On Yom Kippur, we stop. We stop eating, stop washing, stop working, stop cooking, stop cleaning — we stop doing many of our day-to-day activities. Every year, we stop to reflect more deeply as individuals, as a community and as a people.

One of the more dramatic ways in which this reflection is expressed is through Vidui. On Yom Kippur, we confess 10 times, both as individuals and as a community. We confess together because even if it may be difficult to connect personally to some particular sins we confess to, we also know not one of us is free from wrongdoing. We take confessing as an opportunity to collectively reflect not only the wrongs done by us and to us, but also on all that’s done to and by our community and fellow humankind.

When we gather to pray the Neilah at the end of the day, we have one last chance to either ask for forgiveness or forgive before darkness sets, the shofar is blown a final time, and the period of introspection opened on Rosh HaShanah is ended. With the sound of the shofar, The Ten Days of Repentance come to a close, the fast is over, and we look forward to a future where we can learn from our mistakes in the past year and change.