Appointed time
יוֹם הַכִּפֻּרִים
The day of atonement
The one day in the year the high priest goes behind the veil, and the only fast the Torah commands.
In one minute
A day for clearing the account. Everyone stops completely and goes without food; the high priest performs a rite that cleanses the sanctuary and the people, including one goat offered and a second sent away alive carrying what has been confessed over it. It is the most demanding day in the biblical calendar.
Why this matters to anyone
Every society needs some way of drawing a line under what has gone wrong, or the wrongs simply accumulate. This is one of the oldest formal answers on record: a fixed annual date on which the whole community faces it at once, rather than leaving it to whenever individuals feel ready.
The detail most people remember is the second goat, sent out alive into the wilderness carrying the community's failures. Our word scapegoat comes from that rite. Whatever you believe, the psychology is sharp: naming what went wrong out loud, and then physically removing it rather than pretending it away.
Read the text
Start with the words themselves, before anyone explains them to you.
Leviticus 16 gives the ritual in detail: the high priest's own offering first, then two goats, one for the LORD and one sent away into the wilderness. Leviticus 23 gives the date and the obligation on everyone else, to afflict their souls and do no work at all.
The prohibition here is stronger than on the other feasts. Elsewhere the text forbids servile work; on this day it forbids work of any kind, and says a person who does not afflict himself will be cut off from his people.
“Howbeit on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; there shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls; and ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD.”
“For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the LORD.”
“And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land which is cut off; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.”
Learn three words
You do not need Hebrew to read well, but these few change what you can see.
- כִּפֻּרkippuratonement, covering
- From a root that carries both wiping clean and covering over.
- עֲזָאזֵלazazeluncertain
- The destination of the second goat. Translated as scapegoat, as a place name, and left untranslated, depending on the version.
- תְּשׁוּבָהteshuvahreturn, repentance
- Later term for the turning the day is built around. Literally a return rather than a regret.
Notice what is odd
The details that do not quite fit are usually where the meaning is.
Two goats, two directions
One is offered, one is sent away alive carrying the iniquities. The pair is a single rite, and the second goat is not a sacrifice at all.
The priest is cleansed first
Leviticus 16 has the high priest make atonement for himself and his house before he acts for anyone else. Nothing in the day assumes he is exempt.
The strictest rest in the calendar
Leviticus 23:28 forbids all work, not merely servile work, and 23:32 calls it a sabbath of rest kept from evening to evening.
Afflict your souls
The phrase is not defined in the passage. Tradition reads it as fasting, and adds other abstentions, but the text leaves the content of the affliction open.
How it is kept
What the text requires, and what tradition added afterwards. Worth telling apart in both directions.
- In the Bible
- A complete rest, an assembly, self affliction, and a sanctuary rite performed by the high priest. The rite required the tabernacle or temple, so it has not been performed since the temple was destroyed.
- What replaced the rite
- With no temple, Jewish practice reorganised the day around fasting, prayer and repentance, with a long day of services. The shift from sacrifice to words is one of the largest changes in the history of the observance.
- Repair with people comes first
- A well established principle in Jewish teaching is that the day does not settle wrongs between people until you have actually gone and made them right. The days before it are used for that.
- Where scapegoat comes from
- The English word entered the language through a sixteenth century translation of the goat sent away in Leviticus 16. Its modern sense, someone blamed for others' faults, drifted a long way from the rite.
Questions to sit with
Do not answer these quickly. A study that ends in a better question has gone further than one that ends in a tidy answer.
- 01
The goat sent away is not killed. What is the rite saying by removing rather than destroying?
- 02
Isaiah 58 attacks fasting that leaves injustice untouched. How should that be read next to Leviticus 23:27?
- 03
Why does the day begin and end in the evening rather than the morning?
Common questions
Open any that apply to you. Skipping this step is fine.
Is fasting required?
The text says to afflict your souls and does not define it. Jewish tradition understands that as a full fast from food and drink, and adds other restrictions. If you have a medical reason not to fast, that tradition is clear that health takes precedence.
Who was the goat sent to?
Leviticus 16:8 sends one lot for the LORD and one la-azazel. What azazel means is genuinely uncertain: a place, a destination meaning something like utter removal, or a name. Honest translations disagree.
Does the day forgive everything?
The passage speaks of cleansing from sins before God. Whether and how that reaches wrongs done to other people is exactly the question later tradition took up, and it answered that you have to deal with those directly.
Can someone outside the community mark it?
Nothing stops anyone from taking a day to face what they have done and make repairs. That is not the same as observing the day as Jewish law defines it, and it is worth being clear which you are doing.
Go further
Pick the one that matches the time you actually have.
Ten minutes
Read Leviticus 23:26 to 32 for the day as everyone else experiences it.
An evening
Read Leviticus 16 whole, slowly. It is the fullest ritual description in the Torah and rewards a careful pass.
A week
Add Isaiah 58:3 to 7 and the book of Jonah, which is read on this day in Jewish practice and is about a man furious that forgiveness was available.
Every passage on this page
- Leviticus 16
- Leviticus 23:26 to 32
- Numbers 29:7 to 11
- Isaiah 58:3 to 7
- Jonah 3 to 4
For a method you can use on any passage, see the method, or check the calendar for what is next.
Check yourself
Four questions, answered by clicking. You get the reason either way, so being wrong is useful.
Question 1 of 4
Where in the seventh month does the day of atonement fall?