The Denver Jewish news., 1924-01-03
Yom Kippur: An Out
worn Institution
BY RABBI J. MAX wEIs

Il Judaism, throughout iis nistory VI
progress. has been a succession of bat
4 ties against the overwhelming weight
4 Of massed traditions. Long before the
original leaders Of Reform Judaism
Maimonides turned the mind of his
fellow-Jew to the quest of reasons for
1 each law observed. He had the cour-
1 age to assert that the system of sacri-
fees in ancient Israel was adopted only
as a matter of expediency, to facilitate
the substitution among the populace OF
he worship of the one God for the
/ many gods of their environment. The
continuance of animal sacrifices repre-
sented u compromise in religious evolu-
tion.
The liberal Rabbis Of today are just
as cautions as the priests Of Palestine
in adjusting the modern Jews religious
thought and practice. in these days Of
"Transition.' We threw overheard
/ without any halfway measures, the
fast on the Ninth Day OF Alb. We made
no attempt to substitute for it some
thought such as the building OF the
Il spiritual Zion on earth. ! stress this
suggestion. because 1 am conscious OF
i the fact that Rabbis will challenge my
proposal for abolishing Yom Kippur
with the proposal that we interpret
this holiday anew and SO preserve its
pOtentiality for the spiritual welfare
of the Jew. I ask "Why did not the
| 4, ;ntI nax nf
1 Alb, instead of casting it wholly out Of
Jewish life?''
i i maintain that there is something
more serious in giving up the Ninth
Day of Alb than in abolishing Yom Kip
| pur. The Ninth Day Of Alb, with its
thought of Jerusalem. with Its endless
memories of that glorious city's role
i in the development of Judaisms inspir-
/ ing literature and its host of courag-
eOus prophets and teachers, has in it
the potcntiality of definite ideal. The
Jews had once lived in Jerusalem.
Why could not our Rabbis have had n
festive day for glorifying the Jerusa-
l lem of the eodus from Egypt? In our
II
have stirred the souls of men today to
i such poetic eXaltatio nus moved the lips
i of Il Jehudah Halevi. We might have
i thrilled the Imagination of our Jewish
youth with the responsibility Of some
day giving to mankind the model Of IN
i ideal Zion that would yield the spir-
itual fruit and idealism that once
sprnng from the soil of Zion's hills.
Il I challenge anyone to paint an in
spring picture Of Yom Kippur. The
end to our practice of making sacri-
fetal atonemcnt for the temple and its
priests. No liberal Rabbi exhorts his
Il people to fast. as a religious require
4 mcnt for the observance of the Day
4 of Atoncment Surely. no Rabbi be-
Iicves that God and his recording an
gels sit before an open book and seal
each mans fate on that day! If the
symbolism of these customs and tradi-
tiomal beliefs is eliminated. what defiin-
ite picture do our rabbis offer to the
jew on Iom Kippur?
The only picture / can summon is
an exhaustive, morocco-bound cata-
loguc of sins. committed by mankind
in its centuries of development, which
each individual in the congregation is
asked to eschew. Our reform Rabbis
have not even issued revised edition
of this catalogue of sins. A revision
| would involve the insertion in our
| liturgy. and in our preachment. of
coura geous indictments of the bigotry.
intolerance and social injustices of our
congrcgnnts. What an easy makeshift
| to rccitc the sins that had character
| lied our fathers in centuries past. We
seem to forget that new sins and
wrongs have arisen. by virtue of the
new social conditions under which we
| live.
l would abolish Yom Kippur, not
| only because it has nothing of the
beauty of Rosh Hashanah. of Pesach.
of Chanukah and revised Tisha
B'Ab. but because it has become n
| stronghold and breeding ground of
hypocrisy and Indifference. Instead of
| making for vitality, it makes for laxity.
Jews flock to the synagogue on Yom
| Kippur, to the synagogue anneNcs at
l the Town Halls. at the Masonic Syrian
Mosques. and the Medinah Temples of
| our large cities and are soothed with
| II spiritual bath that keeps them clean
from Jewish contacts and Jewish
| thoughts for the rest of the year.
Instead of stirring the consciences
of men. Yom Kippur so bcwilders poor
| mortal ran with the wide range and
catalogue of human iniquity, that he