Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement is a fast day and is one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar. It is a day that we have special prayers, piyutim and read the Torah twice. In the morning we read from parashat Aharei which discusses the sacrifices as well as the ceremonies that were preformed in the Beit Hamikdash on Yom Kippur. The Maftir is from parashat Pinehas, the section that discusses the Holiday of Yom Kippur as well as the sacrifices that were offered in the Beit Hamikdash. The afternoon reading is also from parashat Aharei and discussess the forbidden relationships. Sephardic communities throughout the world have various traditions and methods of preforming the prayers which are all beautiful. On this webpage, I will be focusing mainly on the Syrian traditions from Damascus "Sham" and Aleppo "Halab." I will be highlighting the main piyutim and prayers that we sing on this holiday chronologically. Addirionally each of the prayers (Arbit, Shahrit, Musaf, Neila and Minha) are followed by a selichot section and you can listen to these tunes on the selichot webpage.

*This tune is used at the end of the high holidays