Yom Kippur Trivia
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50 free Yom Kippur trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Yom Kippur trivia quiz covers the holiest day of the Jewish year, from the Temple service in Leviticus to the bicycles on Tel Aviv's empty motorways. The easy questions ask what the name means, which Hebrew month it falls in, how long the fast lasts, what is blown to mark its end and which holiday begins the Ten Days of Repentance. From there it moves through the prayers, the customs and the symbols: Kol Nidre, the white kittel, the five prohibitions, the Book of Jonah, the scapegoat and the crimson cord. The hard end is for people who stay through Ne'ila: the language Kol Nidre is chanted in, the composer who wrote a cello piece on its melody, the biblical event tradition places on this date, the number of prayer services in the day, the melon-seed drink Sephardic Jews break the fast with, the war that began with sirens on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, the ballplayer who got a standing ovation in synagogue and the year the United Nations first recognised the holiday. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entries on Yom Kippur, Kol Nidre, the Yom Kippur War, the scapegoat, the Book of Jonah, kapparot, breaking the fast, Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Passover and Judaism quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the Hebrew name Yom Kippur literally mean?
Day of Atonement
Day of Atonement. It is the holiest day of the Jewish year, so even many Jews who keep no other holiday fast and fill the synagogues.
Q 02Yom Kippur falls on the 10th day of which Hebrew month?
Tishrei
That puts it in late September or early October, nine days after the first day of Rosh Hashanah.
Q 03Which Leonard Cohen song takes its litany of fates from Unetanneh Tokef, a High Holy Day prayer?
Who by Fire
Who by Fire. Cohen wrote it after singing for Israeli soldiers in the Sinai during the 1973 war, and he added one question the prayer never asks: 'And who shall I say is calling?'
Q 04Tradition says God writes everyone's fate in the Book of Life on Rosh Hashanah and does what on Yom Kippur?
Seals the verdict
Seals the verdict. The gap between writing and sealing is the point: for ten days the decree can still be softened, tradition says, by repentance, prayer and charity.
Q 05The Yom Kippur fast runs from sundown until when?
Nightfall the following day
Nightfall the following day. That makes the fast about 25 hours long, not 24, because a little time is added at each end so that no part of the day is cut short.
Q 06Besides food and drink, the Yom Kippur fast traditionally forbids the wearing of what?
Leather shoes
Leather shoes. Leather once stood for luxury, which is why so many worshippers turn up at synagogue on the fast in trainers.
Q 07What instrument is blown at the end of Yom Kippur to mark the conclusion of the fast?
The shofar
The shofar. One long blast of the ram's horn ends the fast; some trace the custom to the biblical order to sound it on Yom Kippur of the Jubilee, the fiftieth year.
Q 08Kol Nidre, chanted as Yom Kippur begins, is a legal formula that cancels what?
Personal vows to God
Personal vows to God. Promises made to other people stay binding, a point rabbis had to repeat for centuries because hostile critics cited the chant as proof that a Jew's oath could not be trusted.
Q 09Rather than Hebrew, Kol Nidre is chanted in which language in most Jewish rites?
Aramaic
Aramaic. Strictly it is a legal declaration, not a prayer, and the oldest surviving wording, preserved in the prayer book of Rav Amram Gaon, was in Hebrew after all.
Q 10Which composer wrote a famous piece for cello and orchestra based on the Kol Nidre melody?
Max Bruch
Max Bruch. He was a German Protestant who learned the tune from a Berlin cantor's family, and the piece was so convincing that many listeners assumed he was Jewish, which he denied.
Q 11Kol Nidre provides the climax of which landmark 1927 film?
The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer. In the first feature film with spoken dialogue, Al Jolson's character walks out on his Broadway opening night to chant the prayer in place of his dying father.
Q 12Which harvest festival begins just five days after Yom Kippur?
Sukkot
Sukkot. Many families start building the sukkah, the festival's outdoor hut, on the very evening the fast ends, going straight from the most solemn day of the year to a week of feasting.
Q 13The closing service of Yom Kippur, held on no other day, is called what?
Ne'ila
Ne'ila. The name is usually read as the gates of heaven swinging shut at sunset, so the ark is left open and worshippers traditionally stay on their feet for these last prayers while there is still time.
Q 21Rabbinic tradition holds that Yom Kippur is the day Moses came down from Sinai carrying what?
