Yom Kippur starts at sundown tonight and ends at sundown tomorrow, Monday.
Coming ten days after of the Jewish New Year celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the name means “Day of Atonement,” which conveys that one should not enter the year without atonement for one’s wrong-doings.
Observant Jews will abstain from eating, drinking, bathing, dressing up, and marital relations on this day. Instead, the time is spent energetically in self-examination and then praying and worshipping in postures of petitioning for forgiveness. A common greeting on this day is “Tzom kal,” which means wishing a person will have a meaningful fast (though some, particularly toward the end of the day on Monday, may inflect toward another meaning, “an easy fast.”)
The Jews in 18th Century New York were feeling a disconnect between the styles and rhythms of Yom Kippur that were practiced in other countries. The dissatisfaction of some centered on the lack of a prayer book in American English.
So, in 1760 and 1761, Issac Pinto started printing portions of the prayer service for Yom Kippur in English. This New Yorker didn’t stop his work until he completed the first complete prayer book for publication in 1766. An original copy can be seen pictured above.
The prayer book was also something of a declaration of independence from England. The Sephardic authorities in London had forbidden the printing of an English language prayer book, though the Spanish and Portuguese authorities had allowed translations into their languages. The New York Jews decided to issue their own Declaration of Independence in the form of a prayer book.
So, Pinto defiantly printed the prayer book, Prayers for Shabbath, Rosh-Hashanah and Kippur, or; The Sabbath, the beginning of the year, and the Day of Atonements; with the Amidah and Musahp of the Moadim, or solemn seasons, according to the order of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. His English version of the prayer book was based in large part on Rabbi Isaac Nieto’s (1687-1773) Spanish translation of the liturgy for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (London, 1740).
So, if you go to a Yom Kippur service tonight or tomorrow, remember that a declaration of national independence can also mean a rededication to the authority of God.
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