Reflecting and looking ahead

Yom Kippur arrives at sundown today. Those of the Jewish faith

begin fasting at that point for a 24-hour period in which they will

reflect upon the past year, ask for forgiveness for any sins

committed and look forward to a fruitful new year.

At Temple Bat Yahm in Newport Beach, an annual daylong food drive

also coincides with the holiday, which ends at sunset Monday. This

year, the synagogue plans to collect 11 tons of nonperishables that

will then be donated to various Orange County charities.

On Friday, City Editor James Meier sat down with Beth Slavin,

Temple Bat Yahm’s director of marketing, to discuss the holiday and

the always successful food drive, now in its 11th year.

What makes Yom Kippur the most significant holiday of the year for

those of the Jewish faith?

Well, it’s a significant part of a 10-day observance where Rosh

Hashanah begins and actually begins the Sabbath a week prior to the

holiday with a holiday called S’lichot. That is the preparation for

Jews to begin celebrating their new year. Then, a week later, we

celebrate our new year celebration.

It’s 10 days of looking upon how each year has gone so quickly

and, for each of us, the year has contained a measure of all of

life’s experiences, its accomplishments and satisfactions, its

anguishes and its griefs, its joy and self-confidence. And that’s

what we’re doing during this 10-day period. We’re really doing a lot

of introspective reflection in hope that we can make this year a

better year.

And, of course, on Yom Kippur, God is forgiving us for any sin

that we would have committed and the gates of repentance at the end

of the day while the sun is setting begin to close and, God willing,

we are all sealed in the book of life for a fruitful coming new year.

And this, of course, is the year 5763 of the Hebrew calendar.

Is there anything that makes this particular Yom Kippur more

important or significant than any other?

Well, I think that we all concerns for Israel and the conditions

in the Middle East, and of course what is happening in the world

today in the looming presence of another war and where our president

is going to take our country. That’s something that we’re all

thinking about at this time.

And, of course, our own country. Certainly celebrating a one-year

anniversary in the Jewish faith at this time of year is quite

meaningful. And we’re mindful of how precious and how fragile our

lives are.

What does one specifically do at sundown on Sunday?

Probably the most significant one that most Jews will have

observed, and that begins at the age of 13, is a bar or bat mitzvah

-- becoming the adult age. And all adults will begin the fast -- a

24-hour fast. And that’s certainly why the food drive is so important

for us because what we’re doing is we’re going a day without a food

and, the food that we would have eaten and shared with our families

that day, we are giving to other needy organizations. So that’s

probably the most significant observance of the Yom Kippur day.

And, of course, coming to the synagogue for worship. We have

ongoing programs and lectures throughout the day. We keep everyone’s

mind from food here until sundown Monday, when we observe the last

part of the holiday, which is celebrated with Havdalah -- the close

of the observance with the sunset. At that point, the bread is

broken, wine is tasted and everyone goes home to break the fast.

Is there any particular feast that takes place before the fasting?

Most people will have a nice Yom Kippur Eve dinner before they

come to what we call Kolnidre services.

So tell me more about the food drive that begins on Monday.

I’d love to. As you can see, bags have already started to arrive.

First of all, I’m speaking for Bonnie Jeannette, who has led our food

drive with other congregants for the last 11 years. She has spearheaded this annual Yom Kippur food drive. She has been very

fortunate in having a partnership with Gelson’s, which provides over

15,000 bags, and Ryder Transportation, with a very large truck.

They’ve donated their services to us gladly to hold the food and then

the next day, it’s distributed. Our member volunteers come in.

They are nonperishable items and they go to Catholic Charities,

Irvine Temporary Housing, Jewish Family Services, Orange Coast

Interfaith Shelter, Food Distribution Center/O.C. Harvest, O.C.

Rescue Mission and Share Our Selves. Again, what I think is nice is

that Gelson’s and Ryder have joined hands with us over the 11 years

to serve these organizations in our community.

What are the goals?

Each year, we try to add one more ton, so last year we achieved 10

tons and this year, God willing, we achieve 11 -- 2,500 pounds that

we add each year.

The nice thing about having this program is it affords people --

namely our congregants, who would not necessarily know what to do and

how to go about giving -- a vehicle that they, their friends and

their family can participate in. We urge each one to come with a bag

for each member of their family and they do. And they come in the

morning and they come back in the afternoon. And they look at the

truck as it’s being filled up and if it’s not filled up to their

expectations, and the rabbi [Mark Miller] urges them at each service,

they come back with more.

We’re glad to be able to do it as a community, too.

The other thing that I think is important is we give to all

faiths, we give to every denomination. There’s no discriminating

factor going on here. It’s important to say it goes across the board

to every individual out there.

Any final thoughts?

I think we just have to be cognizant of those around us and think

about the people who don’t have and need more.