YOM KIPPUR BEVETENU A Spiritual Humanistic Guide to Yom Kippur at Home

Most people spend Yom Kippur somewhere other than a synagogue. This is a book for them.

Yom Kippur beVetenu is a complete Spiritual Humanistic Jewish observance of the day, built for a sofa, an armchair, a bed, a garden, a walk — for one person alone, or for a household together. It is not a shortened synagogue service and not a substitute for one. It is arranged by the light and the body rather than by services.

THE SHAPE OF THE DAY:

• The afternoon before, when you go to the people you can still reach
• The memorial candle and Kol Nidre at sunset
• The Shema, a short confession, and then sleep, early
• Waking into the fast. The blessing over the body. Seliḥót. A walk
• Rest, without apology. Silence
• The Book of Jonah, read whole and talked about
• The three columns: what you are glad of, what you owe, what cannot be repaired
• Hitbodedút — outside, alone, saying it aloud, as the light goes
• Ne’ilah
• Havdalah at three stars

WHAT IS IN IT?

Every piece of liturgy carries the Hebrew, a transliteration and a plain English translation made from the Hebrew for this volume. The Book of Jonah appears entire, translated fresh.

Maimonides supplies what teshuvah actually asks — not remorse but changed conduct. Spinoza supplies the honest account of how little of the world is in our power. Kaplan and Schulweis supply the turn from a God who is merciful to mercy that somebody has to do. The Ben Ish Ḥai supplies the observation that it is small faults, the ones we have an excuse ready for, that leave the stain. What is borrowed is named; so is what is this book’s own reconstruction.

Around forty pages are ruled and left blank, so that the day leaves something behind: what you owe and to whom, the people you can still reach, three things you loved about someone who has died, what you will do differently, one trait to carry for the year.

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IN THE SAME SERIES

• Tefiloténu – Amazon
• Seliḥot — a service of return
• Seder HaSimanim
• Maḥzor BeKolénu – a Spiritual Humanistic Maḥzor for Yom Kippur