Exploring the Fall Holidays: Yom Kippur

YHWH spoke to Moshe, saying: Mark, on the tenth of this seventh month,
it is the Day of Atonement;
a proclamation of holiness shall there be for you. You are to afflict your selves,
and you are to bring-near a fire-offering to YHWH; any-kind of work you are not to do on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to effect-atonement for you before the presence of YHWH your God. Indeed, if any person does not afflict-himself on that same day, he is to be cut-off from his kinspeople, and if any person does any-kind of work on that same day— I will cause that person to perish from amid his kinspeople! Any-kind of work you are not to do— a law for the ages, into your generations, throughout all your settlements. It is Sabbath, a Sabbath-ceasing for you, you are to afflict your selves;
on the ninth of the month, at sunset,
from sunset to sunset, you are to make-a-ceasing of your ceasing!

Indeed. Every time “however” and “indeed (except),” [are mentioned] in the Torah [they represent] a limitation. [Here, the limitation is this:] [Yom Kippur] atones for those who repent, but does not atone for those who do not repent.

For every person (soul) that does not afflict itself: we have heard the warning previously; now we hear the penalty for disobedience, what is it? ונכרתה, “it will be cut off from the future of its people.” (Sifra)

You are to afflict yourselves on the ninth of the month in the evening: our sages query how it is that we have to afflict ourselves on the day before the Day of Atonement, when the date set by the Torah for that day it the tenth? They conclude that what is meant here is that by eating and drinking on the day prior to the Day of Atonement we can fulfill the “festive” aspect of that day, which is after all part of the list of festivals. (Talmud Rosh Hashana, folio 9) they go as far as to state that treating the ninth day of that month as a festival, is equivalent to having afflicted oneself with total abstention from food and drink on the tent of that month...

On Yom Kippur, the day on which there is a mitzva by Torah law to afflict oneself, it is prohibited to engage in eating and in drinking, and in bathing, and in smearing oil on one’s body, and in wearing shoes, and in conjugal relations. However, the king, in deference to his eminence, and a new bride within thirty days of her marriage, who wishes to look especially attractive at the beginning of her relationship with her husband, may wash their faces on Yom Kippur. A woman after childbirth, who is suffering, may wear shoes because going barefoot causes her pain. This is the statement of Rabbi Eliezer. The Rabbis prohibit these activities for a king, a new bride, and a woman after childbirth.

A sin-offering, which atones for unwitting performance of transgressions punishable by karet, and a definite guilt-offering, which is brought for robbery and misuse of consecrated items, atone for those sins. Death and Yom Kippur atone for sins when accompanied by repentance. Repentance itself atones for minor transgressions, for both positive mitzvot and negative mitzvot. And repentance places punishment for severe transgressions in abeyance until Yom Kippur comes and completely atones for the transgression.

With regard to one who says: I will sin and then I will repent, I will sin and I will repent, Heaven does not provide him the opportunity to repent, and he will remain a sinner all his days. With regard to one who says: I will sin and Yom Kippur will atone for my sins, Yom Kippur does not atone for his sins. Furthermore, for transgressions between a person and God, Yom Kippur atones; however, for transgressions between a person and another, Yom Kippur does not atone until he appeases the other person.

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi says: For all transgressions that are stated in the Torah, whether one repented, or whether one did not repent, Yom Kippur atones, except for one who divests himself of the yoke of Heaven, by denying God’s existence, and one who reveals facets of the Torah that differ from its true meaning, and one who nullifies the covenant of circumcision of the flesh. For these, if one repented, Yom Kippur atones, and if not, Yom Kippur does not atone.

Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel said, "Never were there days as good for Israel as the Fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur": It is fine with Yom Kippur, since it has forgiveness and pardoning upon it - it is the day upon which the second set of tablets were given.