“Yom Kippur is a day not just of confession and forgiveness but of a profound liberation. Atonement means that we can begin again. We are not held captive by the past, by our failures. The book is open and God invites us to write a new chapter in the story of our people, a chapter uniquely our own yet one that we cannot write on our own without being open to something vaster than we will ever understand. It is a day on which God invites us to greatness.” — Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
When is Yom Kippur 2026
10
Tishrei
5787
Begins: Sundown on Sunday 20 September 2026
Ends: Nightfall on Monday 21 September 2026
Videos on Yom Kippur
Investing Time
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are festivals that ask us how we have lived thus far. Have we drifted? Have...
Confusing Satan
To mark the launch of 'Ceremony and Celebration: An Introduction to the Holidays' (published by Maggid Books in September 2017),...
The Two Voices: A New Perspective on the Meaning of Teshuvah
As we approach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we invite you to take an hour to join Rabbi Sacks on an intellectual...
The Meaning of Kol Nidre
When he was Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Sacks used to deliver an annual Ellul lecture at The London School of Jewish...
Chief Rabbi's 11th Annual Ellul Lecture at LSJS
Rabbi Sacks had a tradition, to deliver a pre-Rosh Hashanah shiur every year at the London School of Jewish Studies...
Understanding Kol Nidrei
Rabbi Sacks shared this short message in September 2009, seeking to elevate our prayers and our understanding of the meaning...
Animations
Time (animated video)
An animated video of Rabbi Sacks' thoughts on the Jewish way to view time, with audio recorded in 2010.
Ellul Mini-Episodes
Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur & Coronavirus – An Ellul lecture mini-series for 5780 (2020)
Building the Future
As we prepared to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Rabbi Sacks recorded...
Rethinking Failure
As we prepared to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Rabbi Sacks recorded...
Faith & Insecurity
As we prepared to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Rabbi Sacks recorded...
Holocaust Curriculum Resources
Rabbi Sacks answers some deep questions frequently asked about the Holocaust. This series, in partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust, has been made possible thanks to the generous support of Richard Harris.
Do you think it’s ever possible to forgive the perpetrators of the Holocaust?
In April 2020, to coincide with Yom HaShoah, the day in the Jewish calendar dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, and the...
Understanding Prayer Videos
The Soul’s Language
Kol Nidrei, the haunting melody that begins the holy of holies of Jewish time. As we approached Rosh Hashanah and...
Holy Words
In this video, Rabbi Sacks discusses how listening and the idea of holy words, places, time and people are central...
Growth
In this video, Rabbi Sacks discusses the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset, and why Judaism, especially around...
Mistakes
In this video, Rabbi Sacks describes how Judaism sees us all as fallible; we all make mistakes and it is...
Family
In this video, Rabbi Sacks explains why we believe God is our family. As we approached Rosh Hashanah and Yom...
Ask Rabbi Sacks Episodes
Questions Answered - Episode One
We invited the world to send Rabbi Sacks videos where they asked him their burning questions, in time for Rosh...
Midnight Selichot Speeches
To Live and Act as a Jew
Have you ever wondered what Professor Ludwig Guttmann (the founder of the Paralympic Games), Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur have...
Three Responses to Crisis
Watch highlights of Rabbi Sacks giving the Midnight Selichot Service Address in 2011. Read transcript When bad things happen to...
Preparing for the New Year Episodes
Where Will We Find God?
In 2011, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance and Yom Kippur 5772, the Chief Rabbi Lord...
The Courage to Hope - the Greatest Courage of All
In 2011, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance and Yom Kippur 5772, the Chief Rabbi Lord...
Undoing the Knots We Tie Ourselves Into
In 2011, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance and Yom Kippur 5772, the Chief Rabbi Lord...
Where Our Speaking... Meets God’s Listening
In 2011, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance and Yom Kippur 5772, the Chief Rabbi Lord...
How do you learn to live? By not taking life for granted.
In 2011, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance and Yom Kippur 5772, the Chief Rabbi Lord...
When God Sheds A Tear…
In 2011, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance and Yom Kippur 5772, the Chief Rabbi Lord...
To Be Free, You Have To Forgive
In 2011, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance and Yom Kippur 5772, the Chief Rabbi Lord...
The Holy Place…is where you are
In 2011, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance and Yom Kippur 5772, the Chief Rabbi Lord...
Don’t Get Angry… There’s A Better Way
In 2011, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance and Yom Kippur 5772, the Chief Rabbi Lord...
The One Word That Can Change your Life
In 2011, in advance of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Repentance and Yom Kippur 5772, the Chief Rabbi Lord...
BBC Pre-Rosh Hashanah Programmes
The Case for God (2010)
To mark Rosh Hashanah, Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks interviews four distinguished and engaging atheists in The Case For God?...
A More Gracious Future (2009)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 2009. Transcript Rabbi Sacks: On Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish...
Faith in the Family (2008)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 2008. Transcript Narrator: The Jewish New Year. The Chief...
Keeping Faith (2007)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 2007. Transcript Rabbi Sacks: If someone told you about...
In a Strange Land (2006)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast on the BBC in 2006. Transcript Reporters: A tipper truck, packed with explosives,...
My Brother's Keeper (2005)
Watch Rabbi Sacks’ Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 2005. Transcript Reports on bombings… Rabbi Sacks: After the...
