Rabbi Tovia Singer who will be doing a Yom Kippur Service tonight and tomorrow
Starting at sundown today and ending at sundown tomorrow millions of Jews around the worlds will go to the Synagogue for Yom Kippur, known in English as the Day of Atonement. The prescription for this is in the book of Leviticus, specifically in Chapter 16. After describing the procedure in the chapter, verse 34 sums everything up beautifully:
“This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites.”
This is an important holiday. All the sins of the Israelites. That’s no small thing. The only problem is, no Synagogue on the planet performs any of these ceremonies the way they are written in Leviticus 16. The only thing found in these houses of worship are Scripture readings and prayers.
Let’s look at some of the verses found in the Chapter:
“This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place: He must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He is to put on the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
I wonder how much this happens in modern Synagogues? I actually don’t wonder because I know it doesn’t happen. More examples could be given but I just recommend a quick read through the chapter to see for yourself.
The sacrifices are replaced by prayers. I’m not against prayer but if God tells you to do something, you need to do it the exact way God wants it. This is the reason that Moses wasn’t allowed to enter the promised land. The truth is that with the destruction of the Second Temple, the last remnants of the Old Covenant Biblical religion came to an end. The Second Temple was doomed to fail because it was not the Temple at the end of the book of Ezekiel. Instead they made a far inferior Temple.
The religion called Judaism started a few years after the Second Temple was destroyed. It was invented by Johanan ben Zakai and was basically a debating society. When God ushered in the New Covenant, thereby annulling the old one, most of the laws in the Torah could not be followed. The religion known as Judaism was clearly not the religion of the Mosaic Covenant. There was no Temple, sacrifices, Priesthood, Monarchy or theocratic Kingdom. All of the bloodlines and lineages were lost when the Temple was destroyed. The Mosaic religion was finished.
Despite lacking all these things, the one thing present in Judaism which is lacking in the Mosaic religion is the Oral Law. According to the Rabbis, at Sinai the Israelites received two laws. The written law containing the five books and an Oral Law. There is no mentioned of the Oral Law until decades after the destruction of the Second Temple.
As a Christian, I am part of the New Covenant and I believe that sins are atoned for in a different manner. If you want to learn about the Mosaic religion, the only source is the Old Testament, nothing more. For every Jew out there, know that the Church doors are open on Sunday morning.
That is a very interesting article indeed. I had no idea that there might possibly be such issues with Judaism. I would like to look into this further because the story of the Jews had become very interesting to me and I would like to know more. The fact that Our Lord was a Jew means that we ought to know quite a lot about them and try to understand their world view. Naturally I have great respect for our elder brothers in faith (so to speak). I wonder how a modern Jew might respond to your article.
Hi Patrick,
I would like to see a modern Jew respond to this piece as well. From what I’ve noticed, most Jews aren’t too theologically versed(like Catholics maybe?) on high theological details. They’re good on the basics but for an in depth theological analysis on issues like this, an apologist or rabbi would be needed.
The number one thing that we need to remember is that Judaism was not the religion of Jesus. The religion of Jesus was the Mosaic religion and it looks very different than the Judaism practiced today.