Why do we fast on Yom Kippur
Why do we fast on Yom Kippur?
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Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people, as is said in the Torah
“Because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins.”
On Beit Chabad’s Kippur website, you will learn the holy day’s rules and customs as well as everything you need to know about the holy day.
In addition, you can observe the kapparot mitzvah with Beit Chabad.
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Table of Contents:
Yom Kippur is the only day of the year in which the Torah commands us to inflict ourselves, unlike other fasts set by Chazal. Put simply, the purpose of the fast and infliction is for God to forgive us and to atone for our transgressions.
But the fast has an inner meaning as we will clarify below.
The point of Judaism
When a Jew sins, he sullies his soul with stains, and they must be cleaned and amended.
The yetzer hara makes us sin, in opposition to the Jew’s true, internal will, the stains and defects exists on the outside only. The truth is that on the inside, a Jew is good, clean and pure. Inside the soul, he is holy and pure.
The discovery of Yom Kippur
It is written about Yom Kippur: ‘the height of a day of atonement’, meaning: Yom Kippur has the power of atonement for all the sins committed throughout the year.
Yom Kippur is a time when the external layers that obfuscate and conceal the truth of the soul are peeled away, and the soul is discovered in its full radiance.
God is close to us, and through this, the soul awakens in order to shed its outer layers and discover the real self, meaning that point of Judaism that wants to be in contact with God. It is then discovered that there is no sin and no transgression!
Inside the Jewish man is a shiny diamond, that no transgression can sully.
This is why we must fast on Yom Kippur, since eating and drinking are needs of the body that interfere at the time the soul is discovered in its full force, by fasting we make ourselves like angels and become more spiritual
Observing the fast
Five prohibitions that apply to Yom Kippur, most of the Jewish people observe the fast and makes sure to attend synagogue, to pray and observe the day’s commandments.
At the Yom Kippur website, you will learn the day’s laws and customs, and even observe the custom of Kapparot through Beit Chabad.
