My Favorite Jewish Holiday

Okay, it's a stretch to say that Yom Kippur is my favorite Jewish holiday. As I described it earlier today, I don't so much enjoy it as I appreciate it. But without question, my favorite service of the entire Jewish year is the Minhah/Ne'eilah of Yom Kippur afternoon.

The service generally begins at 4:30 or 5 p.m. -- three hours or less remaining in Yom Kippur and its attendant fast. The theme of the service is based upon the imagery of the gates of heaven are closing, with worshippers having one final chance to convince G-d that they should be sealed in the Book of Life for the coming year. Weakened from a 24-hour fast and catatonic from ten hours in synagogue over the previous day, one must, to borrow a sports analogy, leave every little bit of spiritual energy on the playing field. As the sun sets and darkness embraces the synagogue, you are faced with a race against time to get your final pleas across. But at the same time, the holiday can't end until the sun sets, so with nothing else to do, you have no choice but to take your time rather than trying to rush through the prayers and finish early.

Finally, with the Ne'ilah complete, the shofar sounds one last extended tekiah gadola blast. Yom Kippur is complete and all of a sudden, you are overcome with a feeling of rejuvenation. You know that you have done everything in your power to plead your case to G-d, and after sacrificing yourself to Him for the past 24 hours, you are confident that your efforts have paid off, and you can celebrate with a feast, knowing (as best you can) that you'll be around and in good enough health to do the same thing next year.