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Yom Kippur (2026)

Yom Kippur

Dvar Torah - Living up to Ourselves with Renewed Strength
Yom Kippur Eve starts at fever pitch with the dramatic Kol Nidrei service. Once we’ve taken in the majesty of the cantor’s melody, if we pause on the words, it makes you wonder. Why do we start Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year with a legalistic ritual of annulling personal promises we made to Hashem? In the formal sense, it’s not even a prayer but a declaration (see Nedarim 23a and Tosafot ad loc)

In his 1947 Kol Nidrei address to his congregation, my grandfather Rabbi Akiba Predmesky proposed that Kol Nidrei “is a confession of the great weaknesses of human beings. It is an admission that our life is but one long chain of hafarat nedarim, of broken promises. What we may be reluctant to confess, Kol Nidrei does for us”

Kol Nidrei is an admission that we have not lived up to our own standards. Even things that we ourselves have promised, never mind what is asked of us, have not been fulfilled. It is this powerful humility which enables us to enter Yom Kippur with an open mind and achieve atonement.

Yom Kippur also ends not with a prayer, but with a Shofar blast. Our sages teach us that after reaching the zenith of holiness in the Neilah service – where the Jewish People are the equivalent of heavenly angles, the Shofar signals the end of Yom Kippur and the return to normal life. Like the revelation at Sinai which ended with a Shofar blast, so to Yom Kippur must end.

I would like to suggest, however, that this represents the exact opposite of Kol Nidrei. Instead of going back to normal, we go m’chayil l’chayil – from strength to strength.

We immediately start the Maariv service followed by Kiddush Levana. Soon afterwards hammer blows can be heard throughout the neighborhood as we eagerly build our Sukkahs. Lulav and Etrog stalls line the street as excited customers pick out beautiful Arbah Minim in excitement for the Mitzvha. The very next day synagogues around the world start the morning services five minutes earlier, to show that while the Shofar may have sounded, the spirit of Yom Kippur is driving us forward with renewed strength.

With our actions, we show that this year, our commitments will stand. While we may have started Yom Kippur with ndrana lav nidrei – our promises are have not been kept, we finish Yom Kippur with a clean slate, excited to be our very best selves in the coming year, and live with renewed conviction and strength the meaningful and purposeful life we have promised we will lead.

Yom Kippur candle lighting/end of fast
Yerushalayim 17:59/19:15
Tel Aviv 18:18/19:16
Paris 19:35/20:39
London 18:45/19:52
NYC 18:38/19:36
DC 18:50/19:47
LA 18:35/19:29
More times

Gmar Chatima Tova!

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