9 Tishri - Yom Kippur
I wanted to give this talk today because tomorrow evening (10 Tishri) is the start of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, also called the Day of Expiation of Sins. It commemorates the date that Moses brought down the second copy of the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai, signifying that God had granted atonement for the sin of worshiping the golden calf. These days it is celebrated by fasting and prayers for forgiveness.
In the days of Temple worship, the form of the ceremonies was quite different. The first century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus describes it thus:
“…they fast till the evening; and this day they sacrifice a bull, and two rams, and seven lambs, and a kid of the goats, for sins. And, besides these, they bring two kids of the goats; the one of which is sent alive out of the limits of the camp into the wilderness for the scapegoat, and to be an expiation for the sins of the whole multitude; but the other is brought into a place of great cleanness, within the limits of the camp, and is there burnt, with its skin, without any sort of cleansing. With this goat was burnt a bull, not brought by the people, but by the high priest, at his own charges; which, when it was slain, he brought of the blood into the holy place, together with the blood of the kid of the goats, and sprinkled the ceiling with his finger seven times, as also its pavement, and again as often toward the most holy place, and about the golden altar: he also at last brings it into the open court, and sprinkles it about the great altar. “
“The holy place” was the middle chamber of the Temple. It contained the gold lampstand, the table of the showbread, and a golden altar for incense. At one end of “the holy place” was another room, separated by a veil. This room was the holy of holies, in Latin called the Sanctum Sanctorum. It was an empty room in the Second Temple, but in King Solomon’s Temple it was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. God’s Spirit was said to hover over the Ark. The high priest would only enter into God’s presence after many ritual purifications, and he burned incense to make it smoky so that he would not accidentally see God’s face and therefore die. Still the risk was great enough that he would only enter when absolutely required, which was once a year at Yom Kippur, in order to sprinkle the sacrificial blood on the Mercy Seat (or cover) of the Ark, and so atone for the sins of the people.
Sources:
- Antiquities of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus, translated by William Whiston, Book III, Chapter 10
- MSN Encarta
- www.everythingjewish.com
- www.jewfaq.org
- www.templemount.org/solomon.html