Yom Kippur - The Day of Atonement

Yom Kippur — Day of Atonement

Countdown to Yom Kippur
September 28, 2009

(Days : Hours : Minutes : Seconds)

Commandment 389
B’midbar 29:7-11
⁷On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a holy convocation for you and you shall afflict yourselves; you shall not do any work. ⁸You shall offer an Olah-Offering to HASHEM for a satisfying aroma — one young bull, one ram, seven male lambs in their first year; unblemished shall they be for you. ⁹And their Minchah-Offering: fine flour mixed with oil — three tenth-ephah for the bull; two tenth-ephah for the one ram; ¹⁰and one tenth-ephah for each lamb of the seven lambs. ¹¹One male of the goats for a Chatat-offering, aside from the Chatat-Offering of the atonement and the continual Olah-Offering, with its Minchah-Offering, and their libations.
Commandment 324
Vayikra 16
     ¹HASHEM spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron's two sons, when they approached before HASHEM, and they died. ²And HASHEM said to Moses: “Speak to Aaron, your brother — he shall not come at all times into the Sanctuary, within the Curtain, in from of the Cover that is upon the Ark, so that he should not die; for in a cloud will I appear upon the Ark-cover.

Torah of the Service of Yom Kippur
Commandment 400
³With this¹ shall Aaron come into the Sanctuary: with a young bull for a Chatat-Offering and a ram for an Olah-Offering. ⁴he shall don a sacred linen Tunic; linen breeches shall be upon his flesh, he shall gird himself with a linen Sash, and cover head with a linen Turban; they are sacred vestments — he shall immerse himself in water and then don them. ⁵From the assembly of the Children of Israel he shall take two he-goats for a Chatat-Offering and one ram for an Olah-Offering.

⁶Aaron shall bring near his own Chatat-Offering bull, ad provide atonement² for himself and for his household. ⁷He shall take the two he-goats and stand them before HASHEM, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. ⁸Aaron shall place lots³ upon the two he-goats: one lot “for HASHEM ” and one lot “for Azazel.” ⁹Aaron shall bring near the he-goat designated by lot for HASHEM, and make it a Chatat-Offering. ¹⁰And the he-goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be stood alive before HASHEM, to provide atonement through it, to send it to Azazel to the ¹¹Aaron shall bring near his own Chatat-Offering bull and he shall provide atonement for himself and for his household; then he shall slaughter his own Chatat-Offering bull.

     ¹²He shall take a shovel full of fiery coals⁴ from atop the Altar that is before HASHEM, and his cupped handsful of finely ground incense-spices, and bring it within the Curtain. ¹³He shall place the incense upon the fire before HASHEM — so that the cloud of the incense shall blanket the Ark-cover that is atop the [Tablets of the] Testimony — so that he shall not die.

¹⁴He shall take some of the blood⁵ of the bull and sprinkle with his forefinger upon the eastern front of the Ark-cover; and in front of the Ark-cover he shall sprinkle seven times from the blood with his forefinger. ¹⁵He shall slaughter the Chatat-Offering he-goat of the people, and bring its blood within the Curtain; he shall do with its blood as he had done with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it upon the Ark-cover and in front of the ark-cover. ¹⁶Thus shall he provide atonement upon the Sanctuary for the contaminations of the Children of Israel, even for their rebellious sins among all their sins; and shall he do for the Tent of Meeting that dwells with them amid their contamination. ¹⁷Any person shall not be in the Tent of Meeting when he comes to provide atonement in the Sanctuary until his departure;⁶ he shall provide atonement for himself, for his household, and for the entire congregation of Israel.

¹⁸He shall go out to the Altar that is before HASHEM, and make atonement upon it: He shall take some blood of the bull and some blood of the he-goat and place it on the horns of the Altar all around. ¹⁹He shall sprinkle upon it from the blood with his forefinger seven times; thus shall he cleanse it and sanctify it from the contaminations of the Children of Israel.

