Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur - Ziua Ispasirii
Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur - Ziua Ispasirii
Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur - Ziua Ispasirii
Between the Feast of Trumpets/Yom Teruah and the Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur are 9 days apart. Yom
Kippur is the holiest day of the year, a time of true repentance and physical and spiritual humility, a solemn
day charged with symbolism through the historical events that defined its past, but especially through the
prophecies that are to be fulfilled in the future. It is a Great Day of Shabbat on which the whole of Israel as a
community, as a chosen people, seeks to reconcile itself, to ask forgiveness from the Heavenly Father for all
the LAWLESS things they have done out of ignorance and unaware, and also from all those they have harmed.
It is the day on which the High Priest of Israel officiated at the ceremony of the atonement sacrifice and the
only day of the year on which he was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the people
of Israel. This procession was not only symbolically charged but was of immense responsibility, the High Priest
having the role of making atonement for all the people of Israel with humility and deep repentance, his own
life being at stake if he was not found worthy for this Great Office. As the first function in the Yom Kippur
procession we see the High Priest first bringing a calf as a sacrifice of atonement for himself and his house.
We then see as the next step how the High Priest draws lots between two perfect goats, one goat as a sin
offering for the people of Israel brought to YHVH, and the second goat after all the sins of Israel were
pronounced over his head (bore the curses of Israel) was to be released into the wilderness as the goat of
Azazel. The second goat was to bear the sins of the people in the desert also as a symbol of atonement .
Although each of these stages of the procession may seem shrouded in mystery and perhaps not understood
at a first analysis of the text, they are each symbolically charged and prophetically refer to the Saviour as the
High Priest, as the calf himself brought as a sacrifice and also as the two goats, each playing a very important
role in the process of cleansing from sins - atonement, a procession that took place annually.
Evidently the Savior as High Priest in the Heavenly Temple fulfilled this honorable calling, giving Himself as
the perfect atonement sacrifice for YHVH's people and the grafted into Israel, representing the calf that was
to become the atonement sacrifice for Himself and His House/Family, the goat that was to be offered as
YHVH's atonement sacrifice for the people of Israel, and also the goat that was to bear all the LAWLESNESS of
the people in the wilderness, becoming a curse for us at the stake. All these sacrifices had a double function, to
COVER the sins of the people, and to point to THAT Saviour who would prophetically fulfil all the atonement
sacrifices, once and for all, by bringing his own blood into the Heavenly Temple as the perfect atonement
sacrifice, accepted by the Heavenly Father.
We read the whole procession in Leviticus chapter 16.
Through the atoning sacrifice of Yahusha Messiah who opened the Way giving access to every sinner (both the
people of Israel and the Gentiles grafted into Israel) to enter the Holy of Holies on a spiritual level after the
tearing of the veil inside the Temple, we have the great privilege and honour of bringing before YHVH our
prayers of repentance and forgiveness, which represent our fragrant prayers before YHVH, both for us
individually and for all Israel, the people of which we are a part. The sacrificial system established in the Tent
of Meeting and later in the Temple in Jerusalem was a "shadow of things to come", symbolizing the sacrifice of
the Lamb of YHVH. It was to open the way to our own individual sacrifice which is brought daily through
turning from sin, prayers, fasting, humility of heart, songs of praise and obedience to YHVH's Word, in a
word by what Paul calls each of us to do daily - dying to the flesh (to our fleshly lusts - physical and spiritual),
giving up doing the will of the flesh (the sin that works in us) and living by the laws of the Spirit (in spiritual
cleansing through obedience to YHVH). In Hebrews 10:19-22 Paul calls us to bring our individual sacrifices
before YHVH, presenting ourselves honorably before our Creator " let us draw near with a true heart in
completeness of belief, having our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies washed with
clean water"
The Creator of heaven and earth wants to live among men, but mankind is too attached to the fallen ways of
this world. Heaven's solution is represented in the imagery and ceremony of the Tent of Meeting and the work
of Yahusha Messiah. Discover in the reading of the Torah Vayikra which means "and He called" (Leviticus 1:1-
6:7) how the cry of our heart and the way we present ourselves before the Creator bringing our garments -
prayers, songs, turning from sin, fasting and obedience to the commandments, determines whether we are a
pleasing incense of „sweet fragrant aroma” unto YHVH.
