Yom Kippur remembered

Yom Kipppur is the holiest day of the Jewish Year and is one of several fast holidays. (It's not true that every Jewish holiday is celebrated with food!). At Temple Jacob in Hancock, Michigan the congregation is small and there is no regular rabbi, but one is always hired for the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day or Atonement. Unlike Christian sects which are preoccupied with sin and salvation from it, for Jews Yom Kippur is the only time of the year that Jews talk about sin. It is a day-long service with a mid-afternoon break, and concludes with Yitzkor, a prayer service in remembrance of the dead, and, finally, Neilah which ends at sunset with the final blowing of the shofar ram's horn.
At Temple Jacob there is a stained glass window on the western wall, and the setting sun shines through it, casting a square of bright light on the wall above the bimah where the torah scrolls are kept. As the concluding prayers are recited, the congregation all standing for what, after a day of fasting, is a very long time, that square of sunlight against the wall gradually rises as the sun is setting, and finally fades out as the sun is down, marking the conclusion of the service. It is a very spiritual period, for the light of the setting sun as it fades is a vivid sign of the day of repentance. It was a moment I always appreciated, for it is a reminder of our own mortality and limited length of days.
May all my readers be inscribed, as we say, in the Book of Life, for a year of good health, prosperity, and peace. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He shine His countenance upon you and grant us all peace. Amen.