Erev Yom kippur 2024

Customs of Yom Kippur eve 2024:

Asking forgiveness

It is a mitzvah to ask for forgiveness from all people who you may have offended or hurt during the year.

Receiving food (giving Lekach)

It is customary to ask and to receive a piece of honey cake at the synagogue, usually the gabbai hands out the cake to those attending.

The reason for this is, if someone needs a gift of flesh and blood, this fulfills the mitzvah.

A visit to the cemetery

Many among the people of Israel go the cemetery on Yom Kippur and visit the graves of loved ones who have passed away.

And so wrote Rabbi Moses Isserles about the words of Shulchan Aruch “there are places where it is customary to visit the graves and give charity, and it is good”
It is important to note that the intention of visiting these graves is to ask the dead to take pity on us up above, before God.
and not, by any means, to make demands or ask guidance of the dead.

Immersing in a mikveh

• It is customary to immerse in mikveh on Yom Kippur as preparation for the holy day, to be clean and pure, and there are those who added that the act of bathing is like a gentile who converts, when he immerses in the mikveh.

• There are also women who immerse on Yom Kippur eve.

• A man who is unable to immerse in a kosher mikveh, will bathe in a shower for several consecutive minutes, such that he pours approximately 13 liters of water on himself.

Holiday feast

Yom Kippur eve is a holiday and it is a mitzvah to hold a festive feast and to eat a lot.

He who is meticulous in observing the mitzvah of eating on Yom Kippur eve is considered to have fasted for two days, the 9th and the 10th.

Read more about the separation meal

Flogging

It is customary to receive 39 floggings, the reason for this is that through the flogging, man awakens to the need to repent.

The order of the floggings:

The man being flogged will kneel on his knees, and the flogger will take a belt and lightly tap his friend 39 times on the back, cycling through the right side, the left side, and the middle.

During the floggings, the flogger will recite the following verse three times.

“But He, being merciful, forgave iniquity and would not destroy; He restrained His wrath time and again and did not give full vent to His fury“

(the verse has 13 words X 3 is 39 words)

Confession

In the Mincha prayer, after “Yihiyu Leratzon”, we recite the confession as formulated by the wise men of old, which appears in the Siddur, in addition to the confession said on holy day prayers.

The reason for this is that we say the confession in advance in the Mincha prayer, because wise men of old were worried that people would get drunk, leaving them unable to confess properly on Yom Kippur eve.

Birkat Habanim – Blessing our children

It is customary for the father to bless his children, see the expanded entry – Birkat Habanim – Blessing our children.

Lighting candles

It is a mitzvah to light candles on Yom Kippur eve, there are several types of candles: Lighting the holy day’s candles, lighting the candle of life, and lighting Yahrzeit candles.

Read more about lighting the candles of Yom Kippur.

Giving to charity

On Yom Kippur eve, we give charity, as preparation for the holy day.

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We wish favorable judgment in the book of life to you and all the people of Israel

A good and sweet year of health and happiness and success in all things.

Beit Chabad. Wholeheartedly – to everyone.