The Ten Days of Repentance
The "ten days of repentance" include Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the days in between, during which time Jews should meditate on the subject of the holidays and ask for forgiveness from anyone they have wronged. They include the Fast of Gedaliah, on the third day of Tishri, and Shabbat Shuvah, which is the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Shabbat Shuvah has a special Haftarah that begins Shuvah Yisrael (come back, oh Israel), hence the name of that Shabbat. Traditionally the rabbi gives a long sermon on that day.
It is held that, while judgment on each person is pronounced on Rosh Hashanah, it is not made absolute until Yom Kippur. The Ten Days are therefore an opportunity to mend one's ways in order to alter the judgment in one's favor.
Read more about this topic: High Holy Days
Famous quotes containing the words ten, days and/or repentance:
“Smile and feel ten years younger; worry and get grey hair.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The others died, the luck of it blurting through them.
I could not, I was a silly broken umbrella
and oblivion would not kiss me. For three days it
was thus.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Enthusiasm. A distemper of youth, curable by small doses of repentance in connection with outward applications of experience.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)