Question: Perhaps the most important day for Jews is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It unites religious Jews and secular ones who do not follow any laws or commandments. This day brings us together.

Before this day, there are ten steps known as the Ten Days of Repentance. Please tell us what these steps are leading up to Yom Kippur.

Answer: These are gradual realizations by a person about how they live, how they have lived, and how they plan to live moving forward. Essentially, it is when a person reflects on themselves: who they are, what they are, and why they are.

Therefore, Yom Kippur is a special day. Everyone observes it in some way. Even if it is not outwardly observed, inwardly, a person still reflects on it.

Question: We ask for forgiveness on Yom Kippur. I might not even know exactly what I am asking forgiveness for, but I ask. How does this affect my life, even if I do it automatically?

Answer: The thing is, asking for forgiveness is hard work. It forces a person to think about his life, what he thought a year ago, and how he lived this past year. Essentially, it is a day when a person judges himself.

Question: Yom Kippur is also called the Day of Purification. What are we purifying ourselves from?

Answer: From egoism, from the things that spoil our lives and prevent us from being a united nation, striving toward the Creator. It is a very challenging day.

Question: Why is it important for us to ask forgiveness from other people before Yom Kippur? This is called Selichot.

Answer: Because it is said that if you are not forgiven by other people, even the Creator will not be able to help you.

The most important thing is to reach a level of connection with others where you ask for them and they ask for you.

Question: Should I ask forgiveness from others with the thought that they will forgive me? Or is it just because it is a tradition for this holiday?

Answer: No, you need to reach a state where you genuinely ask others to forgive you because no matter how strictly we judge ourselves, we often overlook things.

Question: What about when others judge us?

Answer: We must be sensitive and show maximal politeness, as every person in the community is completely equal to others. No one can escape their egoism or the harm we might cause each other.

Question: This is very interesting. It aligns all of us, right?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Whether it is an ordinary worker or a prime minister?

Answer: There is absolutely no difference.

Question: Is this through the act of asking for forgiveness and judging ourselves?

Answer: Yes, all members of society and the nation are neither higher nor lower. We understand that just as each of us stands before this great call from above, so must we act.

Question: We have been progressing step by step, and now we have reached the point where we fast on Yom Kippur. There are five prohibitions, things we cannot do on Yom Kippur. Could you please explain the essence of the fast? What is the meaning of these prohibitions?

Answer: The prohibitions on eating, drinking, and so on are all connected to the idea that people should humble themselves a little to realize that there is the upper force, and they must stand before it, completely detached from their egoistic desires, impulses, etc. This is the main point.

Question: So is this an external attempt to restrict oneself?

Answer: Yes, it is an external attempt, but it greatly affects people. When a person refrains from eating or drinking, reads specific texts, or participates in certain actions with others, such as praying, he elevates himself to a different level.

Question: Could you please explain what it means to be inscribed in the Book of Life? We often hear about being inscribed in the Book of Life. What does it mean?

Answer: The Book of Life is a book with blank pages where our deeds, whether good or not, are written down.

If you act righteously, then your name is inscribed in the Book of Life. There is the upper will, a hand that (as if) writes your name in this book.

Our actions are recorded, meaning they leave an imprint on the surrounding nature. We illuminate this nature with our deeds, and everything depends on how we understand which actions are good and which are evil and how we treat others—with good or evil.

Question: Could we imagine that all of nature is like a blank page, and we leave an imprint on it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What is desirable? Should we enter it with white letters, or…?

Answer: Ideally, with white.

Question: Why is sincere repentance before oneself as important as repentance before others?

Answer: It is an important act that a person can bring himself to—genuinely repenting for his actions and misdeeds over the past year. In this sincere repentance, he can ask not to be judged harshly for his actions.

Question: What is a person afraid of when he wants to be justified, not judged, as you say? What is he afraid of?

Answer: The most important thing is if the person wants the Creator to forgive him because he does not want to be distanced from the Creator. That is the main concern. Everything else is secondary.

Question: So is my fear of being distant from the Creator what I fear most?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: And everything else—health, money, whatever else….

My Response: Those things come and go.

Question: When we talk about being inscribed in the Book of Life, is this what it is about?

Answer: Yes, it is about not being distant from the Creator and constantly trying to get closer to Him.

Question: You mentioned that people judge themselves—whether they have the right goal in life and so on. Yom Kippur is just one day a year. Does it help a person find the path to the purpose of life and how he should live?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Comment: But it is just one day!

My Response: It does not matter; it is 24 hours. If a person spends them in contemplation, he can correct many things he has done.

Question: In just these 24 hours?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You made a correct clarification here, 24 hours gives me a completely different feeling. And if we break it down further into minutes and seconds, it is even more profound.

Tell me, we try to cleanse our hearts on this day, just one day a year. What prevents us from doing this every day? Something is preventing us.

Answer: Our egoism! It pulls us in different directions toward different goals, and we lose focus. But on this day, the entire nation around us is doing the same thing. People gather in prayer houses and read special prayers, and thus, there is a greater opportunity for people to delve deeper into themselves.

Question: Is it possible to take the feelings we experience on Yom Kippur and somehow carry them into every day of the year, extend them throughout the coming year?

Answer: Yes, there is a part of our actions that we experience as a kind of “small Yom Kippur.” In each daily prayer…

Question: After Yom Kippur? Daily?

Answer: Yes, there are elements present when we judge ourselves, feel that we are in the wrong, and ask for forgiveness.

Question: So is there a “small Yom Kippur” in every day?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this the way a person should live?

Answer: That is the way a person should live, of course.

Question: So should we judge ourselves every day?

Answer: This is present in our daily prayers, though not as intensely as on Yom Kippur.

Question: Indeed, the prayers of Yom Kippur carry such power! Can the prayer on Yom Kippur change a person’s destiny if he engages with it wholeheartedly?

Answer: I believe it can. It is a special state of the world, of nature, of the person, and the nation. Therefore, Yom Kippur can change everything.

Question: So, if we truly invest ourselves in Yom Kippur, could we even stop wars?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Does Yom Kippur help a person begin to live in a new way?

Answer: Possibly. How much it helps depends, but fundamentally, if a person wants to change, he should not wait for Yom Kippur. He should begin now. Then he will see that everything can truly be changed and that any day of the year is suitable for that.

Question: We have not spoken about Yom Kippur like this in a while. Tell me, you were talking about Yom Kippur just now, but there is a feeling that you were not just talking about a Jewish holiday, but about the entire world. Is that how you see Yom Kippur?

Answer: Absolutely! It is a day of atonement for the entire world. If a person treats the prayers as a kind of self-judgment, then in principle, it will cleanse him.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/7/24

Related Material:
There Is No Need to Be Afraid of Judgment Day
Yom Kippur—The Day of Judgement of Ourselves
Yom Kippur: A Request for Correction

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