Hi waltz!

You asked me to take a look at what you've written about "Yom Kippur". As far as I've had time, I just have. Here is my response to this thread. It's directed toward the Fray as a whole and not specifically to you, but I hope you'll find what I say interesting and valuable.

You are asked to believe in the spark
of your divinity, in the purity
of the words of your mouth
and the memories of your heart.

Most of this paragraph refers to the last verse of Psalms 19. The preceding two verses ask for God to cleanse one from sins of ignorance and also of presumption (the latter being very much more serious within the framework of the Law of Moses: the former could be forgiven via sacrifice, the latter demanded the death penalty). Yes indeed, Schultz has done his homework.

But the first part (about "the spark of your divinity") is exactly where the litany (or else Schultz's exegesis, as it were, of it) misses the mark -- unless Schultz speaks of what Judaism calls the tendency toward good in man (as opposed to the tendency toward evil in man), or of the undeniable fact that Hebrew Scripture speaks of man being made in God's image.

It used to be understood -- before the Second Temple was destroyed, and before the Pharisees then took over Judaism and became the Rabbis -- that atonement doesn't come at all through man's efforts, that it only comes through the sacrifice of another in one's stead. ("Grace may be free, but it's not cheap.") In Hebrew Scripture, as much as in Christian Scripture, one doesn't get forgiven by God simply because one asks to be forgiven. Sin has a penalty -- death -- that must be paid by someone; and that payment only applied to sins of ignorance or weakness. Presumptuous sins made even that payment impossible to receive. The whole sacrificial system was designed to ingrain that lesson. Yom Kippurim drove that home more than any other day of the sacred year, save (for those with eyes to see) the Passover which began that year (and by which Israel was redeemed from its sinful past in slavery).

As the former Pharisee, the apostle Paul, pointed out to his fellow Hebrews, in the Law of Moses "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins." He was speaking in context -- for several chapters in a row -- of the ritual of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippurim) as given in Leviticus 23, where innocent blood is shed on behalf of the high priest and of the people.

Where is the consciousness of this teaching of Hebrew Scripture in the Judaic liturgy of Yom Kippur, even among the Orthodox sects (let alone in the Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Humanist sects)? As far as I can tell, nowhere. It didn't used to be that way. There is a striking old prayer for atonement in Judaism, long since banned by the Powers That Be within it (and I could look up a book that quotes it if need be), that points to Isaiah 53 and the death of Israel's Messiah as the ultimate atonement for one's sins. This was a common belief for centuries in Judaism after Second Temple times; and it was vigorously defended even by those who were no friends of Christian theology on that point. They realized that it did no good to wrest the sense of Isaiah 53 (making it say, as the Soncino Commentary would have us believe, that part of Israel was paying the penalty for the sins of the rest of Israel) simply because the plain sense of Isaiah 53 sounds "too Christian".

Before Jesus of Nazareth came along, there was even the idea of two Messiahs, one who would die for Israel's sins and one who would come as conquering King. There were other ideas -- what else is new ("two Jews, three opinions", as they quip about themselves)? -- but it's a myth that the idea of atonement through the sacrifice of another innocent party is "not Jewish". On the contrary, it lies at the very heart of ancient Hebrew theology and never leaves it "from Moses to Chronicles" (in the Hebrew canonical order -- "from Moses to Malachi", in that common to Christian translations).

It's true that in Hebrew Scripture, as much as in many other religious texts, God's nature is described as merciful. But Hebrew Scripture also describes God's nature as just. In that religious tradition, one dares not presume upon the mercy of God. It can't be earned, not by all the good deeds that one does, not even by the repentance which is the prerequisite for forgiveness. Faith in God's provision for forgiveness (through the sacrifice of another in one's stead) is also required. If this sounds familiar to you my readers, it's because apostolic Christianity didn't arise in a vacuum. It sprang from very, very old Hebraic roots.

Since so much of Hebrew poetry (especially in Psalms, but also in Job and the Prophets) revolves around the issue of how justice, mercy and faith work out between God and man, I hope that this exegetical exercise hasn't been in vain.

wr ()()