1 Corinthians 15:31 „I affirm, by the boasting which I have in Messiah Yahusha our Master, I die day by day.”
Romans 12:1 “I call upon you, therefore, brothers, through the compassion of Elohim, to present your bodies a
living offering – set-apart, well-pleasing to Elohim – your reasonable worship.”
Galatians 5:24-25 „And those who are of Messiah have impaled the flesh with its passions and the desires. If
we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Luke 9:23 “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his stake daily, and follow
Me.”
1 Peter 2:24 „who Himself bore our sins in His body on the timber, so that we, having died to sins, might live
unto righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed.” – The choice belongs to each of us every moment,
dying to sin we live in righteousness (we walk in the Spirit serving the Master YHVH), while continuing in sin we
serve the earthly flesh. We serve either the Master YHVH or the enemy, there is no in between.
1 Peter 4:1-3,6,11,18,19 “Therefore, since Messiah suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same
mind, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin; so that he no longer lives the rest of his
time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but according to the desire of Elohim. For we have spent enough of our
past lifetime in doing the desire of the gentiles, having walked in indecencies, lusts, drunkenness, orgies, wild
parties, and abominable idolatries, For this reason the Good News was also brought to those who are dead, so
that, whereas they are judged according to men in the flesh, they might live according to Elohim in the spirit.. If
anyone speaks, let it be as the Words of Elohim. If anyone serves, let it be as with the strength which Elohim
provides, so that Elohim might be praised in it all through Yahusha Messiah, to whom belong the esteem and
the rule forever and ever. And if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where shall the wicked and the sinner
appear? So then, those who suffer according to the desire of Elohim should commit their lives to a
trustworthy Creator, in doing good.
Revelation 8:3-4 „And another messenger came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer, and much
incense was given to him, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the set-apart ones upon the golden
altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the set-apart ones, went
up before Elohim from the hand of the messenger.” We see the High Priest Yahusha Messiah fulfilling the same
functions in the Heavenly Temple by bringing the prayers of the saints as sweet fragrant aroma during the
process of incense burner, the same as described above in Leviticus 16.
Instructions for the tenth day of the seventh month - Day of Atonement
Leviticus 16:29-34 „“And this shall be for you a law forever: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the
month, you afflict your beings, and do no work, the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. “For on
that day he makes atonement for you, to cleanse you, to be clean from all your sins before YHVH. “It is a
Sabbath of rest for you, and you shall afflict your beings – a law forever. “And the priest, who is anointed and
ordained to serve as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, the
set-apart garments, and he shall make atonement for the Most Set-apart Place, and make atonement for the
Tent of Meeting and for the altar, and make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.
“And this shall be for you a law forever, to make atonement for the children of Yisra’ĕl, for all their sins, once a
year.” And he did as YHVH commanded Mosheh.”
Leviticus 23:27-32 „“On the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a set-apart
gathering for you. And you shall afflict your beings, and shall bring an offering made by fire to YHVH. “And you
do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before YHVH your
Elohim. “For any being who is not afflicted on that same day, he shall be cut off from his people. “And any
being who does any work on that same day, that being I shall destroy from the midst of his people. You do no
work – a law forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. ‘It is a Sabbath of rest to you, and you
shall afflict your beings. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you observe
your Sabbath.”
Leviticus 25:9 „‘You shall then sound a ram’s horn to pass through on the tenth day of the seventh month, on
the Day of Atonement cause a ram’s horn to pass through all your land.”
Exodus 30:10 „And Aharon shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering
of atonement – once a year he makes atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most set-apart to
YHVH.”
Numbers 29:7-11 „And on the tenth day of this seventh month you have a set-apart gathering, and you shall
afflict your beings, you do no work. And you shall bring near a burnt offering to YHVH, a sweet fragrance: one
young bull, one ram, seven lambs a year old, perfect ones they are for you, and their grain offering: fine flour
mixed with oil, three-tenths of an ĕphah for the bull, two-tenths for the one ram, one-tenth for each of the
seven lambs, one male goat as a sin offering, besides the sin offering for atonement, the continual burnt
offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings.”
Hebrews 9:23-26 “It was necessary, then, that the copies of the heavenly ones should be cleansed with these,
but the heavenly ones themselves with better slaughter offerings than these. For Messiah has not entered
into a Set-apart Place made by hand – figures of the true – but into the heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of Elohim on our behalf, not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters into the Set-
apart Place year by year with blood not his own. For if so, He would have had to suffer often, since the
foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the
offering of Himself.”
