A Yom Kippur Story

By Johanna Hibbard, Grade 1 Class Teacher

"I can't go to school today. My family is going to whisper their sins into a rubber chicken," my daughters joked, explaining why we miss school on Yom Kippur.

For Jews, Yom Kippur is considered the holiest day of the year. The High Holidays begin with Rosh Hashanah (the "head" of the year, or the new year) and continue through Yom Kippur. On September 7 we began the year 5782 on the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur is called the “day of atonement” because it is a day to reflect back over the past year and apologize for any wrongdoings. It is also a day to give the gift of genuine forgiveness to anyone who apologizes to you. Jewish tradition teaches that we must seek forgiveness directly from whomever we have transgressed (in other words, apologize in person). Jews wear white and fast in order to be closer to the Divine. The color white symbolizes spiritual purity and withdrawal from the material world.

Now back to that rubber chicken - in ancient times, the village would whisper their sins into a chicken's ear and then slaughter the chicken to symbolically clean the slate for the new year. In my shul (synagoge) in Portland on Yom Kippur, we have a cruelty-free version of this ritual in which we whisper our sins into a rubber chicken's ear. When the chicken is returned to the Rabbi, heavy with sin, she twirls it over her head to clean the slate for a new year.

Sometimes people wonder what to say to their Jewish friends on Yom Kippur, since "Happy Yom Kippur" doesn't quite seem appropriate- you can say, "Have an easy fast," or "May you be inscribed for a good year."