Many people complain about a post-Yom Kippur hangover. They do well during the fast day itself but feel the aftereffects the morning after. Although the dictionary defines hangover as “severe headache and aftereffects of excessive drink ” for us it is the aftereffects of insufficient drink and food. Whatever the definition hangovers are no fun.
Still there are hangovers and there are hangovers. Some are welcome and crucial to living a good life. Yom Kippur hangovers for example.
The following thoughts flitted across my mind on the morning after Yom Kippur (hereafter referred to as “YK”).
It is easy to have kavanah when reciting “who shall live and who shall die” on YK. But what is very troubling is that the very next morning my minyan reverted back to the breakneck speed with which we recited psukei d’zimra before YK. In Ashrei we say “Poseiyach es yadecha — You open Your hands and satisfy graciously the needs of every living thing” (Psalm 145). If we mumbled it in the same way we mumbled it before YK that might suggest to an objective observer that perhaps all the pleading to G-d on YK day had little effect on us.
Create a free account to keep reading.
