Archive | 2020/09/27

A Yom Kippur Guide for the Perplexed, 2016

Sep27
A Yom Kippur Guide for the Perplexed

by Yoram Ettinger

Yom Kippur painting circa 1900 by Isidor Kaufmann. Photo: Wikipedia.Yom Kippur painting circa 1900 by Isidor Kaufmann. Photo: Wikipedia

1. Yom Kippur is a day of hope and optimism, in addition to a solemn day of soul-searching. The Day of Atonement provides a unique awareness of one’s own character and track record, as well as the opportunity to upgrade relationships with relatives, friends, associates and the community at-large.

2. Yom Kippur’s focus on forgiveness highlights humility, fallibility, soul-searching faith, compassion, thoughtfulness, being considerate, accepting responsibility and magnanimity.

3. The first human being, Adam, was created on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei. Human-beings are accorded an opportunity to recreate themselves spiritually, each year, on Yom Kippur — the 10th day of Tishrei, which is an Acadian word for forgiveness and Genesis.

Yom Kippur culminates 10 days of genuine, heart-driven atonement and repentance, which begin on Rosh Hashanah. Ten has special significance in Judaism: God’s abbreviation is the 10th Hebrew letter (Yod – י); there are 10 attributes of God — Divine perfection — that were highlighted during the Creation; the Ten Commandments; the Ten Plagues; there are 10 reasons for blowing the Shofar; individuals are commanded to extend a 10 percent gift to God (tithe); Ten Martyrs (Jewish leaders) were tortured/murdered by the Roman Empire; there were 10 generations between Adam and Noah and between Noah and Abraham; a 10-person-quorum (minyan in Hebrew) is required for a collective Jewish prayer; etc.

4. Yom Kippur is observed on the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, whose astrological sign is Libra. Libra symbolizes key themes of Yom Kippur: scales, justice, balance, truth, symmetry, sensitivity and optimism. Libra is ruled by the planet Venus (Noga, נגה, in Hebrew), which reflects divine light and love of other people.

5. Yom Kippur is a day of forgiveness for sins committed against God. It is customary to dedicate the eve of Yom Kippur to apologies for sins committed against fellow human-beings. However, apology and/or compensation are not sufficient if they do not elicit expressed forgiveness by the injured person.

6. Yom Kippur commemorates God’s covenant with the Jewish people, and God’s forgiveness for the sin of the Golden Calf.

7. Yom Kippur and the Jubilee both highlight liberty and subordination to God. The Jubilee — sanctifying each 50th year by proclaiming liberty, as inscribed on the Liberty Bell — is announced by blowing the shofar (a ritual ram’s horn) on Yom Kippur. The Jubilee liberates people physically and spiritually. The word “jubilee” (יובל) is a Hebrew synonym for shofar.

8. The Hebrew word Kippur, כיפור (atonement/repentance), is a derivative of the Biblical word Kaporet כפורת (the cover of the Holy Ark in the Sanctuary), and Kopher, כופר (the cover of Noah’s Ark and the Holy Altar in the Temple). Yom Kippur resembles a spiritual cover (dome), which separates the holy and the mundane, and spiritualism and materialism. The Kippah, כיפה (skullcap), which covers one’s head during prayers, reflects a spiritual dome.

9. Yom Kippur calls for repentance — Teshuvah (תשובה in Hebrew). The root of Teshuvah is similar to the root of the Hebrew word for return, שובה, and שביתה, the cessation of mundane thoughts, actions and eating. It is also similar to the root of Shabbat, שבת. Yom Kippur is also called Shabbat Shabbaton — the supreme Sabbath.

10. The Hebrew spelling of “fast” (צם/צום) reflects the substance of Yom Kippur. It is also the root of the Hebrew word for “reduction” and “shrinking” (צמצום) of one’s wrong-doing, and the root of the Hebrew words for “slave” (צמית) and “eternity” (צמיתות).

Image result for symbol of yom kippur

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HOW THE BEATLES INSPIRED A YOM KIPPUR WAR SONG OF HOPE

Sep27
HOW THE BEATLES INSPIRED A YOM KIPPUR WAR SONG OF HOPE

LAHAV HARKOV

Naomi Shemer set out to write a Hebrew cover of “Let It Be,” and ended up with a poignant song on the Yom Kippur War.

Naomi Shemer. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

In the summer of 1973, Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer, best known for writing “Jerusalem of Gold,” set out to write a Hebrew cover of the Beatles’ classic “Let it Be,” which frequently played on Israeli radio.

But when the Yom Kippur War broke out that October, the Beatles’ hit became what Shemer later called “a jumping-off point for an entirely new song.”

Shemer changed the lyrics to a prayer expressing hope for the battles to end and for IDF soldiers to return home peacefully.
The lyrics express longing for a better future, even when everything looks dark: “There is still a white sail on the horizon, facing a heavy black cloud.”

Shemer wrote the song for singer Chava Alberstein, who had wanted to perform it at an event for pilots’ wives.
“The Hebrew version that I prepared for her had no connection to the original, but was about the concerns and fears of the war that had broken out a day or two earlier,” Shemer later wrote of the songwriting process.

At first, she kept the Beatles’ tune, but her husband, Mordechai Horowitz, on a reprieve from fighting in the war said: “I won’t let you waste this song on a foreign tune. This is a Jewish war, and you should give it a Jewish tune.”

A handwritten draft of the lyrics in the National Library of Israel shows that Shemer originally wrote at the top of the page: “From the songs of the Beatles – A Hebrew version,” but changed it to “Music and Lyrics: Naomi Shemer.”

The draft includes a verse about someone “bringing news standing at the door” to tell a family about their loved one’s death, which she later removed, because it was too sad, her daughter Lely Shemer wrote in an email Sunday.

That day, Shemer was asked to perform on television, and she came up with an original tune for the song in the car on the way to the studio, a tune that she described as “the sigh and distress of the war.” The song was broadcast the next day, and a day after that, Alberstein performed it on Army Radio.

Shemer’s “Let It Be” (Lu Yihi) became the unofficial song of the Yom Kippur War, played and sung by soldiers on duty.

Shemer received many letters from Israelis who were touched by the song, which can be found in her archive at the National Library of Israel, and she told a story that when IDF chief of staff David Elazar first heard the song after the war ended it made him cry.

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