Today is the holiest day of the year—Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. It’s the one day each year when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies to sprinkle blood on the Ark of the Covenant.

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Today’s Feature

Passover and the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur

Passover

The Passover described in the Book of Exodus has enormous significance. First, it was a sign to the entire world, and especially to the Children of Israel and to Pharaoh, that Yahweh alone is sovereign. He is the One true God. He exercises authority over everyone and everything—including life and death.

Second, the Passover was (and still is) symbolic of the ultimate sacrifice Yahweh would make Himself for the redemption and salvation of men and women throughout history. The blood of the lamb on the doorposts and lintels of the houses protected the people inside. When Yahweh came to judge the people of Egypt for their rebellion and disobedience, He passed over the houses of the Children of Israel because of the blood of the lamb. They were sinners too and deserved to die, but Yahweh passed over their transgressions and saved them.

Third, the Passover was an essential part of the process of preparing the Children of Israel to meet Yahweh at the foot of Mount Sinai and to dwell with Him. King David said, “For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with you….” (Psalm 5: 4 and 11. Psalm 5: 5 and 12 in the Tanach) Yahweh is a holy God, and He does not sin. Furthermore, He will not dwell among people who are filthy from sin. His own blood is the only cleansing agent He will accept for our transgressions. It is absolutely true that Yahweh longs to have a personal relationship with us, but we must be cleansed from our sin before we can enter into a personal relationship with Him.

Clearly, the blood of the Passover lamb only symbolized Yahweh’s blood. There is no truly perfect, or unblemished, lamb. Even the most perfect animal has blemishes, even though they may be invisible to the naked eye. Yahweh became our Sacrificial Lamb to cleanse us from our sin, so we can enter into a personal relationship with Him. There was no other way to solve man’s sin problem, and He is our Redeemer. The word “redeem” means to pay the price, and Yahweh paid the price for our sins and conferred His righteousness on us by covering our sins with His own blood.

Our righteousness is based on Yahweh’s act of redemption alone. Nothing else will do. That is exactly what King David was talking about when he said, “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom Yahweh does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!” (Psalm 32: 1-2)

Psalm 14 makes the same point. Yahweh looked for someone to stand in the gap for mankind, someone who was capable of redeeming us, but He found no one. Thus, He redeemed us Himself. Read this passage from Psalm 14: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. Yahweh looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Psalm 14: 1-3)

Yahweh looked for someone, anyone, but He found no one. Thus, He became our Redeemer and our Savior. We should be truly thankful that Yahweh knows our condition, and He loves us anyway! You may be asking, “How much does He love us?” Well, the answer is simple. He loves us enough to die for us and save us from eternal damnation.

Here is a way to think about how much He loves us. Stretch your arms out from your sides as wide as you possibly can and realize that he loves us that much. Now, imagine there are nail holes in each hand and understand the price Yahweh paid to save you and me.

The Day of Atonement—Yom Kippur

The cleansing of our sins by the blood of Yahweh is depicted again in the book of Leviticus. Yahweh requires the removal of all our sins before we can have a personal relationship with Him. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is described in detail in Leviticus chapter 16. It is about forgiveness for sin—literally removing our sins completely. This is accomplished by the shedding of blood. Leviticus 17: 11 makes this point perfectly clear: “For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have assigned it for you on the Altar to provide atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that atones for the soul.” (Leviticus 17: 11)

Again, the blood of animals only symbolizes Yahweh’s blood. The goat sacrificed on Yom Kippur was not perfect, without blemish, any more than the Passover lamb was perfect, but Yahweh’s message is clear. He demands a perfect sacrifice, and He alone is perfect. He, therefore, is the only acceptable sacrifice.

Before Yahweh inaugurated the Day of Atonement, He instructed Moses to build a Tabernacle. It was a large tent where Yahweh would meet with the Children of Israel. Because His Divine Presence dwelled there, the Tabernacle was very holy. It was used as the place of worship until Solomon built the Temple of Yahweh hundreds of years later. Without going into too much detail, the Tabernacle consisted of an inner chamber and an outer chamber. The Altar on which sacrifices were made was set up in the outer chamber. The inner chamber was known as the Holy of Holies, and it contained the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant symbolized Yahweh’s Divine Presence, or His Shekinah, residing among his people.

