Yom Kippur

So, tonight at sundown, Yom Kippur begins. The holiest of Jewish holidays. And, wouldn't you know, at the very hour when the observant among us are supposed to be in shul, praying, fasting, gazing inward, asking for forgiveness, and drawing closer to God, the Phillies will be in Citizens Bank Park, playing the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the National League Division Series. Oy. For religious Jews who are also Phillies fans, no words can describe this unfortunate misalignment of the universe.

The members of Congregation Rodeph Shalom will come to the synagogue today with empty stomachs and bags full of groceries. In the middle of the traditional Yom Kippur fast that began at sundown yesterday and ends at sundown today, the congregants will leave the groceries outside, to be collected by the Greater Philadelphia Food Bank and St. John's Hospice for Men. Then the congregants will go inside for Yom Kippur services. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn day in the Jewish year and is marked by fasting, prayer and introspection.

Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, begins at sundown tonight with the haunting chant of the Kol Nidre in synagogues across the area and the world. The holiest day in the Jewish year involves a fast from food and drink for 24 hours. It ends a 10-day new year season known as the Days of Awe that began Oct. 1 with Rosh Hashana. Services - and fasting - will begin a few minutes before the 6:30 p.m. sunset. Soon after, the Kol Nidre, sung by a lone cantor or by a choir, will fill synagogues with both sounds and people.

Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Shawn Green does not want to discuss whether he'll play next weekend in two key games against the Giants on Yom Kippur, the holiest holiday on the Jewish calendar. Los Angeles leads San Francisco by 2 1/2 games in the NL West with 13 games left. The Giants have 12 to play. Yom Kippur starts at sunset Friday, and the three-game series at San Francisco starts that night. Saturday's game was given a 1:05 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time start because it will be televised by Fox, and the Jewish Day of Atonement does not end until sunset that night.

The Israeli Olympic team has given up its best chance for a medal because athletes and officials refuse to compete on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, the team's coach said yesterday. The five-member fencing team - including Udi Karmi, who finished fourth in the floret in last year's world championships - are not at the Olympics because they would have been required to compete on Sept. 21, said Itzchak Benmelech, the Israeli head coach. "They are very disappointed," Benmelech said.

If you thought serving a Thanksgiving dinner was difficult, imagine going without food or water for 24 hours - then having to feed a whole crowd of people who are just as hungry. That's the plight of the Yom Kippur host, who must go home from the synagogue and serve a groaning board of food. Planning a menu that can be on the table in 20 minutes is the trick. The secret is to mix store-bought foods with some that are made ahead of time. Yom Kippur (which begins at sundown Friday this year)

The best hope Israel had for an Olympic medal was Udi Karmi, the fourth- place finisher in the fencing world championships last year. But he is at home, not in Seoul. The Israeli's next best hope, boxer Yehuda Ben-Haim, came to Seoul but was eliminated last night when he failed to appear for his 106-pound bout. It's because of the conflict between the Olympics and Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The Israelis brought 19 athletes to the Games, hoping that arrangements could be made to either postpone or advance their dates of competition around Yom Kippur, which is observed from sundown Wednesday to sundown Thursday in Seoul.

Do we come before God only in our own name? What about all those who remain outside, those who are found in a spiritual wasteland, without any way to approach or relate to the holy? Even when we do pray for them, is our prayer free of smugness? Do we really accept that we could just as easily have been in their shoes? . . . May it be His Will that we, as a community and as individuals, merit to perform a personal accounting of our souls, and that the Merciful One will accept graciously our repentance and our prayer.

Yom Kippur, which arrives at sundown today, is the holiest day of the Jewish year. Most people understand that the solemn Day of Atonement is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection and inner purification. But Rabbi Eliyahu Bergstein, an Orthodox Hasidic teacher, says the day contains "deeper mysteries" and opportunities than many Jews might appreciate. In a Yom Kippur warm-up talk here Thursday, the New York-based rabbi took listeners on a mystical soul trip that is the Hasidic tradition's specialty.

The holiest day of the Jewish year traditionally includes a synagogue service that honors martyrs who have given their lives over the course of Judaism's tragic and triumphant history. But it is rare, and perhaps unprecedented, that the main speaker at the emotional Yom Kippur service is a high official of Christianity. On Wednesday afternoon, Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua will tread where few have gone before when he ascends to the bimah at Temple Sinai in Dresher. To add to the momentousness, he will address a keenly sensitive topic: the Holocaust and the Catholic Church.

The world recently passed one significant date, and it's headed for another. No, I don't mean Yom Kippur or Thanksgiving. Sept. 27 was Earth Overshoot Day, designated by the Global Footprint Network as the time when the planet's humans surpassed "nature's budget" for the year. Since then, we've been exceeding the resources the Earth can generate, says the network, a nonprofit research group based in California. At the rate we're going, we need as much as 1.5 Earths to sustain us, the group says.

HANK WILLIAMS JR. is not leaving "Monday Night Football" without a few sacks of his own, releasing a song on iTunes that tells his side of the brouhaha called "I'll Keep My . . . " It includes the lyrics "So 'Fox 'n' Friends' wanna put me down / Ask for my opinion / Twist it all around / Well two can play that gotcha game, you'll see. " Williams was fired last week from his role singing the eardrum-burstingly bad theme song for ESPN's Monday...

Aaron Shatzman, dean of social sciences at Montgomery County Community College, is 65 years old and exudes the energy and enthusiasm of an undergraduate. True academic that he is, he wears bow ties - "a gentleman needs to know how to tie a bow tie," he asserts - a sartorial trademark that he adopted from his mentor, David Potter, a distinguished professor of U.S. history at Stanford University, where Shatzman earned his doctorate. Shatzman is proud of many things. He is proud of the spacious campus in Blue Bell and the modern buildings and facilities.

DEAR ABBY: I have worked as a nanny for many years for a divorced professional woman. She has a son and a daughter. The son, now 15, is smoking pot. I told his mom, but she's ignoring the problem. She said: "He's just experimenting. I want him to get it out of his system before he enters college. " I love this child, and I feel helpless. He knows better. The boy used to be very honest, but that's no longer the case. How can I help him when his mother isn't making an effort? - Nanny Who Cares in Texas DEAR NANNY: Your employer seems to be clueless.

AT GAME ONE of the National League Division Series, Broad Street Billy hung out on the rooftop of Citizens Bank Park with "Doc's Patients" - Phillies die-hards in matching hospital gowns who have seen almost every Roy Halladay start since July 5, 2010. They'll be at the park for tonight's do-or-die Game 5, knocking back Bud Lites, eyeing the ladies and, after each Doc strikeout, miming defibrillator resuscitations on each other's chests, then shouting, "1-2-3 Clear!" While the core Doc's Patients - Mike Jaffe of Wynnewood, Matt Leddy of Havertown, Ryan Christianson of Roxborough, Joe Bruno of Bala Cynwyd and Nick Mayo of Broomall - hung on Halladay's every pitch last Saturday, Leddy's college pal Tim Patz eyed roving Phillies-fan photographer Carina Groskopa of West Chester, and told Billy, "Girls love me. " "No," Leddy said.

After laboring for 12 years to revive historic Congregation B'nai Abraham in Queen Village, Rabbi Yochonon Goldman will begin Yom Kippur services Friday evening with a sense of hope. "Thank God, I can say we are no longer focusing on surviving, but on thriving," Goldman said this week after lugging a stack of High Holiday prayer books into the vestibule of his capacious, Old World sanctuary. Thriving is in the eyes of the rabbi. The oldest Philadelphia synagogue in continuous use, B'nai Abraham a century ago drew as many as 1,000 worshipers - women upstairs, men on the main floor - to its Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services.

So, tonight at sundown, Yom Kippur begins. The holiest of Jewish holidays. And, wouldn't you know, at the very hour when the observant among us are supposed to be in shul, praying, fasting, gazing inward, asking for forgiveness, and drawing closer to God, the Phillies will be in Citizens Bank Park, playing the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 5 of the National League Division Series. Oy. For religious Jews who are also Phillies fans, no words can describe this unfortunate misalignment of the universe.

So, Friday night at sundown, Yom Kippur begins. One of the holiest Jewish holidays. And wouldn't you know, at the very hour when the observant among us are supposed to be in shul, praying, fasting, gazing inward, asking for forgiveness and drawing closer to God, the Phillies will be in Citizens Bank Park, playing a crucial game in the playoffs. Oy. For religious Jews who are also Phillies fans, no words can describe this unfortunate misalignment of the universe. Throughout the Delaware Valley, they are having to make some difficult choices.

By Daniel Deagler Rosh Hashanah, the day of judgment, begins the Jewish High Holy Days, a 10-day period known in Hebrew as the yamin noraim ("days of awe") and culminating with Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Rosh Hashanah, literally the "head of the year," is the New Year's Day of the Jewish calendar; at sundown tonight, the year 5771 will conclude, and 5772 will begin. At this time, according to Talmudic tradition, God sits in judgment of his people. The names of the righteous are entered into one of three books, the names of the wicked into another.

ELEVEN years ago, my wife and I entered the world of grief when we lost our teenage son. This Saturday, on Yom Kippur, and three other times this year, we again will confront the never-ending anguish and heartache of this unfathomable death by dutifully participating in a Jewish memorial prayer service at synagogue called yizkor. We'll also go to services on his yahrzeit, the Jewish anniversary of his death. The aftermath of this horror helped us gain a profound respect for organized religious life, Jewish and otherwise.