I have not yet figureed out how to observe (celebrate is the wrong word) Yom
Kippur, myself. Rosh Hashanah and Pesach are easy: I make a big dinner, feed it to
people I care about, and talk, think and write about the meaning of the holiday.
For some reason, Yom Kippur is more difficult.
The approved method,
of course, would be to have a big meal, go to services, fast all the next day, go
to more services, then break the fast with another big celebratory meal. That just
doesn't seem right to me; I never really got much from services aside from a minor
feeling of virtue and a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament (the only thing to
read during the two-hour morning service). I honestly find it mind-boggling that
people my own age regularly go to church and synagogue without being made to. I
certainly don't mean to offend anyone who goes - I just mean I totally don't
understand it in my gut.
The problem is that I can't logically
separate out parts of the observance. I don't want to take the day off, fast and
go to synagogue. The purpose of fasting is to keep your mind focused pon prayer,
not distracted by the body(another logic problem; I've always found hunger more
distracting than simply eating and getting it over with) so fasting without going
to synagogue doesn't make sense. Taking the day off from work without fasting
seems like pure self-indulgence, completely alien to ascetic nature of the
holiday. And there's no point in a big meal before or after the fast I'm not
doing.
Yet it is the holiest day of the year, the seal on the period
of atonement and self-examination, so doing nothing doesn't ring right either. So
I am still unsure about what to do.
One traditional observance I
should definitely do more of is to make amends and apologies for any offenses over
the past year. SO to anyone who reads this, I apologize if I said anything to
offend you either wittingly or unwittingly. I apologize also if I have failed to
say anything that might have helped you. And I apologize to God for that my
irreverent mind keeps echoing, "A robot will not injure a human being nor through
inaction allow a human being to come to harm. Though on further thought, that sets
out the whole point: a robot who obeyed the Three Laws, being unable to injure
others, would not need a Yom Kippur for repentence. It is entirely because I am
human that I do.