by Deb Altman (with comments from Yom Kippur study session participants)
When I first thought about this session I envisaged a long moan about how difficult it is to hold to the ideals of Yom Kippur while society is falling apart all around us. The more I thought about it, the more I realised how much value the day brings to me and my participation in the mixed society I live in. The title then moved on to “The joys and challenges of Yom Kippur in a multicultural society”. I’ll start by explaining the challenges I experience then move on, if not to Joys(!) then at least to the benefits and value I gain from taking part in this day.
The first challenge is taking time off. As everyone studying or working in education knows, the High Holy Days happen at the busiest time of the year. Students are just getting used to new classes, new tutors and new timetables; teachers and lecturers have to choose between their commitment to Judaism and their commitment to getting their new students off to a good start. As the holidays fall so close together at this time of year, it can seem hard to justify one or two days’ absence each week from the workplace. For some Jews perhaps this is less of a struggle, but for me it is an annual wrestling match between different aspects of my conscience.
The second challenge is explaining to others what you have been doing. Since most people around me are Christians they can understand sin and affliction aspects of the Fast. What seems more alien to them is the associated importance of celebratory and communal activities, which I’m only recently beginning to realise for myself.
The third challenge is central to the observance of Yom Kippur: the notions of guilt and sin. I understand that on Yom Kippur we reflect on our deeds of the past year and vow that we will do better next year. How can we do this without pulling ourselves to pieces and believing we have nothing useful to offer to the world? One thing I find helpful is the image of the scapegoat, which carries our sins off into the wilderness. This helps me to feel refreshed and renewed rather than bowed down by my guilt and all my sins. It also means I really have to reflect on my thoughts and actions, to decide exactly what I’m going to lay on the poor creature. I don’t want it to have to carry any unnecessary burdens.
Comment: The English word ‘sin’ is translated from the Hebrew ‘Chet’, which derives from an archery term meaning ‘to miss the target’. We found this a helpful way of re-defining the notion of sin.
So why do I do Yom Kippur? This is the fourth challenge. I have to answer this question in order to affirm my reasons for participating in a festival which presents me with so many challenges. I have experimented a few times with alternative, not strictly halachic, approaches to the festival. At the end of each I’ve had a sense of disappointment or frustration, feeling as though I haven’t achieved the state of fulfilment I experience when I have more nearly ‘followed the rules’. This led me to try and identify my ‘minimum requirements for a successful Yom Kippur’. You might like to do this as an exercise for yourself sometime. So here are the ingredients (I couldn’t resist just one reference to cooking!) I find to be essential for me to feel I have ’done’ Yom Kippur.
1 I have to fast. Barring, of course, illness or medication if required. However fasting on its own is not enough.
2 As part of my fast I need to make time to reflect: maybe on my Jewishness or things that I’ve done this year and how I would like to do things next year.
3 I have to be part of a community, so fasting together with other Jews seems more effective than fasting alone.
4 I haven’t tested this out, but I suspect it’s important to me that the community is praying for at least some of the time.
I was interested to find that these criteria are explained by Arthur Waskow, in “Seasons of our Joy”. He says, “So Yom Kippur has become the moment when most Jews individually and the Jewish people collectively experience the strongest sense of partnership and covenant with God.” This reflects my experience of the individual and the collective; the relationship with each other and with God.
Comment: It also echoes our connection with other Jews at this time, not only around the world but also through the generations and centuries during which we have been celebrating Yom Kippur.
So what do I get out of participating in Yom Kippur? In thinking about this I identified a surprising number of benefits, which make the day feel worth while.
1 In a strange way I find it liberating to have a day which is not bounded by mealtimes. It makes me realise how on other days my time is divided into meals and the time between meals. By taking away this structure I move into a sense of timelessness, which allows the space for reflection, or for discussion with others, without interruption.
2 One of my favourite moments is the Chazzan’s prayer, where the Chazzan proclaims his humility before God, and I in turn get a sense of my own humility in the world. To me, a Chazzan is someone so knowledgeable and devout that is seems hard to imagine he carries any sins at all. The fact that he declares humility does not in any way detract from his skills and the esteem he is afforded. This helps me to recognise the possibility of being open to correction and improvement, without being completely worthless as a person.
3 On Yom Kippur I have a sense of being completely Jewish. This is probably true for many of you most of the time, but on other days I frequently feel my Jewishness is compromised by the innumerable other demands of secular (or Christian) society. On many days I experience in a minor way the types of struggle of conscience I described earlier.
4 The day after Yom Kippur I often feel very calm, refreshed and at peace with the world. This is obviously of benefit to the people around me and my colleagues, and it helps me to feel justified for taking the time off work.
How Yom Kippur strengthens me to participate in secular society 1 The Mishnah states: “For transgressions between human beings and God, Yom Kippur effects atonement; but for transgressions between a person and his fellow, Yom Kippur effects atonement only if he has made peace with his fellow.” This reminds me that it’s not enough to push away the rest of my world and concentrate on fasting and praying for a day. I need to sort things out with everyone I might have upset at work, the next-door neighbour and so on.
2 I’ve recently learned that on Yom Kippur we read the book of Jonah. As I’ve usually given up and gone to bed by this time(!!) I’ve never actually done this on Yom Kippur afternoon, but in preparation for this talk I had a look at the relevance of Jonah to this day. I was intrigued to find how closely I could identify with Jonah, and how I suddenly understood the text in a way I’d never appreciated before.
Firstly, I have an image of Jonah as a Jewish man, not devoutly religious but observant in some respects. God asks him to go to Nineveh to pass on God’s message. Jonah thinks, “Why me?” and tries to avoid doing it. This describes me in my working and secular life, every time someone asks me a question about Judaism, or in some way expects me to represent the entire Jewish people. I feel like saying “Why me?” and I look around and realise there’s no-one else to do it!
On reading it the second time I realised that the point of the story is for God to show Jonah that He cares for all people, whether or not they are Jewish. This for me represents an image of God I can feel comfortable with. It makes no sense in my life to have a moral code which applies to Jews and disregards all others. We live in a multi-cultural community in which everyone, in my opinion, has a right to equal treatment by God and by other people. Reading Jonah and participating in Yom Kippur strengthens me as a Jew and helps me to understand my role in a secular, multi-cultural society.
Yom Kippur by its nature presents many challenges, and for me these are compounded by the challenge of practising Judaism in a multicultural society. I’m always one for a challenge, but I think it’s important to understand why you’re taking it on. On balance, I find that for me, the benefits of participating in Yom Kippur outweigh the challenges. I suppose that’s why I’m still doing it, and why it felt important to me to prepare this talk.
