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Yom Kippur....
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Dressing the Talit on Yom kippur
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Yom Kippur (Yom kippūr, day of atonement) is the Jewish
holiday of the Day of Atonement. The Bible calls the day Yom Hakippurim
(Hebrew, "Day of the Atonements"). It is one of the Yamim Noraim
(Hebrew,
"Days of Awe"). The Yamim Noraim consist of Rosh Hashanah, which is the
first two days of the Ten Days of Repentance, and Yom Kippur,
which is the
last of the ten days.
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The rites for Yom Kippur are set forth in the sixteenth
chapter of Leviticus (cf. Exodus 30:10; Leviticus 23:27-31, 25:9; Numbers
29:7-11). It is described as a solemn fast, on which no food could be taken,
and on which all work is forbidden. Sacrifices were offered in the
Temple in
Jerusalem. |
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In Biblical times, the most distinctive ceremony was the
offering of the "emissary goats", or "scapegoats" (Leviticus 16:8-10) which
are sent to Azazel. Azazel is an obscure word which occurs nowhere else in
the Hebrew Bible. The word may come from two root words, aze, meaning goat,
and azel, meaning departure. Various attempts have been made to interpret
its meaning. Some have taken it for the name of a precipice where the
sacrificial goat was killed. Others, take it for the name of an evil spirit;
a spirit of this name is mentioned in the Apocryphal Book of Henoch, and
later in Jewish literature. |
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On this interpretation the idea of the ceremony would
seem to be that the sins were sent back to the evil spirit to whose
influence they owed their origin. It has been noted that somewhat similar
rites of expiation have prevailed among heathen nations. Modern
biblical
critics, who refer the above passages to the Priestly code, and to a
post-Exilic date, are disposed to regard the sending of the goat to Azazel
as an adaptation of a pre-existing ceremony. Some more conservative
biblical scholars have noted that the place the goat would be taken is
merely the "wilderness", outside the city, and that there is not a place
called Azazel. Their view is that the "goat of departure" was merely "let
go." |
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