neilah

neilah, in Judaism, the last of the five Yom Kippur services. As the concluding rite of Yom Kippur, the service is the most sacred of the yearly liturgy and is expressed in melodies of great solemnity. When the shofar (ritual ram’s horn) sounds at the close of the neilah, the synagogue service ends and the daylong fast marking Yom Kippur is over.

In ancient times groups of laymen attended the sacrifice at the Second Temple in Jerusalem as representatives of the common people. Each day before sunset, when the Temple gates were being closed, these deputations prayed the neilah; simultaneously, villagers outside Jerusalem joined their representatives in spirit by reciting the neilah on their own. The neilah was also recited on public fast days. Modern Jews view the neilah as the symbolic closing of the gates of heaven when God’s final judgment is passed on man.