At the end of the ages - on the 4th day from creation - the Savior was revealed to the people of Israel for the
first time, although his birth was foretold as part of YHVH's Plan of Salvation as early as Genesis 3:15 "I will put
a curse between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. She shall bruise your head, and you
shall bruise her heel." The 4th day of creation means 4,000 years according to 2 Peter 3:8 "with YHVH one day
is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.." So the 4th day of the 6 days of creation (not
counting the 7th day which is a separate day of rest - the Millennium), is of course the point that marks the
midpoint of the ages from the "end of the ages". Each 2,000 year period is CLEARLY delineated in Scripture by
two central figures, Abraham, the father of Israel and the Gentile descendants of Israel, whom Scripture calls
"the friend of YHVH" in Isaiah 41:8, 2 Chronicles 20:7 and James 2: 23, and by Yahusha Messiah 2,000 years
after Abraham, who first came into the world as Israel's Savior (High Priest who was the only one worthy to
bring the atonement sacrifice into the Heavenly Temple), and who would return among us after another 2,000
years of creation as Israel's Savior (King over YHVH's people), thus fulfilling the remaining unfulfilled
prophecies of the Torah and the Prophets.
Hebrews 10:9-17 “ “See, I come to do Your desire, O Elohim.” He takes away the first to establish the second.
By that desire we have been set apart through the offering of the body of Yahsuha Messiah once for all. And
indeed every priest stands day by day doing service, and repeatedly offering the same slaughter offerings which
are never able to take away sins. But He, having offered one slaughter offering for sins for all time, sat down at
the right hand of Elohim, waiting from that time onward until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet.
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being set apart. And the Set-apart Spirit also
witnesses to us, for after having said before, “This is the covenant that I shall make with them after those days,
says YHVH, giving My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I shall write them,” and, “Their sins and their
lawlessnes I shall remember no more.”
Hebrews 10:19-22 “So, brothers, having boldness to enter into the Set-apart Place by the blood of Yahusha, by
a new and living way which He instituted for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest
over the House of Elohim, let us draw near with a true heart in completeness of belief, having our hearts
sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies washed with clean water.” – all this was symbolically
represented by the processions that the High Priest performed in the Tent of Meeting/Temple of Jerusalem
Hebrews 10:1-6 „For the Torah, having a shadow of the good matters to come, and not the image itself of the
matters, was never able to make perfect those who draw near with the same slaughter offerings which they
offer continually year by year. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? Because those who
served, once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those offerings is a reminder of
sins year by year. For it is impossible for blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, coming into the
world, He says, “Slaughtering and meal offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In
burnt offerings and offerings for sin You did not delight.”
The sacrificial system was meant to COVER the LAWLESNESS of the sinner with the unblemished blood of
innocent animals and not to remove them permanently. As a parallel in the worldly legal system (which also
derives from the Torah) in case of a law violation we end up in a courtroom and receive a sentence, we are
given a second chance to rectify our mistake, but this second chance does not absolve us of the original
violation of the law. The breach and the sentence remain on our record and they are not absolved or removed
from our record, they are just overlooked as is the first instance of breaking a law. Likewise the sacrificial
system as we will see explained in detail below, had this function. The Savior's sacrifice, however, has the
function of redeeming us, of paying our bail and freeing us from any accusation of breaking the law that the
prosecutor (the enemy) brings against us. For this, however, it is necessary that we once aware of our sin
(breaking the law/Torah) we stop sinning. It is our number one responsibility to stop sinning by will, because
sins by will are not paid for with the blood of the Saviour!
Numbers 15:24-25,28 „then it shall be, if it is done by mistake, without the knowledge of the congregation,
that all the congregation shall prepare one young bull as a burnt offering, as a sweet fragrance to YHVH, with
its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the right-ruling, and one male goat as a sin offering. Then
the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Yisra’ĕl, and it shall be forgiven
them, for it was by mistake. And they shall bring their offering, an offering made by fire to YHVH, and their sin
offering before YHVH, for their mistake. And the priest shall make atonement for the being who strays by
mistake, when he sins by mistake before YHVH, to make atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.”
