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The Torah Learning Library of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah

Yom Kippur

YCT Yamim Noraim Torah Reader

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 28, 2023

Please enjoy this resource booklet, which includes Divrei Hitorerut/Words of Awakening and Inspiration, Torah & Halakha, and Tefillah/Prayer. We hope that it will elevate and enhance your experience during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Click here to download or find it below.…

Taking Pills to Ease the Fast

In recent years, it has become popular for products to be marketed that will make the fast on Yom Kippur easier. On a certain level, this makes sense. Fasting for twenty-five hours while also spending most of the day standing on one’s feet as one prays in synagogue can make the day uncomfortable at best and unbearable at worst.…

blue sky

Let’s Try to Be a Little Less Focused This Coming Year

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on October 3, 2022

We are so often told that the way to success is to set our goals and then work to achieve them with single-minded focus. Indeed, for Ramban, the word het, sin—a word that dominates our Yom Kippur prayers—means to miss the target, not to stay straight and fully directed towards what we aim to achieve in our religious lives. …

hanging lightbulbs

An Electric Light for Havdalah After Yom Kippur?

With the advent of electricity in the last century, halakha has faced many new questions unknown to our ancestors. Countless teshuvot and books have been written attempting to analyze the nature of electricity and how it should be conceptualized within halakhic categories.…

Insights into the Yom Kippur Mahzor (Audio Only)

by Rabbi David Silber
Posted on September 22, 2022

Erev Yom Kippur in the Aggadah

by Rabba Wendy Amsellem
Posted on September 21, 2022

young boy in a white t-shirt blowing a shofar with a black background

Atonement and Sacrifice

In the days of the Beit HaMikdash, one achieved atonement through two key rituals: vidui (confession) and the offering of korbanot (sacrifices). Although each one could be viewed as a separate act, both pieces were fundamentally brought together by the kohen gadol, or high priest, on Yom Kippur. …

large rectangular broom-mop device glides across gleaming wooden floor

Yom Kippur 5782 Greetings from Rabbi Dov Linzer

by Rabbi Dov Linzer
Posted on September 14, 2021

Dear Friends, Yom Kippur is a day which often directs us inward. It prompts us to ask ourselves where we have succeeded and where we have failed, and how we want to do better going forward. This is the classic process of teshuvah: to return (shav) to our past, to repent, to correct and, hopefully, to achieve forgiveness. …

young boy in a white t-shirt blowing a shofar with a black background

Atonement and Sacrifice

In the days of the Beit HaMikdash, one achieved atonement through two key rituals: vidui (confession) and the offering of korbanot (sacrifices). Although each one could be viewed as a separate act, both pieces were fundamentally brought together by the kohen gadol, or high priest, on Yom Kippur. …

A Plastic Hour

In the Time of Coronavirus

Yom Kippur is almost upon us. It is a day that is classically spent in personal introspection and reflection, acknowledging and feeling remorse for our sins and misdeeds, and committing to try to do differently in the future. In previous years, I have shared my thoughts that I believe that this heavy emphasis on looking back can often be unproductive and unhelpful.…

“To Bow and to Bend We Won’t be Ashamed…” Two Understandings of the Yom Kippur Prostrations

Rabbi Yekutiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994) was the founding Rebbe of the Sanz-Klausenberg chassidic court. A Holocaust survivor, Rav Halberstam established various organizations dedicated to rebuilding Torah learning after the war. He spoke frequently about the importance of studyingTalmud and even stated that the essence of chassidus is to learn Gemara, something quite unusual for a Chassidic rebbe.…

One for All and All for One? Individual and Communal Obligations of Shofar

Rav Mordechai Yehuda Leib Winkler (1845-1932, Hungary) was a student of the Ketav Sofer, the son of the Chatam Sofer and served as the Rabbi and Rosh HaYeshiva of Mád in Northern Hungary. His book of responsa, Levushe Mordechai, contains 1555 separate responsa addressed to 174 different locations (including 4 to the United States), testifying to his popularity and importance as a posek.…