Happy Yom Kippurim

 Greetings,

Happy Yom kippurim, the fast before the blast as my husband liked to say. 

Lev. 23:27-32-27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves,[a] and present a food offering to the Lord. 28 Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God. 29 Those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut off from their people. 30 I will destroy from among their people anyone who does any work on that day. 31 You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. 32 It is a day of sabbath rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.”

This day is a total day of rest, not even the preparation of food.  (exceptions will apply here)  Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year, thru fasting and prayer we ate striving to become "at one" with YHVH.  

This was the day that a goat was chosen as the Azazel goat for a sin offering to be set off into the wilderness.  A bullock was also brought to the temple for a sin offering.  A goat was also killed for a sin offering.  

The only day of the year that the head priest could go into the holy of holies was Yom Kippurim.  If he tried to go into the holy of holies on any other day, he would be struck down.  This shows another example that we need to keep the festival days on the correct day.  The priest made atonement for the holy sanctuary, for the tabernacle and the altar.  He also made an atonement for the priest and all the people of the congregation. 

A question I had reading while I was reading Leviticus 16 was, why did the priest need to make an atonement for the sanctuary, the tabernacles, the altar, the priest and the people of the congregation.  An atonement needed to be made because the sins and uncleanness of the people symbolically defiled God's dwelling place.  It needed to be purified to that YHVH could dwell among his people.   

Lev. 16:31-Observing Yom Kippurim in a eternal statute, never ending.  Just like Passover. 

Now, five paragraphs earlier, I mentioned an exception to food preparation.  There are some people who can't or shouldn't fast due to health reasons.    

1.  People with diabetes shouldn't fast, they need to eat to keep their sugar/insulin balanced.

2.  Pregnant women shouldn't fast, she is incubating a baby.  Not eating could lead to her passing out.

3.  Nursing moms shouldn't fast.  Not eating could lead to milk depletion or running out totally.  It could also lead to the mom almost passing out or passing out.  I almost passed out one year because I was nursing and fasting.  

4.  Children shouldn't fast as they don't understand why they are fasting but once they become tweens and teens, they should as they will understand what they are doing and why.  

5.  Pets don't need to fast.  They don't know why their food bowl is empty or not where it should be nor why their water bowl is empty or missing.  They are going to come to you with those eyes that say feed or water me.  I know there is one instance where the people and animals fasted, but they don't know any better now.

I hope you have an easy fast and enjoy this double sabbath, annual sabbath leading into the weekly sabbath.

Until next time,

Lori