira467]

Posted: 10/1/06 at 12:12pm

It's a day of forgiveness but more importantly a reminder of the fact that we must all forgive and be forgiven.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 10/1/06 at 12:17pm

This is going to be an intense fast for me, considering my really bad sore throat I have had for a week now.

But this year Yom Kippur will really hit home in the sense of how fleeting life is, and how I should be living every day as the person I want to be remembered as.

Akiva

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 10/1/06 at 12:46pm

As a non-Jew, for me it means that the kids are out of school and I will have a heck of a busy day.

[bta212]

Posted: 10/1/06 at 1:04pm

I'm not a very observant Jew, but I feel very strongly about the wisdom and power of the idea of an annual opportunity to examine my own behavior truthfully and confront myself with the ways in which I have fallen short--not of the arbritrary rules of a religion, but of my own code of behavior and ethics.

Whether or not there is someone with the ability to hear my litany of failure and absolve me is irrelevant; the idea that I can acknowledge my shortcomings and make a commitment to myself to try again this year to do better is inspirational and very motivating for me.

Y.K. also means the sound of my Father weeping--something he never does except for Y.K.--when he lets himself really FEEL the grief over the losses he has experienced. It used to terrify me, but now I understand the power of that release. My Mother died last weekend, so I suspect he and I are going to be quite a pair this year...

Updated On: 10/1/06 at 01:04 PM