"The Lord said to Moses, 'The 10th day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves … do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God.' " — Leviticus 23:26-28
It's a time that's "not as much about repentance as it is about returning to God … and asking ourselves, Are we on the road where we want to be?
"It's time for self-reflection, a chance for individual growth … so how can that not be joyful?"
That's how Rabbi Elazar Green of Lancaster describes Yom Kippur, the solemn holiday also known as the Day of Atonement, perhaps the most important one in the Jewish faith.
Yom Kippur 2009 will start at sundown Sunday and last all day Monday until sundown.
The day marks the culmination of the Days of Awe, the period between Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur.
The Day of Atonement is to be spent praying and fasting and otherwise not doing things of the world, Green said.
And the reflection and renewal is not just in dealing "with those things that you did wrong, but also to look at ways I didn't do things right this past year," said Green, director of the Chabad of Lancaster and York counties and the spiritual adviser of the Chabad at Franklin & Marshall College.
Green adds, "Even when it comes to good things (a person did), what was my attitude? Did I do the right thing, but with the wrong motive?
"Yom Kippur is a holiday that's not just for a wicked individual to repent … but it's also for the righteous individual to look to do better."
To many who aren't Jewish, Yom Kippur is better known as the name of the 1973 war in which the Jewish homeland, Israel, was forced to defend itself on its holiest holiday. Or, they associate it with baseball legend Sandy Koufax, who declined to pitch the opening game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur.
East Hempfield Township resident Marcy Dubroff said Yom Kippur always "provides a time for serious reflection" and renewal for the coming year.
She is often moved by the traditional music during the opening Kol Nidre service — "The cello version of this song will make anyone cry" — and, like many who are Jewish, takes pride in well-known Jewish athletes like Koufax, performers and others in the public eye "who have made a public statement about the importance of this particular holiday in their lives" and put their professional pursuits aside in respect to their faith.
"Sometimes, you just have to answer to a higher power," she said.
The holidays should come "with the knowledge that we can re-shape our lives so we can be happier, healthier, more fulfilled and more connected to others and to God if we do our work well," Rabbi Jack Paskoff said in a message to members of Lancaster's Congregation Shaarai Shomayim.
"Let's be honest with ourselves and with each other. Let's see our shortcomings, but also our uniqueness and our blessings."
There is a tradition to wear white on both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, though today many adhere to the tradition only on Yom Kippur, experts say.
White is the color of mercy and also the color of purity, and on Yom Kippur the observant pray for mercy and seek spiritual purification.