High Holy Day prayers

We contemplate our spiritual life and our behavior.
BENITA BAKER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

The High Holidays are the time when we celebrate God and are judged by Him. God decides who shall live and who shall die and the prayers we say attempt to influence His decision. These prayers, found in the special holiday prayer book, the machzor, inspire us to consider our spiritual life and our behavior toward others and to look within ourselves for the answers.

Rosh Hashanah prayers

The repetition of Avinu Malkaynu (Our Father, Our King) occurs throughout the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur davening. This prayer lists 44 admissions of guilt and begs God to forgive our sins and help us repent.

The three major themes of Rosh Hashanah – God is all powerful, God remembers and will always remember, God revealed himself on Mt. Sinai and gave us the Torah – are the focus of the Musaf Amidah (additional) prayer service. This prayer is divided into three sections of 10 verses, each focusing on one of the major themes:

• Malchuyot (Kingship) proclaims God as King of the Universe.

• In Zichronot (Remembrance), we ask that God remember His covenant with the Jewish people and especially that Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac in fulfilment of God's command.

• Shofarot (sounding of the Shofar) is the most treasured custom. One hundred blasts of the shofar, in three different notes, are sounded each day.

Casting off our sins

Although not a part of the synagogue service, Tashlich (Casting Off) is a popular custom that normally takes place in the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah. Standing by a body of water, participants will recite special prayers and empty their pockets, or throw bread crumbs or twigs, into the water. This gesture is a reminder of the scapegoat ceremony described in the Torah, where a goat, symbolically carrying the sins of the Jewish people, was sent into the desert.

Another ancient custom of symbolically casting off sins, kapparot, is also not part of the synagogue service. On the morning before Yom Kippur, a live fowl is waved over the head while reciting prayers asking that the fowl be considered as atonement for sins. Today, kapparot is generally performed with money which is then donated to charity.

Seeking atonement

On Rosh Hashanah it is written and on Yom Kippur it is sealed. The 10 days in between are the time for atonement, the time to change God's mind. The three actions for atoning are prayer, repentance and charity. The Hebrew word for repentance – teshuvah – means return to God and, by focusing on prayer and our relationship to God, we will become closer to God.

Yom Kippur prayers

The solemn evening service that begins Yom Kippur, Kol Nidre (All Vows), asks God to release us from all personal vows we may make under duress. This ancient prayer enabled Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity to renounce their oath and return to Judaism.

The general theme of Yom Kippur prayers is forgiveness and repentance. Judaism believes that confession is an essential part of repentance and during the Vidui service the congregation confesses the sins of the community. Sins are expressed in the plural, acknowledging that while no single person has committed these sins, all Jews are collectively responsible.

Yom Kippur ends with the Ne'ilah (Closing) service, which refers to the symbolic closing of the gates of Heaven. The prayer is the last attempt to ensure that God has accepted our prayers and that our name has been inscribed in the Book of Life before it is sealed. A final long blast of the shofar concludes the service.

The prayers not said

The Hallel (hymns of praise) are joyous prayers that are traditionally recited after major festivals like Passover and Sukkot. They are not said on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur because these holidays are a time of repentance and self-judgment, and not a time for celebration.

Benita Baker is a freelance writer from Ottawa and a regular contributor to Canadian daily and Jewish community papers.

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