Yom Kippur: Day of Atonement
When
Yom Kippur is a day-long holiday, typically in late September or early October.
Scriptural Origins
“And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work… For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. In is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves” (Leviticus 16:29-31)
(See all of Leviticus 16 and Leviticus 23:27-32)
History
Yom Kippur was first established by God amidst a newly liberated Israelite people journeying from Egypt to the Promised Land - specifically in the Sinai Desert. It was a sanctified day meant to take place on an annual cadence for the atoning (”kapar”) of sins, a rich word that can be translated as “purge, cover over, pacify, reconcile, cleanse, propitiate, pardon, cancel, placate, or appease.”
As a people set apart yet marred by sin, Yom Kippur represented a time of embodied grief, remorseful confession, retributive sacrifice, and divine forgiveness. Because Yom Kippur took place on the Sabbath, it was already a day on which no work was to be done; however, it included additional practices such as: fasting, cleansing baths, burning incense in the Tabernacle, wearing holy garments, and making sacrifices and offerings, particularly of two goats.
Yom Kippur has historically been viewed by many (if not most) Jews as the holiest day of the year, as it is the clearest depiction of regeneration among the people of God. Simultaneously, it’s been a more challenging holiday to enter into for Jewish people since the destruction of the Second Temple, as there is now no Holy of Holies in which a High Priest might enter to make atonement, nor a proper place to make sacrifices.
While certain more orthodox sects of Jews remain active in their preparation for the rebuilding of the Temple once more, many rabbis (since as early as the first century) have centered this sacred day around rituals of confession, generosity, and prayer instead.
Purpose
The overarching tone of Yom Kippur is solemn, yet even amidst the solemnity, there still lies a rich undercurrent of joy that comes through forgiveness and reconciliation, and hope that awaits new life, particularly out of death.
This holy day abounds in imagery of death. It takes place on the Sabbath, a day of stillness. It’s a day of fasting from food and drink, which is a dying to the consumption of that which revives and animates our bodies. And many who practice Yom Kippur also choose to abstain from sex and certain acts of hygiene to physically encounter the micro-afflictions that come with denied cravings.
Yom Kippur is a wholistic encounter with sin and death, recalling that it is only by God’s mercy that such darkness might be reversed and turned into life.
Nothing depicts this quite like the two goats that were to be sacrificed.
Adonai commanded that Aaron - the High Priest - was to cast lots between two specially chosen goats. Depending on how the lots landed, one of the two would be taken and killed as a sin offering. As for the other, “Aaron [would] lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he [would] put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:21).
Sin offerings - such as the sacrifice of the first goat - were not an uncommon occurrence, and would actually take place throughout the year as a way to absolve oneself of their wrongdoings while pacifying the judgment of God. But these offerings represented a more moment-by-moment appeasement for particular evils.
The second goat represented something larger. Not solely individual sins or “sin clusters”, but the broader sinfulness that had stained the whole of God’s people and creation. This second goat was to put the Lord’s greater intent for his children on display. Rather than God merely subduing his judgment through continued sin offerings, His heart was bent towards ultimately casting out the very cancer requiring his judgment. As it is, Adonai desires a people entirely purged of this darkness; He longs to repair every rupture of the soul.
Yom Kippur is a densely-filled point of intersection between past destruction and the anticipation of future wholeness and glory. It is a day where God’s people, in humble vulnerability, were to expose their transgressions before a preeminent Maker who would make a way to be cleansed and reconciled.
Fulfilment
Yeshua is the complete atonement of Yom Kippur: his fasting and wandering in the wilderness; his taking on the sins of the world; his being “crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). No longer are we required to make sin sacrifices or exile scapegoats “since he did this once for all when he offered up himself” (Hebrews 7:27).
In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, he states: “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins.” (Romans 3:22-25)
The beauty of a fulfilled Yom Kippur is the remembrance of Yeshua as our unblemished sacrifice. His is an offering of irrevocable and indestructible forgiveness that requires no further offering, while establishing a new Kingdom overflowing with reconciled connection and shalom.
