What we can learn from Yom Kippur during Welcome Week

On the morning of 10 December 1996, a blood vessel in the left hemisphere of Jill Bolte Taylor’s brain exploded: she’d had a stroke. Within a few hours, Jill couldn’t walk, talk, read, write, or recall any memories of her life. Two and a half weeks later, surgeons removed a blood clot from her brain – it was the size of a golf ball.

What was unique about Jill’s stroke, though, was that it didn’t just happen to anyone. It happened to Jill Bolte Taylor. Taylor is a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, where she spends her days teaching and performing brain research. This meant that as soon as Jill realised she was having a stroke, her first thought was: “Wow, this is so cool! How many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out?”

Over the next eight years, Jill was able to completely recover her skills and abilities.

In addition to the loving support of her mother, Taylor credits two further key factors that aided her recovery. Firstly, she firmly believed in the brain’s ability to heal itself, and secondly, she made a conscious decision to celebrate her survival from the stroke – cherishing every accomplishment, however small, and constantly committing to recovery. Circuit by circuit, Jill and her mother rewired her brain back to its normal functioning.

It’s an inspiring story, but why is it relevant? Let me explain.

The rush of emotion surrounding Welcome Week is multifaceted: the buzz of excitement and air of opportunity are mixed with nervous trepidation at a key moment of change. For the Jewish students starting at Warwick this week, these emotions will be heightened. During Welcome Week, it will be Yom Kippur, from sunset on Wednesday evening until nightfall on Thursday. Often translated as the ‘Day of Atonement’, Yom Kippur is considered the most important date in the Jewish calendar.

To the Jewish students reading this article, it’s natural to feel concerned by this clash. We want you to know that Warwick Jewish Society (JSoc), our Jewish Chaplain Rabbi Fishel Cohen, the University, and the SU are all here to support you. Check out our Instagram page and the Welcome Week timetable to discover the range of events JSoc have planned for Yom Kippur. We look forward to seeing you there and having a meaningful Yom Kippur together.

To all those left curious, what is Yom Kippur?

Yom Kippur is an intensely personal day.

The preparation for Yom Kippur begins 40 days before the start of the previous Hebrew month (called Elul), a month for self-examination, self-growth, and commitment to improvement. The drama increased last week on Rosh Hashanah. The Jewish New Year and ‘Day of Judgement’ are when the Heavenly Court opens session to begin accounting for the lives we’ve led over the past year. We hear the Shofar (ram’s horn) being blown – a stirring sound calling on us to return to our core values, to who we are in our deepest essence, and to who we’re capable of becoming. During the time that follows, in the ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, we’re encouraged to seek out the people we’ve wronged and request their forgiveness, as we believe it is improper to ask God for forgiveness before we’ve first made amends with each other as people. Then comes Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur is a sombre day, but also the day we can come closest to God.

Over the 25-hour period we refrain from eating and drinking, washing our bodies, wearing leather shoes, putting on perfume, and engaging in intimate relationships. There are five prayer services during the day (ordinarily there are three, sometimes four), and it’s customary to wear white as a sign of purity. Gathered together in synagogues, we confront God each as individuals, with painful honesty. We recite alphabetical acrostics of the mistakes we’ve made, and we ask God to grant us another year of life – another year to grow, learn, and continue healing some of the fractures of this broken world. Every Jew has their own personal relationship with God, and thus their own experience of Yom Kippur; this is mine.

It may all sound like a serious, potentially frightening experience – and it is – but Yom Kippur doesn’t have to be a negative day. For me, there are three underlying messages to Yom Kippur, messages that are relevant not only to the Jewish students in Warwick but to everyone in the Warwick community.

Firstly, change is possible. We don’t have to be held captive by the challenges we’ve faced or the mistakes we’ve made. We can overcome the difficult circumstances life so often throws at us. We can improve our character, habits, and attitudes to become better people. Yom Kippur gives us the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and start afresh.

In order to change, we must take responsibility for ourselves and the lives we’re leading.

We must find ways to take ownership of our situation, be proud of our identities, and find meaning in the tasks we’re accomplishing. On Yom Kippur, we don’t shy away from the difficult truths: we recommit to the task of growth, developing ourselves, and mending the world.

Finally, once we realise that change is possible and accept responsibility for our lives, we can hold on to the hope that the year ahead will be a better one. Hope, as the late Rabbi Sacks pointed out, is different from optimism. Optimism is the passive belief that things are going to get better; hope is the active belief that, if we work hard enough together, we can make things better. Yom Kippur is the supreme day of hope.

Perhaps you’re now starting to understand the relevance of Jill Bolte Taylor’s story. Her remarkable journey of recovery is one that embodies the messages I believe we can all take from Yom Kippur. Jill believed in change, took responsibility for her recovery process, and now works to share the insights she learned during those eight years to support others living through trauma.

As we start anew at Warwick – whether as incoming freshers or returning students, whether Jewish or not – the questions Yom Kippur asks of us deserve our attention: who are we as people, and who would we like to become?

Wishing all our Jewish students an easy fast and a meaningful Yom Kippur.