The Washington herald., 1912-09-22
The, yewish Yom Kippur.

The Jewish Yom Kippur.
Like the Jews as a race, the chosen
people of the Bible. who survived un-
told petseeution,. mattwdom, tortures,
death, the terrible .auto-da-fe of the
Spanish inquisition and the lions OF
the Roman arena, their ancient institu-
tions also have survived. though in
some instances denuded OF their quaint
or antiquated customs.
This once more has been forcibly
brought to our mind by the observance
on the part of our Jewish feilow-citi-
zens of the most sacred of their. re-
|lisious festivals, the, Yom KippuD the
Day OF. Atonement, the Day of Days.
when on the strike of the clock at sun
down,- nolmatter- how crowded the. store,
how busy man or woman, all work OF
material and earthly interest ceases and
all flock to temple, synagogue, or rented
hall to do homage to Jehovah. -
As an institution, Yom Kippur is with
out a parallel. and has been so for that
long stretch of centuries which separate
US from the Mosaic periods, when with the
Ten Commandments, Just received from
the Deity on Mount Sinai, the great
lawyer and reformef instituted the
Jewish holidays. 1 E,
Yom Kippur, called the Day of Atone
ment, is more Of day of confessions.
1t is the forerunner of the Catholic
confessional and of the liturgy and
prayer Of remorse and hope for the
forgiveness of sin embodied in all re-
ligions. The day to the Jew or Gentle
alike, who believes" and has faith in
the trae sense of the, word, is of. vast
magnitude in the religious life of man.
Were Moses product of more mod
ern times, his injunctions would have
been less primitive, less crude, and more
adapted to the intellect of the people.
But he led horde of downtrodden
men and women. whom he had just
freed from bondage His aim was to
elevate and purify them. But he knew
well that he had to start at the lowest
rung of the ladder to fit his injunctions
to their low order of intellect Hence,
we find at the end OF each admonition
the words that "he who disobeys the
commands of Jehovah must die" Fear
| of terrible fate alone could have sub
dued and softened savages, and the
greatest reformer and lawgiver of all
times apparently knew his business,
though he faced a sheer insurmountable
difficulty in a benighted age and with
benighted, brutal people.
The story of this festival and that OF
its immediate predecessor, the New
Year. is quaint and pleasing to the
righteous, a staff upon which to lean
through life, but terrible thing to the
evil doer. The recording angel bal
ances his accounts on New Years Day
he totals up mans good and evil deed
through the year now ended. Then fol
low ten days of centrition, during which
the orthodox Jew, though following his
daily occupation, daily in his syna-
gogue beseeches Jehovah for mercy. Las
of all is the Yom Kippur, when mans
fate is sealed whether it be life OF
DEATH" and if death, what sort of a
violent death.
Jehovah is terrible" God. He never
forgets evil deeds. But he is not an un-
| forgiving God. Witness the conclusion
of the twenty-four hours during which
the pious believer has ceaselessly prayed
some Fever leaving the house of wor-
ship. the majority not touching food
or drink. The climax of the liturgy is
the kneeling down of the congregation
(nind you, the Jew kneels before his
Cod but once a year, in last supreme
effort to obtain mercy before the seal
| is put on the record" Suddenly power
full blast upon the shofar-the rams
horn-and all rise with joyful express
sions, their eyes raised to heaven, the
hope that they are forgiven on every
countenance Qifneh melect 9 malchai
hamlochim) before their great King
of Kings"
Quaint, yesl But wonderfully inspir-
ing. Is it a wonder that such an in
stitution has survived the agess Such
in abbreviated form, because of the LIMIT
Of snace Is the tale of Ynm Kinnurl