²⁰When he is finished atoning for the Sanctuary, the Tent of Meeting and the Altar, he shall bring the living he-goat near.⁷ ²¹Aaron shall lean his two hands upon the head of the living he-goat and confess upon it all the iniquities of the Children of Israel, and all their rebellious sins among all their sins, and place them upon the head of the he-goat, and send it with a designated man to the desert. ²²The he-goat will bear upon itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land, and he should send the he-goat to the desert.

²³Aaron shall come to the Tent of Meeting — he shall remove the linen vestments that he had worn when he entered the Sanctuary, and he shall leave them there. ²⁴He shall immerse himself in the water in a sacred place and don his vestments; he shall go out and perform his own Olah-Offering and the Olah-Offering for the people, and shall provide atonement for himself and for the people.

     ²⁵And the fat of the Chatat-Offering he shall cause to go up in smoke upon the Altar. ²⁶The one who dispatched the he-goat to Azazel shall immerse his clothing and immerse himself in the water; thereafter he may enter the camp. ²⁷The Chatat-Offering bull and the Chatat-Offering he-goat, whose blood had been brought to provide atonement in the Sanctuary, someone shall remove to the outside of the camp; and they shall burn in fire their hides, their flesh, and their dung. ²⁸The one who burns them shall immerse his clothing and immerse himself in the water; thereafter he may enter the camp.

Fast on Yom Kippur
Commandment 94
     ²⁹This shall remain for you an eternal decree: In the seventh month, on the tenth of the month, you shall afflict yourselves

Commandment 93
and you shall not do any work, neither the native nor the proselyte who dwells among you.

³⁰For on this day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you; from all your sins before HASHEM you shall be cleansed.⁸

    ³¹It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall afflict yourselves; an eternal decree. ³²The Kohen, who has been anointed or who has been given the authority to serve in the place of his father, shall proved atonement; he shall don the linen vestments, the sacred vestments.³³He shall bring atonement upon the Holy of Holies, and he shall bring atonement upon the Tent of Meeting and the Altar; and upon the Kohen'im and upon all the people of the congregation shall he bring atonement.This shall be to you an eternal decree to bring atonement upon the Children of Israel for all their sins once a year;” and [Aaron] did as HASHEM commanded Moses.

Is that a commandment, or what?

Commandment 121
B’midbar 10:9-10
     ⁹When you go to wage war in you Land against an enemy who oppresses you, you shall sound short blasts of the trumpets, and you shall be recalled before HASHEM , your God, and you shall be saved from your foes.
    ¹⁰On the day of your gladness, and on your festivals, and on your new moons, you shall sound the trumpets over your Olah-Offering and over your feast Shelamim; and they shall be a remembrance for you before your God: I am HASHEM , your God.

Yom Kippur is probably the most solemn day in Eloheim's calendar. It is a day of self examination and affliction, when many fast and pray. There (as usual) are two schools of thought, that A) You don't need to fast anymore if you're a believer in Mashiach, and since you're saved, you're commanded to rejoice, or B) HASHEM our Eloheim says it, I do it group.

I'm a Group B person, as you probably expected.

If you've been paying attention, you'll know what to expect. If not, Click here. Now. The Torah says to afflict our souls on that day, and it is a statute forever. It is sealed 8 times by the use of the Holy Name, the second number of windings in the Tzitzit (The second knot in the Tzitzit can be seen as a need for salvation, after recognizing HASHEM 's perfection in the first knot; 7 windings). 8 is also the letter Chet ç, the letter of Life (Chai éç, Chet ç and Yod é). The word Chai is 18, the adding of HASHEM 's initial to Chet. This is symbolic of the new life in King Messiah Yeshua; We are given part of Eloheim's name after repentance and reflection. Yom Kippur is a reminder Commandment, a Sign. Interestingly enough, if you take the Gematria of the combined words Chet ç, Yod é, Tav ú (the letters that form Chet), it adds to 418, which is also Chatat-Offering, which means unintentional sin.

Unintentional sin is one of the primary matters dealt with on Yom Kippur. In most Synagogues, the first prayer is the Barkhu:

Barkhu et Adonai Hamvorach. Barkhu et Adonai Hamvorach, L'olam Vayed.
Blessed be Thou, HASHEM. Blessed be HASHEM for all Eternity.

