The U.S. federal government will last at least into Friday after the Senate paused budget talks to accommodate Yom Kippur.

The government shut down at midnight Wednesday night amid a standoff between Democratic and Republican senators over competing spending bills. Talks to end the shutdown, the first since the record-breaking 35-day freeze in 2018 , immediately paused for two days for the Jewish holiday, which begins Wednesday evening and ends Thursday evening.

The break has made senators — not to mention the 750,000 federal employees whose paychecks are in limbo — acutely aware of the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur is Judaism’s holiest day.

“We’re not going to be working Thursday because it’s a Jewish holiday, but we’re planning on, right now, having votes on Friday and maybe Saturday,

See Full Page