From the Archives - Yom Kippur

Here's some old material from previous Teshuva seasons:

• From me in 2009 - I hope you all saw the inaugural edition of this year's Maayanei Torah, under the new leadership of Mrs. Shapiro and Talia Friedman. It was a great issue, highlighted by two consecutive essays about the connection between Purim and Yom Kippur (Yom kiPurim). Some other answers that I like are the following: Generally, Jewish holidays are split between Torah and prayer on one hand, and festive celebration, expressed by eating and drinking on the other. Purim and Yom Kippur split the two days, where we have Taanit Esther preceding Purim, and a mitzva to eat on erevYom Kippur. My favorite approach is that just as on Purim we where masks & costumes to symbolize that our bodies are also fake coverings that mask our true selves, our souls. That is why we (not you!) drink, because the wine reveals the true individual (נכנס יין יצא סוד). So too on YomKippur, we dress and act like angels, but our message to Hashem is that today is not the day of charades - this is the true us. Really, at our core, we are pure (אלקי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא). It is the rest of the year that we masquerade as sinners due to the difficulties that we encounter revealing this true self, but our essence is the Yom Kippur version.
• This is from 2010, though the question just came up again in one of my 11th grade Gemara classes -  

Selichot Timing
A timely question from alumna Gabrielle Hiller:

I have a question about the technicalities of Selichot: I see shuls have all different Selichot times, whether 10 PM, 12:45 AM, or before Shacharit. What's the support behind all these opinions and is there a preferred time?

Hi Gabrielle, it was so great to see you and so many of your classmates at the Yom Iyun - your grade continues to leave your mark on the school.  
The best time is at the very end of the night, right before dawn.  Also good is late at night, after חצות (close to 1 am - this is customary for the first night of selichot).  The problem with these, is that they are very hard; it means either going to sleep very late or waking up very early, which leaves you really tired the next day.  Therefore, many people are lenient and say it before their regular minyan in the morning, whenever that is.  Kabbalistically, the absolute worst time to say selichot is at night before chatzot.  Night is a time of harsh דין, and an inopportune time to plead our case for mercy.  Rav Moshe Feinstein allowed this if needed, but the 10:00 pm Selichot is certainly not ideal.

• And note that this just happened again this year:  

Today was the end of a trivia question.  Last year at Chazara Bowl during Color War, one of the questions was, "when do you read the Torah for 5 consecutive days wthout ever saying Hallel?".  The answer, as two of our students knew (Daniella and Avital, right?) was when Rosh Hashana falls out on Thursday and Friday, Tzom Gedalia is observed a day late on Sunday, and we lain on שבת and Monday as usual.  Today was the first day since erev Rosh Hashana that we did not read the Torah.