One of the best-known features of Yom Kippur -- sometimes the only thing people know about this day -- is the fact that we are forbidden to eat and drink.  What is the meaning and purpose of these prohibitions on Yom Kippur? An anthropologist visiting a synagogue on Yom Kippur might think that since no one is eating or drinking for an entire 24-hour period, the congregants are all suffering terribly.  ...

The Torah designates the tenth day of the seventh month (Tishrei) as the “Sabbath of Sabbaths,” the day that we call Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. In the seventh month on the tenth of the month you shall afflict yourselves and you shall not do any work…. For on this day He shall provide atonement for you to purify you; from all your sins before G-d you shall be purified ...