YOM KIPPUR

(Note: Yom Kippur was Saturday. This entry was written on Yom Kippur but due to limited internet I was not able to post it till the following day)

My first international trip was to Israel in 1989. I left home as a Christian and came back home as a Jew. Needless to say it was a life changing experience for me and one that dictated a large part of my life for the next 30+ years as I kept the Sabbath, observed all Biblical holidays, ate exclusively kosher and attended synagogue. I never failed in all that time to observe every Jewish holiday and the holiest of them all was Yom Kippur, the day at atonement. 

Yom Kippur is considered the most important holiday of the year. It requires a complete fast for the entire day, and that means no food or even any water for the full 24 hour period of time. It is also forbidden to bathe, brush your teeth, or even comb your hair on that day, and almost every waking moment we are to stay in prayer and most of the time that means in the synagogue. It’s certainly an exercise in restraint and dedication. The result of all the effort though is worth it as it was the means of complete forgiveness of all sins for the past year, not only for ourselves but for our community and nation. I took this responsibility seriously and never fudged, even the slightest bit, after all, eternal forgiveness was on the line. 

Five years ago I was invited to go on a trip with some friends to attend the Albuquerque Balloon festival. I had always wanted to attend and so I jumped at the opportunity. I’ve long held to the belief that one should never pass up an opportunity because the same one may not ever come around again. 

We had a wonderful time and looking back I am so glad I did go since the person that arranged the trip passed away not long afterwards. But what I didn’t realize until we were already on the  road was that our last day of the trip was coincidentally on Yom Kippur. When I first realized my mistake it couldn’t have hurt worse had I fallen out of a balloon. 

I was absolutely devastated. This was not only A holiday, this was THE holiday. I not only ought to observe it but I HAD to observe it. My eternal soul was required to do this or I could be eternally damned, and I wouldn’t be able to help atone for the sins of the community or the World. We would be driving (forbidden), traveling (forbidden), eating (forbidden) and not in synagogue all day and night. It felt like I had just become a heathen, a reprobate, and I was about to be excommunicated from my faith. 

I wrestled with this throughout the trip and finally the day arrived. I was agonizing over the situation, which in a way was appropriate since this is a day of sorrow and mourning, but not for this reason. I did as little as I could that day but there was no getting around it, I desecrated the most holy day of the year.

Something life changing happened to me that day. What I realized is that the very next day the sun still rose as usual, work continued as always and life was no different at all. I began to understand that God and his ways were not dependent on me at all. I became hyper aware of the fact that my not following the rules that holy day never affected anything. This started me questioning many of my religious practices. 

I recalled a time when as a family we prayed asking God to bless our meal and nourish it to our bodies, as we did before every meal, yet we all got food poisoning. God doesn’t listen to us and literally change the molecular structure of the food before we eat it any more than he changes the molecular structure of grape juice and bread during communion. It still goes down as bread and wine, not flesh and blood. 

I then thought about the thousands of reform Jews that don’t keep the commandments yet still prosper and Judaism still goes on. And what about the millions of Christians that say they love the Lord but don’t follow the Bible at all. God doesn’t appear to mind that they ignore most of his laws and even came up with their own “new” version.

One of the most fundamental laws of God and one that when broken was punishable by death is to observe the Sabbath yet most Christians don’t even realize that according to the Bible, Sabbath is on Saturday, not Sunday, and I don’t see God killing them.  So how can they break something as important as one of the Ten commandments yet God doesn’t appear to hold it against them?

I also began observing people’s prayers. The young mother of a prominent church family I knew came down with cancer and the whole church went into prayer and fasting for God to heal her and she still died while another lady in a non-religious home came down with something similar and survived without any prayers. 

The scriptures say that God makes it rain on the just and unjust. The sun still rises and sets on everyone the same regardless of how many prayers we send up. Bad happens to both the sinner and the righteous and good also happens to both. Both suffer trauma and both have times of joy and rejoicing.

My observance of religion changed from something I had to do, and my observation of the scriptures was no longer literal. Praying for a meal was not a request but an act of thankfulness and gratitude. People were no longer the good ones and the bad ones but another fellow traveller on this journey of life and all deserve the same kindness, love and respect.

So here I am again, desecrating the holiest day of the year, traveling, eating, bathing. But I’m incredibly thankful and joyful for such an amazing opportunity.