Editing Yom Kippur (section)

===High Holy Days===
Yom Kippur is one of the two [[High Holy Days]], or ''Days of Awe'' (Hebrew {{Lang|he-latn|yamim noraim}}), alongside [[Rosh Hashanah]] (which falls nine days previously).<ref name="hhd">{{Cite web |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-high-holidays/ |title=The High Holidays |publisher=My Jewish Learning |access-date=September 27, 2020 |archive-date=17 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231017151031/https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-high-holidays/ |url-status=live }}</ref> According to Jewish tradition, on Rosh Hashanah [[God]] inscribes each person's fate for the coming year into the [[Book of Life]], and waits until Yom Kippur to "seal" the verdict.<ref name="theology">{{Cite web |url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yom-kippur-theology-and-themes/ |title=Yom Kippur Theology and Themes |publisher=My Jewish Learning |access-date=September 27, 2020 |archive-date=27 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927211542/https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yom-kippur-theology-and-themes/ |url-status=live }}</ref> This process is described dramatically in the poem [[Unetanneh Tokef]], which is recited on Rosh Hashanah in the Ashkenazic and Italian rites and on Yom Kippur in the Eastern Ashkenazic and Italian rites:
{{blockquote|A great [[shofar]] will be blown, and a small still voice will be heard. The angels will make haste, and be seized with fear and trembling, and will say: "Behold, the day of judgment!"... On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on the Yom Kippur fast it is sealed, how many will pass and how many will be created, who will live and who will die, who in his time and who not in his time... But repentance, prayer, and charity remove the evil of the decree... For You do not desire a person's death, but rather that he repent and live. Until the day of his death You wait for him; if he repents, You accept him immediately.}}

During the Days of Awe, a Jew reflects on the year, goals, and past actions, how his or her behavior has possibly hurt others and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other human beings.