The Book of Jewish Day of Atonement Prayers in English

The Yom Kippur Machzor

This book presents the Jewish prayers for the Day of Atonement in English with accompanying essays about the main prayers of the Yom Kippur service, the basis of prayer, prayer as visualization and the devotion of Jewish life.

Jews who engage in prayer agree that they believe their acts of recitation of prayer texts are a dialogue with God. The former Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, Sir Jonathan Sacks, summed this up saying, “Prayer is the language of the soul in conversation with God. It is the most intimate gesture of the religious life, and the most transformative.” Sacks characterized the Jewish prayer book saying, “The Siddur is the choral symphony the covenantal people has sung to God across forty centuries from the days of the patriarchs until the present day.” He called it a “calibrated harmony.”