“The Shekinah is the radiance, glory, or presence of Yahweh dwelling in the midst of His people. It signifies Yahweh dwelling in His sanctuary and among His people. The root word from which Shekinah is derived means ‘to dwell.’ The Shekinah dwelt in the pillar of fire and column of smoke that went before the Children of Israel in the wilderness, in the Tabernacle, and in the Temple Solomon built.” (Stewart, Charles. From an email dated December 29, 1999 explaining the meaning of the Shekinah.)

Aaron and his sons were appointed to serve as priests before Yahweh, and Aaron was High Priest. Before Aaron was allowed to offer the Yom Kippur sacrifice for the sins of the Children of Israel, he was told to offer a sacrifice to atone for his own sins and those of his family. (Leviticus 16: 6) Although Aaron was the High Priest, he was also a sinner, and he could not perform his assigned duties until he had been made clean by the blood of his sacrifice.

The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, was the only day of the year the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies. No one else was ever allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. After he made a sacrifice for his sins and the sins of his sons, Aaron took two he-goats for a sin offering (Leviticus 16: 5) from the Children of Israel and brought them to the entrance of the Tabernacle. Then he cast lots for the two goats. The one on which the lot fell was sacrificed for the people’s sins, and the other goat was kept alive. The goat that was kept alive was called the scapegoat. (Leviticus 16: 7-10)

After Aaron slaughtered the sacrificial goat, he brought its blood inside the Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the Ark of the Covenant for the forgiveness of the people’s sins. Then he went back outside the Tabernacle, placed both of his hands on the scapegoat’s head, and confessed the people’s sins. Symbolically, he was transferring their sins to the scapegoat. Then the scapegoat was taken into the Judean desert wilderness and set free. Below is a picture of camels roaming the Judean desert in the vicinity of the scapegoat release point.

Releasing the scapegoat in the wilderness symbolized the separation of the people from their sins that prevented them from having a personal relationship with Yahweh. (Leviticus 16: 22) On Yom Kippur, the people were cleansed from their sin, (Leviticus 16: 30) and they were ready to dwell in Yahweh’s presence.

Both goats in the Yom Kippur service symbolized Yahweh’s sacrifice. The blood of the sacrificial goat symbolized Yahweh’s blood that was poured out to satisfy the requirement of the Law (the Torah), and the scapegoat symbolized Yahweh removing our sins from us and making us clean. Making us clean is essential, because we must be perfectly clean to enter Yahweh’s presence. Any stain or blemish will keep us from having a personal relationship with Him. Either God imputes righteousness to us, or we are unrighteous. It is by His grace alone that we are saved. It is a gift from Him, so we have absolutely nothing to boast about before Yahweh. (Ephesians 2: 8-9)

Take a few seconds and think about the apparent contradiction here. First, the Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness for our sins. (Leviticus 17: 11 and Hebrews 9: 22) However, Yahweh said He does not delight in the blood of goats, lambs, and bulls. (Isaiah 1: 11) Instead, as the Psalm says, “The sacrifices God desires are a broken spirit; a heart broken and humbled, O God, You will not despise.” (Psalm 51: 18. Psalm 51: 19 in the Tanach ) If Yahweh does not desire the blood of animals, whose blood does He desire? What sacrifice is acceptable to Him?

There can be only one answer to these questions. Yahweh requires a perfect sacrifice, and in all of creation only Yahweh is without blemish. Thus, He had to shed His own blood for our atonement. The Christian Bible and the Tanach both make it clear that Yahweh, our Heavenly Father, loves us so much that He became a man in order to die to redeem us. Now that is true love! He and only He paid the price for our sins, and He is our Savior.

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Commentary

Police contain riot at sensitive Jerusalem holy site

“The disturbance occurred before Yom Kippur in the complex known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Harm al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). It houses al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and overlooks the Western Wall (the Kotel), a Jewish prayer site.”

So begins the featured article. Today is the holiest day of the year—Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. It’s the one day each year when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies to sprinkle blood on the Ark of the Covenant. (See Leviticus 16: 1-34, Leviticus 23:27-32, Leviticus 25:9, Exodus 30:10, and Numbers 29:7-11)

For your information, in 70 A.D., forty years after the Messiah’s death on the tree, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple of Yahweh just as He said, and the Temple has never been rebuilt. (Daniel 9: 26) The destruction of the Temple is significant, as the following quote from a popular book titled The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount by Gershom Gorenberg points out:

“Until 70 C.E., Judaism centered on the Temple and burnt offerings. Strikingly, the two Jews most responsible for post-Temple religion are remembered as predicting the sanctuary’s destruction. ‘There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down,’ the Gospels quote Jesus as declaring. That was about 40 years before Titus. ‘Forty years before the Temple’s destruction,’ says the Talmud, a crimson ribbon that miraculously turned white each Yom Kippur ceased doing so—that is, the ritual inside Herod’s edifice had gone hollow—and the doors of the sanctuary opened by themselves, as if to allow enemies to enter. ‘Sanctuary, Sanctuary,’ said Yohanan ben Zakkai, a leading rabbi of the time, interpreting the signs, ‘I know that your destiny is to be destroyed.’” (Gorenberg, Gershom. The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount, New York, The Free Press, 2000, p. 68)

The exact quote from the Talmud referred to by Gorenberg reads as follows: “During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-coloured strap become white; nor did the westernmost light shine; and the doors of the Hekal (the Temple) would open by themselves….” (The Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 39b)

This was a critical moment in the history of the world. In 30 A.D., the year the Messiah died, Yahweh sent a powerful message to the Children of Israel. Every year on Yom Kippur until 30 A.D., the High Priest would tie a crimson ribbon around the neck of the scapegoat, and miraculously it turned white after the sacrifice of the goat whose lot was to die. This event symbolized Yahweh forgiving the sins of His people, and it is not a folktale. It really happened every year on Yom Kippur until the Messiah died on the tree. Leading rabbis and Jewish Sages who lived during that time confirm this fact.

God’s message was simply this. The sacrifices required by the Law, which were only symbols of the ultimate sacrifice Yahweh would make Himself, were no longer acceptable to Him. His death on the tree fulfilled the requirements of the Law for all time. His was the perfect sacrifice that will never be repeated. In 30 A.D., the priests understood that their sacrifices were no longer pleasing to Yahweh, but they continued to make them anyway until the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D. In that year, the Children of Israel eliminated the sacrificial system altogether, and it has not been reinstated to this day.

Yom Kippur is without question the most important day of the year. It’s no coincidence that radical Islamist Arabs decided to attack Jewish people on the Temple Mount yesterday. That kind of provocation is normal, but Western eyes seldom see it. All they are shown by most people in the mainstream, Western media is the Israeli response. It’s time for Westerners to wake up and smell the coffee. Do you realize that similar provocations are taking place all over Europe, Russia, China, and the United States right now? Radical Islamofascists are trying to ignite a global conflagration that they think will bring about the global preeminence of Islam. That’s a fact. Denying it is foolish, and it will prove to be very costly. Let’s stand with Israel because she is the frontline in the “war” with radical Islam.

Kotel 3

Routinely, Islamist Arabs stand on the Temple Mount above Jewish people praying at the Kotel and drop stones on them. That seems to be a source of great amusement for the Palestinian guards who are supposed to police the Temple Mount.

On top of the Temple Mount, violence can break out any time Islamist Arabs have a hankering to make a scene, and that happens a lot…especially on Fridays following religious services at the al-Aqsa mosque. Unfortunately, the Israeli government left security on the Temple Mount up to the Islamist Arabs following the Six-Day War in 1967. That was a serious mistake.

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Today’s Events Shaping Our World

Spinning Globe

U.S. and Western Hemisphere

Najibullah Zazi Arrives in Brooklyn

Video (click title)—Glenn Beck and John Bolton: naïve Obama sells out Israel in U.N. speech

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Israel and Middle East

“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind Yahweh, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

Isaiah 62: 6-7

Video (click title)—Iran’s options: transparency or sanctions

Palestinian Rock Thrower

More Fauxtography: from the other side you would see the gaggle of fauxtographers. Question: is that a fastball or a slider he’s throwing? He must have spent a lot of time practicing for a Kodak moment like this.

The PA lies, cheats, steals, sponsors terrorist activities against Israeli civilians, and brutalizes its own citizens. Then they have the unmitigated gall to accuse Israel of escalating tensions. Wake up world! You can bet that the problems on the Temple Mount yesterday were orchestrated by Mahmoud Abbas, a.k.a. Abu Mazen, and his band of Islamofascist evildoers. By the way, you saw the gathering of photographers snapping pictures of the “spontaneous outbursts of Palestinian anger” in an earlier SnyderTalk post. The picture above is like those.

The Cardo

The Ancient Roman Cardo in the Old City

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China, Russia, India, and Asia-Pacific

Vladimir Putin Courts Foreigners

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Europe and Africa

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown

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