Yom Kippur 10

Yom Kippur
Day Of Atonement

Neilah (Closing The Gate)

Yom Kippur finishes with the tradition representing (prophetically) that the gates are closed and the final decisions have been made. The Book of Life has been sealed and the time has come for all to be judged. 

For this final service of the awesome Day of Atonement, and our future is being sealed, we turn to YHWH to accept our sincere repentance and new resolutions, and ask that He seal us in the Book of Life, granting us a new year replete with goodness and happiness. The Ark remains open for the entire Neilah service, signifying that the Gates of Heaven are wide open to our prayers and entreaties.

The apex of the service, the emotional peak, is when we pronounce, in unison, three verses proclaiming YHWH as our God.

First we recite the Shema — "Hear O Israel, YHWH our God, YHWH is One." It is written that when we recite this verse, every person should have the intention of giving up his or her soul for the sanctification of YHWH's name, and this intention will be considered as if we have indeed withstood the test to sanctify the Divine Name.

Then we recite the next verse — "Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever" — three times, together. This is followed by the declaration of YHWH's unity, "YHWH - He is the Only God" — first recited at Mt. Carmel by the prophet Elijah — seven times, in the most ardent way. The shofar is then sounded, one long sound, and the Neilah service ends with the prayer:

"Next Year may we be in Jerusalem!"

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