Yom Kippur – the most important Jewish holiday, focusing primarily on atonement and repentance – falls this year on Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 and 12 October. On 12 October, therefore, it will not be possible to visit POLIN Museum (the exhibition is always closed on Tuesdays).
Copyrights
Żydzi modlący się w synagodze w Jom Kippur (Maurycy Gottlieb, 1878), fot. https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jom_Kippur
Yom Kippur (Hebrew: Day of Atonement, in Poland also known as the Judgment Day) – a day of atonement and fasting observed on the 10th day of the month of Tishri. It is the most important day in the Jewish calendar, the culmination of Ten Days of Repentance. It was the only day when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem. Yom Kippur is preceded by the ceremony of Kapparot, ritual immersion in a mikveh, and symbolic self-flagellation (now rarely practiced).
Tradition requires to observe strict fast and prohibits bathing, wearing leather shoes and engaging in marital relations. The evening service begins with the Kol Nidrei prayer, which annuls any religious oaths. Prayers are said in synagogues for almost the entire day; people pray for the dead, confess their sins, pray for God’s forgiveness, read the Torah, the Book of Jonah. The day ends with the Neilah (Hebrew: “closing”) prayer and blowing the shofar.
In 2016, the holiday will begin on Tuesday, 11 October, at dusk (i.e. 5:50 PM) and last until 5:48 PM the next day.