It is well known that most Jewish rituals are associated with food: honeycake for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), cheesecake for Shavuot (Pentecost) and doughnuts for Chanukah to name but a few.

This is why every Jewish household contains both at least one celebrity chef but many food critics! It is therefore noteworthy when a ritual is associated with abstinence from consuming food and imbibing liquids. There are in fact a number of minor fasts in the Jewish calendar, but the one that is observed by the majority of Jews is Yom Kippur: the Day of Atonement.

However, more important than whether one does or doesn’t eat, is the motivation for doing so: for one Biblically ordained, 24-hour period in a year, to put worldly material concerns aside and to focus internally on our being, our deeds and their foundation in moral fibre. At this time we humble ourselves, we acknowledge our mortality, our human frailty of body and mind. We are connected to the Divine and our heritage, as we are held in a sense of awe by standing before God just as our ancestors had done over thousands of years. Yet it also has an important underlying message relevant to all humanity, asking for another opportunity to do a better job of living than we have done previously.

The biblical ceremonies of atonement that are described in the Torah were conducted by the High Priest and reflected the strong belief in magic prevalent among peoples of that era.

In effect, Yom Kippur served the function of cleansing the Temple sanctuary, the abode of God, of any impurity. During the year, inadvertent acts of the priests might have polluted and therefore defiled the sanctuary, pushing the Divine Presence from its midst. During the special rituals for Yom Kippur, the High Priest wore white linen garments rather than his usual finery, and he symbolically demonstrated to the people that the process of atonement for the multitude had been fulfilled.

He did this through the rite of expiation that is often understood as the source of the term “scapegoat.” Two goats were brought before the High Priest. One was sacrificed on the altar as a sin offering. The High Priest then placed his hands on the head of the second goat and confessed over it all the sins of the people. The goat was driven off into the wilderness, supposedly carrying with it all the guilt that the Israelites had accumulated during the year.

A positive outcome of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem was that the atonement process became internalised. On Rosh Hashanah, the New Year and the beginning of our period of repentance, I polished our silverware with my children, taking off the tarnish that had appeared on the surface over the year. We looked at our faces in the newly sparkling surface. We looked at ourselves.

On Yom Kippur, we turn to polish the tarnish from our hearts. We pray that we will be able to see once more the divine spark that is the source for all the good we do and that, over the coming year, it will not be obscured by the grime of the bad that we do. May this year be one in which we shall be a source of pride to God and humanity.

Aaron Goldstein is Rabbi of Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue