Yom Kippur Necklace: The Day of Awe and Atonement
Understanding Yom Kippur using the method of “necklace”. The necklace is one of the methodology in studying Jewish Text. According to the Jewish Sages, using the necklace in Torah study shows the unity of the text from Torah, Neveim and Ketuvim.
Torah/The Five Books of Moses
“This shall be an everlasting ordinance for you: on the tenth day of the seventh month every one of you, whether a native or a resident alien, shall mortify himself and shall do no work. Since on this day atonement is made for you to make you clean, so that you may be cleansed of all your sins before the Lord, by everlasting ordinance it shall be a most solemn sabbath for you on which you mortify yourselves.” (Leviticus 16:29-31)
Leviticus 23: 27-32 : “The tenth of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement, when you shall hold a sacred assembly and mortify yourselves and offer an oblation to the Lord.”
Neveim/Prophets
Isaiah 57: 14 & 58:14 “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove the stumbling blocks from my people’s path.”
“Then you shall delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the month of the Lord has spoken.”
Hosea 14: 1-10 : “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the Lord; Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls”(vv. 2-3)
Ketuvim/Psalms or Writings
Psalm 51 Recognizing one’s sinfulness before God…Prayer of repentance
“Have mercy on me, O God in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt and of my sin cleanse me.” (vv. 2-4); “Be bountiful O Lord, to Zion in your kindness by rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem; Then you shall be pleased with due sacrifices, burnt offerings and holocausts; then shall they offer up bullocks on your altar.” (vv. 20-21)
The Book of Jonah
“When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.” (Jonah 3:10)
written by Arlyne