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:
“Many a man who has known himself at ten forgets himself utterly between ten and thirty.”
—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)
“She has not grown uncivil
As narrow natures would
And called the pleasures evil
Happier days thought good....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Try what repentance can. What can it not?
Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)