The New York Times has an article on people who are most likely obligated to eat on Yom Kippur because of illness, but nevertheless choose to be hooked up to an intravenous drip instead. In recent years, hundreds of frail Jews have turned to intravenous feeding on Yom Kippur, which begins Tuesday at sundown and [...]
May those who are observing Yom Kippur have a meaningful fast and holiday. Below is a recording of the piyyut El Norah Alilah (אל נורא עלילה) that is sung at the Neilah service that ends Yom Kippur. For no one who has ever prayed in synagogue that followed one of the Sephardic customs, this is [...]
Jewish Ideas Daily recently published an article by Jack Wertheimer, Pay to Pray? Wertheimer discusses the synagogue dues structure and how it is changing. A number of years ago a law was proposed in the Knesset that would regular synagogue honors. The law was called, הצעת חוק לקביעת תעריפים מירביים בבתי הכנסת (“Proposed Law to [...]
Over the holiday I saw an advertisement for a Syrian synagogue, Magen David of Union Square, that described minḥa before Yom Kippur as being “with tefillin.” I had never heard of this custom before and a little searching found some discussion of this custom. In the always helpful Keter Shem Tov I found the following: [...]
In Musaf Shabbat of Makor Rishon, Carmiel Cohen reviewed (Hebrew) a double-issue of Sidra that was devoted to Prof. Aryeh Steinfeld. Cohen wrote at length about two articles that appeared in this issue. The first is by Mordechai Akiva Friedman and is about the possibility that other shofar blowings for Rosh ha-Shannah existed in the [...]
Art Kibbutz NY organized a shofar flash mob in a number of locations around the world this past Sunday. The first video is a montage from a number of locations. The second video is from the flash mob near Lincoln Center in NYC. Pay special attention to the odd character blowing multiple shofarot at 2:55-3:10 [...]
Yondov Kaplon has recently published Meimcha Eilecha: Sefer ha-Shabbat. (hat tip) The book is based upon the traditional liturgy for Shabbat, and it includes commentaries, both ancient and modern, stories, poetry, etc. This is similar to the popular mahazor that Kaplon edited for the Yamim Noraim.
Dov Bear has an interesting description of different customs from Kol Nidre. The comments are also worth a look. (hat tip) Also see this description by Elyashiv Reichner about how a community of both Sepharadim and Ashkenazim in Yerucham manages to have joint services for both Kol Nidre and Neilah.
Much has been written about Rav Elyashiv’s alleged statement that it is prohibited to where Croc’s on Yom Kippur. While I didn’t have time to write anything about it before YK, I thought that it was still important to bring some sources which address the issue. The prohibition of wearing leather shoes on YK is [...]
Ynet has an article (Hebrew) titled “From Mainz to Beit ha-Shitta.” The article talks about one of the central prayers of the Yamim Noraim, Untaneh Tokef (see here for the poem in Hebrew). The authorship of this liturgical piece was attributed to Rabbi Amnon of Mainz (11th c.) for many years and recently it has [...]
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