Agents of Hope (2003)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast on the BBC in 2003. Transcript Announcer: Now, BBC 1 reflections on the...
Does God Have a Place in the Marketplace? (2000)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in September 2000. Transcript Rabbi Sacks: As we approach Rosh...
Guardians of the World (1999)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 1999. Transcript Rabbi Sacks: No idea has been more...
More than a FunFair (1998)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 1998. Transcript Announcer: preamble… Now on BBC1, as the...
A Single Gesture (1997)
Watch Rabbi Sacks’ Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 1997, in which he visits a drug rehabilitation centre...
The Tough Questions (1996)
Watch Rabbi Sacks’ Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast on the BBC in 1996. Transcript Rabbi Sacks: At this time of the...
Remember us for Life (1995)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 1995. Transcript Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the great...
Time for Caring (1994)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the BBC in 1994. Transcript Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest...
Please Forgive Us (1993)
On teshuvah and the spiritual drama of the Jewish New Year. Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast by the...
Beginning Again (1992)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' Rosh Hashanah television programme, broadcast by the BBC in 1992, including his visit to Wolfson Hillel primary...
The Unwritten Ending (1991)
Watch Rabbi Sacks' message for the Jewish New Year in his BBC Rosh Hashanah programme, broadcast in September 1991. Transcript...
JInsider Videos
Rabbi Sacks on Time
Transcript As anyone who's ever really engaged in time management knows, the single most important distinction is between the urgent...
Read about Yom Kippur
From The Archives
Essays and writings from Rabbi Sacks' extensive body of work
ARTICLES, ARTICLES
Covid Puts the ‘I’ in the High Holy Days
This year the Jewish High Holy Days will be like no other. Usually the synagogue is packed on Rosh Hashanah...
ARTICLES
Ten Ideas for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
As we approach Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and the start of the Jewish year, here are ten short ideas which...
ARTICLES
The Challenge of Jewish Repentance
The Ten Days of Repentance are the holy of holies of Jewish time. They begin this Wednesday evening with Rosh Hashanah,...
ARTICLES, BOOK EXTRACTS
Yom Kippur
Read an extract from the Koren Sacks Yom Kippur machzor. To those who fully open themselves to it, Yom Kippur...
ARTICLES
On Rosh Hashanah, A Breath of Life
In the year that we are now parting with, 5774, it became dangerous once again to be a Jew. Israel,...
REFLECTIONS
Thoughts for Ellul
These six reflections written and recorded by Rabbi Sacks cover themes appropriate to this time of year, including teshuvah, self-change,...
ARTICLES
The Courage to Grow
I vividly remember the surprise and delight I had when I first read Jane Austen’s Emma. It was the first...
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
You Have to Build a Future Before You Can Look Back in Freedom on the Past
Next week Jews throughout the world will be observing Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the...
ARTICLES, ARTICLES
Democratised Holiness: Yom Kippur and Moral Responsibility
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holy of holies of Jewish time. It is that rarest of phenomena,...
CREDO, ARTICLES
Books are the bringers of life and enlightenment
One year, when David Blunkett was Secretary of State for Education, he mentioned that he was dedicating the coming school...
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The Age of Greed
Next week in the Jewish community we'll observe Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish...
REFLECTIONS
Music for the Jewish Soul
Image: The Book of Life - by Shraga Weil (Safra Gallery, Jerusalem, www.safrai.com) In 2007, the Chief Rabbi recorded a...
ARTICLES, BOOK EXTRACTS
Ten Days, Ten Ways: Paths to the Divine Presence
DOWNLOAD PDF Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the days between are the time when we come closest to God – reflecting...
STATEMENTS
A Prayer for Peace in Israel
This prayer was composed by Rabbi Sacks in 2000 (5761) during the Second Intifada, and was recited by communities on...
ARTICLES, L'EYLAH ARTICLES
Can We Change? The Psychodynamics of Teshuvah (L'Eylah)
Issue 46 - printed September 1998 Download
The Most Personal of Festivals
The day is intense. The process of preparation and prayer began forty days ago on Rosh Chodesh Ellul with the blowing of...
ARTICLES, L'EYLAH ARTICLES
The Word 'Now' - Reflections on the Psychology of Teshuva (L'Eylah)
This Rosh Hashanah issue contains something of the me'inyana de'yoma, bearing on the themes of the Days of Penitence. In...
From Covenant & Conversation
The series of weekly commentary essays on the Torah by Rabbi Sacks
EMOR • 5776, 5783
Holy Times
The parsha of Emor contains a chapter dedicated to the festivals of the Jewish year. There are five such passages...
ACHAREI MOT, KEDOSHIM • 5776, 5783
The Courage to Admit Mistakes
Some years ago I was visited by the then American ambassador to the Court of St James, Philip Lader. He...
ACHAREI MOT, KEDOSHIM • 5783
The Courage to Admit Mistakes
The Parsha in a Nutshell This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks,...
ACHAREI MOT • 5768, 5775, 5782
The Scapegoat
The strangest and most dramatic element of the service on Yom Kippur, set out in Acharei Mot (Lev. 16:7-22), was...
ACHAREI MOT • 5774, 5781
Sprints and Marathons
It was a unique, unrepeatable moment of leadership at its highest height. For forty days Moses had been communing with...
TZAV • 5780
Left- and Right-Brain Judaism
The institution of the haftarah – reading a passage from the prophetic literature alongside the Torah portion – is an...
