Ten Tips for an Easy Yom Kippur Fast

Fasting doesn’t necessarily mean suffering. There’s quite a bit we can do to alleviate the bodily and mental stress that normally accompanies a fast. The day before the fast, follow the following guidelines:

1. Cut down your caffeine intake to minimize headaches. That means stop drinking coffee, tea, and cola at least eight hours before the fast, and preferably twenty-four hours before the fast.

2. Avoid salty, spicey, and fried foods on the day before the fast.

3. Avoid white sugar, white flour, and white rice. Eat whole-grained foods such as brown rice and whole-wheat bread or challa.

4. Drink a lot of water all day long.

5. Eat a good breakfast that includes fruits, veggies, eggs or sardines, and whole grains.

6. The pre-Yom Kippur meal (se'uda mafseket) should include baked or broiled fish, a veggy salad, consomme, a small portion of chicken or turkey, and a side dish of complex carbohydrates. Substitute sweet deserts with watermelon or other water-retaining fresh fruit, and a cup of herb tea with a whole-grain cookie.

On Yom Kippur:

Tzom kal

צוֹם קַל

Easy fast

Gmar Chatima Tovà

May your prayers and the prayers of klal Yisroel be full of content and meaning and said with tender heart and purity of purpose. May the Gates of Prayer and the Gates of Mercy be thrown wide open! May our weeping open the Gates of Tears crying to our Beloved Father in Heaven 
"Avinu Malkeinu p'sach sha'arei Shomayim l'sfiloseinu!" 
Our Father our King, open up the Gates of Heaven to our prayers!

Kol Nidrei

Cantor Sholom Mendelson

Yom Kippur 5774

Yom Kippur traffic

The five abstentions

A distinctive feature of Yom Kippur is its designation in the Torah as both a 'Sabbath' and a fast day. Fasting on Yom Kippur (from before sunset until after dark the following night), which the Torah expresses with the term ‘affliction,’ is a broader concept than a mere abstention from food and drink. The Sages (see Yoma 76a-77b) derive from Biblical exegesis that affliction implies abstention from five activities: 
(a) eating and drinking; 
(b) washing one's body; 
(c) anointing oneself with oils; 
(d) wearing leather shoes; and 
(e) marital relations. 
 In addition, all labors that are forbidden on the Sabbath are forbidden on Yom Kippur as well. 
 (from Artscroll)

Atonement

Atonement occurs by G-d’s grace; purification by dint of one's own efforts. Although Yom Kippur brings with it atonement and forgiveness, its ultimate objective is that you “purify yourselves before G-d,” inside and out, by your own efforts, even in those matters visible only to G-d Himself. 
Rabbi Moshe Alshech

Yom Kippur War Miracle

This video describes a miracle that happened on the Golan Heights during the Yom Kippur War. In what became known as "The Valley of Tears", a small Israeli force under Avigdor Kahalani held back the bulk of the Syrian army for four days, preventing them from overrunning Israel. After the war, General Raful Eitan, commander of Golan forces, told Kahalani, "You saved the Jewish People!" The most amazing part is that just when Kahalani's force was on the verge of collapse, the Syrians retreated!