The second tablets
The second tablets. He had smashed the first pair over the golden calf, so his return with replacements meant the people were forgiven, and the date became the yearly day of pardon.
Q 22The Talmud says Yom Kippur atones for sins against other people only once what has happened?
The wronged person has been appeased
The wronged person has been appeased. Prayer can settle only what is owed to God, so the day before the fast is spent seeking out friends and relatives to apologise face to face.
Q 23What is the white robe that many Ashkenazi men wear on Yom Kippur, at their wedding and finally as a burial shroud?
Q 14Which biblical book is read in its entirety as the afternoon Haftarah on Yom Kippur?
Jonah
Jonah. The prophet tries to run from his mission, and the book ends with God sparing a city that repents, a pointed choice for the last hours of a day about second chances.
Q 15In the Book of Jonah, the prophet spends three days and nights inside what?
A great fish
The Hebrew text never says whale, only 'great fish'.
Q 16In the Torah, the Yom Kippur goat that gave English the word 'scapegoat' is sent into the wilderness 'for' which mysterious name?
Azazel
Azazel. Nobody is sure whether the word named a desert demon, a rugged cliff or simply meant 'the goat that goes away'; the last reading is the one that produced the English word.
Q 17Which English Bible translator coined '(e)scape goat' in his 1530 translation?
William Tyndale
William Tyndale. He built it from 'scape', a short form of escape, to render a Latin phrase for the goat that is sent away; six years later he was strangled as a heretic for his translations.
Q 18What colour was the strip tied between the scapegoat's horns, the colour Isaiah uses for sin?
Crimson
Crimson. Tradition says a strip of the same crimson turned white once the goat reached the wilderness, the sign that the people were forgiven and their sins made 'white as snow'.
Q 19Yom Kippur was the only day of the year the High Priest was permitted to enter which part of the Temple?
The Holy of Holies
The Holy of Holies. He went in alone, first with a pan of burning incense so that smoke filled the chamber, and only then with the blood of the sacrifices.
Q 20The section of the Yom Kippur Mussaf prayer that recounts the Temple service in detail is called what?
Avodah
Avodah. As the cantor retells each step, from the High Priest's confessions to the sending away of the goat, worshippers are meant to picture themselves standing in the Temple as it happens.
Kittel
Kittel. Wearing what will one day be your shroud is the point: the simple robe, made without pockets, tells its wearer on the day of judgment that nothing is taken to the grave.
Q 24In the kapparot ritual performed by some on the eve of Yom Kippur, what is waved over a person's head?
A chicken or money
A chicken or money. Either one then goes to the poor; some of the greatest medieval rabbis attacked the chicken version as too much like a pagan rite, long before anyone raised animal welfare.
Q 25Which filled dumplings are traditionally served at the pre-fast meal before Yom Kippur?
Kreplach
Kreplach. The meat hidden inside the dough is read as stern justice wrapped in mercy, which is why the dumplings turn up on days when a kind verdict is hoped for.
Q 26North American Ashkenazi Jews traditionally break the Yom Kippur fast with what?
Bagels, cream cheese and lox
Bagels, cream cheese and lox. The meal is eaten after dark, yet by custom it is a dairy spread that looks far more like breakfast or brunch than like dinner.
Q 27Yom Kippur eve is the only night of the year when worshippers wear which item, normally put on only in daylight?
A prayer shawl
A prayer shawl. The tallit is otherwise a daytime garment, but on this one night it is put on for the opening service and kept on through the next day as a mark of special reverence.
Q 28The memorial prayer for the dead recited in Ashkenazi synagogues on Yom Kippur morning is known by what name?
Yizkor
Yizkor. The name is its first word, 'may God remember'; worshippers traditionally pledge charity in memory of their dead, and the service draws many Jews who rarely attend synagogue otherwise.
Q 29Which phrase, also sung at the end of the Passover seder, closes Yom Kippur in many Ashkenazi synagogues?
'Next Year in Jerusalem'
'Next Year in Jerusalem'. The same words end the two great set pieces of the Jewish year, and commentators read them as a reminder of life in exile and of the hope of return.
Q 30In Israel on Yom Kippur, what happens to the country's airports, broadcasters and public transport?
They all shut down
They all shut down. No law stops people driving either, yet almost nobody does, and in 1973 those empty roads are thought to have helped Israel rush its reservists to the front when war broke out on the fast.