However, we find ourselves in an in-between moment. As we seek to embody the goodness (”tov”) of our original design, we are continuously confronted with our own inadequacy and fragmentation. Yom Kippur then becomes a holy day where we are invited to also enter into Christ’s death - through confession and fasting - so that we may too experience a moment of resurrection power. Unlike the sacrifices of old, we are not performing an act for the sake of being forgiven; indeed, faith in Yeshua has cast a canopy of forgiveness over our entirety. Instead, such practices are ways in which we sever our allegiances to lesser glories and cling to the mercy and grace that surrounds us. God has given His forgiveness; here, in this moment of Yom Kippur, we practice receiving it again and again.
Needs:
Candles
Paper
Other items may be necessary depending on selected activities
Modern Liturgical Adaptation
Opening Evening at Sundown
Night of Confession and Lament
Matriarch, or Household Leader (lights the candle(s) at sundown):
Blessed are You, O Lord, our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His Word and has called us to kindle the light of Yom Kippur. Blessed are You, for you have granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.
Leader:
Adonai, we have sinned.
[Selah]
We have walked in darkness. We have breeched our covenant with you. We have chosen for ourselves idols, we have participated in injustice, and we have succumbed to desires not rendered to you.
In our woundedness, we have wounded others. In our fear and greed and anger and despair we have lashed out against you and the world.
Yes, O Lord, we have sinned, and it is true that the wages of sin is death.
Who can evade the sting of death? Is there any such man that can withstand?
Death is surely in our midst. It casts a shadowy haze all around us, reminding us that there is no good apart from you. We can taste it in our fasting, smell it in our uncleanliness, and feel it as we abstain from the cravings of our heart.
How grievous it is, O God, to stand face-to-face with this solemn reality — to witness the fruits of our corruption as we behold your sovereign judgement.
[Selah]
Yet you, great Savior King, have remained ever merciful and kind.
Just as you provided substitution for Isaac on the alter, and casted out the scapegoat in place of your people Israel, so too have you made atonement for us by the blood of the Lamb.
Yeshua, Deliverer, you have exchanged our death with life, our ashes with garlands, our tears with oils of gladness, and our heavy spirits with hearts of praise.
It is a truly glorious thing that you have done!
So as we lament, might our lament be not as those who are without hope, but as ones who have embraced the grace of a new dawning.
Might this moment of lowliness not be rooted in a shame that leads to despair, but in a deep conviction of the need to confess and purge ourselves of any such evil in our midst.
Find us humble and contrite, for “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
Lead us on the path of reconciliation, to you, to one another, to creation, and even to ourselves.
Amen.
[Time of Confession — Either all together, in small groups, or individually]
[Consider Singing or Playing a Song of Confession]
A version of Keith Green’s “Create In Me A Clean Heart”
[Fast from Dinner]
Possible Discussion Questions During Fast
What is your historical experience with confession like? What might it look like to sit with your sin for a moment and ask God to speak to you through it?
How might allowing your body to symbolically experience death through fasting point you to the redemption of Christ? What posture do you feel compelled to take to embody humility and contrition?
How do you experience shame in your body? How might the kindness of God lead your shame from despair to repentance and hope?
What does it look like for you to anchor yourself in the hope of Christ?
How does receiving the mercy of God compel you towards being merciful to others?
[Evening Activity]
Pick one to three activities from the following list to enter into the spirit of Yom Kippur:
24-hour food fast
Abstaining from bathing, sex, technology, and chores (as is appropriate)
Read Psalm 61 and the book of Jonah
Practice forgiving those who have wronged you and seek out those from whom you need to be forgiven
Read Everett Worthington’s book “Forgiving and Reconciling”
Do a symbolic purification bath (mikvah) the day before Yom Kippur as an act of preparation
Create a time for solitude and silence, to contemplate the presence of God in your life and pray
Make a fire and have a quieter and slower night together
Write words of sin, lies, grief, and shame on pieces of paper and burn them in the fire
Wear all white clothes (even a white prayer shawl, or tallit) to reflect the purity and mortality of the holy day