On Yom Kippur, Forgiveness Is Only the Beginning

Every year, Yom Kippur asks Jews to do something that can be difficult: look honestly at the year that has passed.

Known as the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Jews traditionally fast, pray and reflect on their actions, seeking teshuvah — a Hebrew concept often translated as repentance, but also meaning “return.”

And perhaps that word is the key to understanding the holiday.

Yom Kippur is not about pretending we have been perfect. It is about recognizing where we have failed and deciding what to do differently.

Jewish tradition places responsibility at the center of this process. When we hurt another person, asking God for forgiveness is not enough; we are also expected to seek forgiveness from the person we have harmed.

That makes Yom Kippur more than a day of saying “I’m sorry.”

It is a day of accountability.

The Al Chet prayer, for example, consists of a communal confession of wrongdoing. Jews traditionally recite it in the plural — “we” — rather than pointing at someone else’s mistakes.

There is something powerful about that.

In a world where people often try to present only their best selves, Yom Kippur creates a space where acknowledging failure is part of the tradition itself.

We all have words we wish we had not said, decisions we wish we could change and moments in which we did not act according to the people we wanted to be.

Yom Kippur does not erase those moments.

Instead, it asks what we will do with them.

Teshuvah is not simply about looking backward. It is about returning — to our values, to our relationships and to the person we want to become.

Maybe that is why Yom Kippur remains meaningful after thousands of years.

It does not ask us to be perfect, it asks us to be honest enough to change.