The Yom Kippur Speech:
The Yom Kippur Speech
So when I was a kid, Yom Kippur meant no food, insufferable hours in synagouge and wearing a tie. Somewhere around 1995, I was a cub reporter for the Baltimore Jewish Times, my first real adult job. They sent us all home on Yom Kippur and having no place else to go, that’s where I spent the day. I was pretty miserable guy at that point, hating my job, wondering why I still lived in the city where I attended college. So I spent that day fasting, in mediation, writing in my diary. I awoke most mornings that fall to “Little Earthquakes”, Tori Amos’s haunting debut album about sexual abuse, pain and ultimately, redemption. It seemed a perfect soundtrack for Yom Kippur, the most somber of days on the Jewish calendar.
And that’s what I’ve done since, me alone, no phone or computer. I wake up, ask for guidance and wisdom on this day and turn on Tori. When I hear the opening lines of “Crucify”, I get a little scared then begin my day.
This year, something a little different happened. My friend Jo called and asked if I wanted to spend the afternoon with her. We took a walk, rented “The Deer Hunter”, an appropriate film about loss of innocence and tragedy, themes that hung over this year’s Yom Kippur like a scrim. I relit the set of memorial candles I had placed on my window sill. At 6 PM, we talked a bit about attonement, how we would like to have lived better in the past year, Then we each bit into a bagel and broke the fast.
It’s the first time since I began my solitary Yom Kippurs that I’ve let someone in and it got me thinking. Judiasm is a communal religion, meant to practised and celebrated in public. I haven’t lived in San Francisco long enough to find my spiritual center and the institutional offering haven’t impressed me thus far. But perhaps it’s time to start looking. For six months, I’ve been working for myself, building something I’m very proud of. But I’m starting to feel like life right now is all about work, work I love, but there doesn’t feel like room for much else.
So I’m calling this a turning point. I decided on this day of attonement that what I’ve done the past six years is not enough.
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Hi my name is Bill it sounds like you could use a spiritual boost as well as a meaningful relaxing vacation. Try reading some material on the new testament meaning of the feast days such as, The Fall Feasts of Israel by Mitch and Zhava Glaser and others the new testament veiw is interesting and exiting as it leads us to understanding the fact the messiah will soon be coming again to rule this messed up world in peace for 1000 years.
Obseving the feast of tabernacles or booths from a new testament point of view will give you a physical rest and a spiritual boost. Have happy and meaning feasts and see what wonders it can do for you. Happy feast days. Bill
I have read and enjoyed your website. Especially since I am a Tori Amos fan (though my favorite is “Cornflake Girl”!) and one of my favorite movies is “the Deer Hunter” Seriously!(its just so loaded with symbolism! Amazing.) Any how, I felt compelled to write. I celebrated Yom Kippur this year too, but it had tremedous, even life-changing meaning for me so I wanted to share with you why. I have to tell you this–you need Messiah. When I attended Chasidic Orthodox synogogue without Yeshua I felt nothing. It was empty and boring. Hashem was not there, yet I knew he gave us Torah and these religious instructions. I am a Religious studies major at the University of Minnesota. This is my life-long area of study. Believe me I have searched it out and am now able to “back-up what I say. I have visited nearly every kind of church imaginable. Messianic Judaism is “the Way”. Please visit a Messianic synogoue in your area. What have you got to lose? I had been very turned off by Christianity (minus the Hebrew roots) because it didn’t make sense, and I saw a lot of hypocrisy and people I simply could not relate to (also things that did not “line up” with history). The messiah of Judaism, Yeshua, that I have since found filled my spirit with everything I was looking for. One book really changed my life, “Why Me?”, by Jacob Damkani. Please read it. And check out Sid Roth and the “Messianic Vision”. And let me know what you think. Man, it changed my life! I hope this is helpful to you because I have been a “seeker” always too, and this is the only thing that works for me. I know that emptiness you can feel (especially on Yom Kippur!) You really sound like you’re seeking too. This is the answer that I have found. Yom Kippur was amazing this year. I mean it. I wanted to share this thing with
you. Shalom and thanks for listening.
Tracie from Saint Paul, Minnesota
Sure. Anytime.