For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.
Luke 4:19
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
Psalm 19:14
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
1 Peter 2:5
5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
Leviticus 16 is read in one of the five synagogue services on Yom Kippur. It speaks about the scapegoat. Scroll down and read what we posted about the scapegoat as an additional Yom Kippur post.
“Denying oneself” is understood to mean fasting. We meet for a meal together there prior to the fast, which starts at 5:31 PM on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 in this city. Then we walk to our congregation meeting-place for the evening prayers. We spend most of the following day at our meeting-place praying from the Machzor (prayer book) for Yom Kippur.
The first significant item in the evening liturgy is “Kol Nidre” (“All vows”), in which we declare that all vows made voluntarily during the preceding or following year (the rabbis differ on which is meant) are hereby cancelled, nullified, voided.
The history is that during the Spanish Inquisition the Jews were forced to convert to Christianity by the Catholic Church, "but the forcing was done in such a way that the vow was understood to be voluntary."At Yom Kippur Jews who had had to undergo this kind of forcing were able to become free of what they had “voluntarily” vowed to do (to accept Christianity). The Inquisition prohibited Jews were from meeting on Yom Kippur; they risked their lives to do so. The poignancy of this declaration is obvious.
Genesis chapter 3
Much of the liturgy consists of confession of sin. One such prayer includes a sin-word for each letter of the alphabet –
א -- Ashamnu We have become guilty,
ב -- Bagadnu we have betrayed,
ג -- Gazalnu we have robbed,
ד -- Dibarnu dofi we have spoken slander,
ה -- He‘evinu we have caused perversion,
ו -- Vehirsha‘nu we have caused wickedness,
ז -- Zadnu we have sinned wilfully,
ח -- Hamasnu we have extorted,
ט -- Tafalnu sheker we have accused falsely,
י -- Ya‘atznu ra‘ we have given evil advice,
כ -- Kizavnu we have been deceitful,
ל -- Latznu we have scorned,
מ -- Maradnu we have rebelled,
נ -- niatznu we have provoked,
ס -- Saradnu we have turned away,
ע -- ‘Avinu we have been perverse
פ -- Pasha‘nu we have acted wantonly,
צ -- Tzaradnu we have persecuted,
ק -- Kishinu ‘oref we have been stiffnecked,
ר -- Rasha‘nu we have been wicked,
ש -- Shichatnu we have corrupted,
ת -- Tiavnu, ta‘inu, ti‘ta‘nu we have been abominable, we have
strayed, Tiavnu, ta‘inu, ti‘ta‘nu we have been abominable, we have
strayed, you have been merciful in longsuffering. we have individual ly and corporately sinned.
you have called us from backsliding & going astray forever. We repent from our backsliding and seek your face. You said seek my face, your face we seek.Never Abandon.
Twenty-four sins are named in this alphabetical prayer, forty-four in another one (“Al het” – “for the sin”), and a total of about 150 in all of them, and these prayers are repeated five times during Yom Kippur. Lots of confessing! Also: most of these poems are sung. Think about that – would you normally sing your sins? Finally, no one escapes the sin net – the sins are confessed in the plural: WE did this wrong, WE did that wrong, WE did the other wrong.
It is common in Israel for people go to each other and ask forgiveness for any wrongs they committed during the preceding year. This is an amazing custom! Is there any other people that sets aside a whole day each year for asking forgiveness? I know of none.
After Rosh Hashanah people begin wishing each other “Hatimah tovah!” (“A good signature!”) in the Book of Life, where all sins are recorded. As Yom Kippur approaches, the greeting becomes “G’mar hatimah tovah!” (“A good final signature!”) because Yom Kippur is the final opportunity to get those sins forgiven.
Praise God that we know our names are already written in the Book of Life through our Messiah Yeshua, the ultimate Yom Kippur sacrifice, who died for our sins. But this does not free us from confessing our more recent sins to God in order to apply Yeshua’s forgiveness. So long as we live we have that responsibility.
“If we claim not to have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, then, since he is trustworthy and just, he will forgive them and purify us from all wrongdoing. If we claim we have not been sinning, we are making him out to be a liar, and his Word is not in us. My children, I am writing you these things so that you won't sin. But if anyone does sin, we have Yeshua the Messiah, the Tzaddik [the Righteous One], who pleads our cause with the Father. Also, he is the kapporah [atonement] for our sins and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.” (1Yochanan 1:8-2:2, Complete Jewish Bible)
The book of Yona (Jonah) is read as part of the Yom Kippur liturgery during the afternoon service since it deals with repentance.
G’mar hativah tovah!
-- David and Martha