This shows that we praise Eloheim, no matter what. Even in the midst of our affliction, HASHEM is worthy to be praised.

The Second prayer is Kol Nidre, a prayer most famous for the Marranos. The standard translation is "Let all vows, oaths and bonds, etc., be null and void..." But a better understanding comes from thinking of your every word as a vow or oath. "Let your yes be yes and your no be no." Rabbi Yeshua told his talmidim. As a talmid of King Messiah, I am aware I will be held accountable for every spoken word. The Kol Nidre prayer asks HASHEM to forgive and annul our every spoken word that does not meet with His approval, when seen through these midrash.

We then go through a series of penitent prayers, like Al Het, where as a group we all confess every possible sin, and Elohay Avotaynu (the Salakhty), where we confess the sins, ask HASHEM to annul them and forgive us. It stands separate from Al Het in that we even list the sins by their penalties, showing we are fully aware of the consequences. Most Messianic congregations at this point begin their fasts with Kiddush, a communion service. Why do we fast? We are told to afflict ourselves, and elsewhere, we see that afflicting yourself includes a total fast (The book of Yonah), lasting 25 hours. Some congregations have concluding services, the Neilah, where we acknowledge Eloheim as rightful King of all Creation.

Yom Kippur is a most solemn occasion. Many get the idea of Scriptural obedience by seeing a Passover, and imagining that all our Holy Days are exactly the same; food, lots of fun, and singing. But Yom Kippur shows better than any day our relationship with Eloheim: We know exactly our relationship: "With man, it is impossible. But with Eloheim, all things are possible."

Now you may be asking yourself, "How does this relate to my New Covenant experiences?". The answer is not a simple one. As I close this article, I direct you to the following article by James Scott Trimm. The article is the 15^th in a series of 61 articles which are a preparation for a study of the book of Cha’zon. http://www.yashanet.com/studies/revstudy/rev3c.htm.

May God bless you and direct you in you studies.

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¹ Vayikra 16:3. Only with this, i.e. the entire sacrificial service listed below, may the Kohen Gadol enter the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur.

²Vayikra 16:6. That is, he shall confess his sins and his household's. An essential part of repentance and hence of atonement (1:4, Yoma 5a), confession is one of God's greatest gifts. He permits a person to erase his past so that he can begin a life unhampered by the corrosive effects of past sins.

³ Vayikra 16:8. The next step in the service was to select two he-goats; one that would become a national Chatat-Offering and a second that would become the bearer of all the people's sins, as it were.

⁴ Vayikra 16:12-13. The Kohen would bring burning coals from the outer Altar and specially ground incense to the Holy of Holies. There he would pour the incense onto the fire and wait until the incense cloud rose and covered the Ark.

5 Vayikra 16:14-28. Special Blood Service. The special blood service of the Kohen's own bull and the people's he-goat is performed in the Holy of Holies.

6 Vayikra 16:17. Recanati and R'Bachya explain that on Yom Kippur the Kohen had to approach God, as it were, without any intermediary between them.

⁷ Vayikra 16:20-22. Though the commandment to send a “scapegoat” to Azazel is a qox, a decree that is beyond human intelligence, commentator have attempted to offer rationales: (a) The ritual of the scapegoat inspires the Jews to repent, for it symbolizes that people can remove from themselves the burden of past sin; (b) The two identical he-goats symbolize that every person must choose between good and evil; those who do not choose holiness are inevitably pushing themselves toward a wasteland of spiritual destruction (R' Hirsch).

8 Vayikra 16:30. Sacrificial service can serve only to make God receptive to one's personal repentance – then the sinner must make himself worthy of God's forgiveness. Only through personal repentance and self-cleansing can a person “be cleansed of all his sins before God” (Sforno). R' Elazar ben Azariah expounds that repentance and the Yom Kippur service can effect atonement only for sins before HASHEM i.e. against God; one who sinned against his fellow must first appease his fellow (Sifra, Yoma 85b).