Hebrews 10:26-29 „For if we sin purposely after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no
longer remains a slaughter offering for sins but some fearsome anticipation of judgment, and a fierce fire
which is about to consume the opponents. Anyone who has disregarded the Torah of Mosheh dies without
compassion on the witness of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think shall he
deserve who has trampled the Son of Elohim underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was set
apart as common, and insulted the Spirit of favour?” (Grace=unmerited favor/forgiveness that YHVH gives to a
sinful man who turns from his sins)
Romans 2:5-15 „But according to your hardness and your unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself
wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of Elohim, who “shall render to each one
according to his works” everlasting life to those who by persistence in good work seek for esteem, and
respect, and incorruptibility; but wrath and displeasure to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the
truth, but obey unrighteousness; affliction and distress on every human being working what is evil, of the
Yehuḏi first, and also of the Greek; but esteem, respect, and peace to everyone working what is good, to the
Yehuḏi first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with Elohim For as many as sinned without Torah
shall also perish without Torah (with reference to the Greeks), and as many as sinned in the Torah shall be
judged by the Torah (with reference to Jews). For not the hearers of the Torah are righteous in the sight of
Elohim (in reference to those who hear and do not do the will of YHVH), but the doers of the law shall be
declared right (those who hear and do the will of YHVH). For when gentiles, who do not have the Torah, by
nature do what is in the Torah, although not having the Torah, they are a Torah to themselves, who show the
work of the Torah written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their
thoughts accusing or even excusing,
Paul proposes a parallel between those who hear and do not do, and those who hear and do the will of YHVH,
also putting in context those who despite not having understood that the Law is still in force, fulfill by nature
their own conscience (prompted by the presence of the Holy Spirit) who guides or convicts them. It is the Holy
Spirit who naturally leads our hearts to obedience (sanctification) and not to breaking the will of YAH (sin).
Ezekiel 45:15,17 „And one lamb from a flock, from two hundred, from the watered pastures of Israel, for grain
offerings, and for a burnt offering, and for peace offerings, to make atonement for them,” declares the Master
YHVH. And on the prince are the burnt offerings, and the grain offerings, and drink offerings, at the festival, the
New Moons, the Sabbaths – in all the appointed times of the house of Israel. He is to prepare the sin offering,
and the grain offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of
Yisra’ĕl.”– a future prophecy pointing to King Yahusha and his office as High Priest, along with the ceremonies
he will perform as King during the Millennium.
Temple offerings along with the five types of sacrifices and the tithes, as well as the requirement to be present
at the Temple in Jerusalem during the annual feast days (3 times a year), will continue during the Millennium,
this time their symbols and meanings will be explained and exemplified to us by our High Priest in the New
Temple of YHVH in Jerusalem.
The Book of Ezekiel elaborates much on the aspects of the Millennium. Although it is often thought that with
the return of Messiah sin will supernaturally cease to exist in the world, we must refer to the book of
Revelation where we see that sin will continue to exist on earth until the end of the Millennium, so for another
1,000 years, at the end of which death, hell, the devil, the beast and the false prophet, along with those not
found written in the book of life, will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Revelation 20). The
Millennium with Yahusha will mean the preparation of the saints for eternal fellowship in the presence of the
Glory of YHVH in the New Jerusalem.
YHVH our Elohim and Elohim of our fathers, may the remembrance of us, of our fathers, of Messiah the Son of
David your servant, of Jerusalem Your set apart city, and of all the people of the house of Israel ascend, come
and be accepted before You for salvation, for good, for grace, for kindness, for mercy, for life and for peace on
this day of Yom Kippur. You know the mysteries of the universe and the dark secrets of every living soul. You
search all the innermost chambers of man’s conscience; nothing escapes You, nothing is hidden from Your
sight. We thank You YHVH that You have provided atonement for all our transgressions through the sacrifice of
Yahusha HaMashiach, our Salvation
I conclude this study with one of the most holy blessings that YHVH gives to Moses to be spoken over the sons
of Israel in which he says „‘Thus they shall put My Name on the children of Yisra’ĕl, and I Myself shall bless
them.”:
Numbers 6:23-26 „Speak to Aharon and his sons, saying, ‘This is how you bless the children of Yisra’ĕl. Say to
them
YHVH bless you and guard you;
YHVH make His face shine upon you, and show favour to you;
YHVH lift up His face upon you, and give you peace.”
May this holy blessing cover you so that the Will of YHVH may be fulfilled in you! Amen.