Think of your sins and plan for a better year.  It’s Yom Kippur.

Under Jewish tradition, Yom Kippur is the day that one’s fate in the coming year will be determined and sealed by God.

Jews around the world fast and repent for their sins in the last year, reflecting on the wrongs they have committed and begging God’s forgiveness.

For many, the season of teshuvah and preparation for the High Holy Days begins a month earlier in the Jewish month of Elul. During the 10 days of repentance, people traditionally make extra efforts to reconcile relationships with others and with God.

As part of the tradition, some partake in tashlich, a ceremony in which many Jews throw bread crumbs into water while reciting prayers to symbolize the cleansing of their sins.

Though the whole season is one of repentance, many Jews focus purely on today, Yom Kippur, to set the year right. But that doesn’t necessarily mean a single day can make up for a year, or a lifetime, of sin.

“This is supposed to be a paradigm for daily behavior,” Rembaum said. Maimonides, the great medieval rabbi and philosopher, said repentance should be done daily, that each day could be one’s last on earth, so one should “clean the docket” before death, Rembaum said.

“This is the time of year that gives you a chance to focus on it and clean up any loose ends, not to initiate the process,” Rembaum said. “It’s the culmination and not the initiation that’s the ideal.”