JTA
One year after Oct. 7, a Yom Kippur ritual of communal mourning takes on fresh meaning
Andrew Silow-Carroll
October 6, 2024

…Yom Kippur begins this year on Oct. 11, four days after the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, and once again rabbis and liturgists are trying to find ways to ritualize raw communal grief on the holy day. A number of groups have put out supplements to the High Holiday prayer book, known as the mahzor, containing reflections, prayers and whole services addressing the mourning and anguish around the day and subsequent 12 months of a crisis that shows few signs of fading. The entire cycle of this year’s High Holidays is haunted by Oct. 7, especially Simchat Torah, the season’s climax: Hamas breached Israel’s southern fence on the holiday last year, and congregations have been struggling with how to celebrate what is supposed to be a joyous holiday on what is essentially the yahrtzeit, or death anniversary, of some 1,200 victims of the attacks and the kidnapping of hundreds more. READ MORE

ETTINGER REPORT Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) Guide for the Perplexed, 2024 Asking forgiveness of fellow human-beings is a major feature of Yom Kippur, transferring human behavior from acrimony and vindictiveness to forgiveness and peaceful coexistence. It is consistent with the philosophy of Hillel the Elder, a leading 1st century BCE Jewish Sage: “The essence of the Torah is: do not do unto your fellow person that which is hateful to you; the rest [of the Torah] is commentary.” Yom Kippur highlights faith, magnanimity, humility, genuine-repentance, compassion, consideration, forgiveness, responsibility and optimism. It recognizes one’s fallibilities, emphasizes learning from one’s mistakes, minimizing future missteps, elevating morality and enhancing family and community cohesion.