Yom Kippur ends High Holy Days with atonement and amends

Officially, Temple Beth El Bradenton/LakewoodRanch has about 100 members, but more than 300 people already have said they’ll attend the synagogue’s Yom Kippur services next week.

The exceptional size of the gathering is typical of synagogues around the country and around the world, Rabbi Michael Sternfield of Temple Beth El Bradenton/Lakewood Ranch said.

A lot of Jews who don’t attend services regularly make a point of attending on Yom Kippur.

“It may be that for some it’s perfunctory,” he said. “It’s the annual nod to God.”

But for most Jews, he said, even those who seldom attend otherwise, attending on Yom Kippur represents something much more profound. Being Jewish is about more than religion.

“We’re an ancient people, and we’re spread around the world and there aren’t that many of us,” Sternfield said. “The High Holy Days, and Yom Kippur in particular, are an annual reunion of Jewish people. And it’s been going on for more than 3,000 years, so it connects you to Jews throughout the ages.”

As every Jew knows, but many gentiles may not, Yom Kippur is the most-revered day of the Jewish calendar. It marks the end of the High Holy Days, a 10-day period at the beginning of the Jewish New Year, and observant Jews fast from sundown to sundown (this year, starting on Friday, Sept. 29).

“Yom Kippur” translates as “Day of Atonement,” and it’s meant to be a day in which people acknowledge the wrongs they’ve done to other people over the previous year and to make amends when they can.

Said Sternfield: “That sounds like an oversimplification, but it’s really not.”

Of course, there’s more to the day than simply noting shortcomings and attending synagogue. Strictly observant Jews eat nothing for the 24-hour period, nor do they drink water. They don’t work or talk on the telephone.

The fasting tradition only applies to adults, and only to those who are healthy. Someone who can’t go 24 hours without food isn’t supposed to fast.

“We have all the traditions and rules, but the one that supersedes them all is a concern for your health,” Sternfield said.

For the congregation of Temple Beth El, this Yom Kippur is a bit different than previous ones. The synagogue moved this past year from its longtime home on Cortez Road to 5150 Peridia Blvd.

In an unusual symbiosis, the synagogue shares a building with Braden River Presbyterian Church.

“It’s a synagogue on Friday night and Saturday, and it’s a church on Sunday,” Temple Beth El president Robyn Spirtas said.

The arrangement has benefited both the synagogue and the church financially, and the church has been very welcoming. There are plans, Spritas said, for the two congregations to start sharing more of each other’s activities.

“Even though we’re tenants, it feels like our home,” Sternfield said. “We don’t feel like interlopers.”

This story was originally published September 22, 2017 at 2:16 PM with the headline "Yom Kippur ends High Holy Days with atonement and amends."