Yom Kippur means “Day of Atonement” or to mend the souls of the year. It is known as the holiest holiday in the religion of Judaism. Yom Kippur includes the sacrifice of animal’s blood to the holy priest to wash away their previous sins. This type of sacrifice occurs on the tenth day of Tishri, the seventh month of the Jewish year.
Yom Kippur is treated like a day of Sabbath, work cannot be performed, and food or drinks must not be consumed on that day. Other restrictions include the avoidance of bathing, wearing deodorant or makeup, leather shoes, and engaging in sexual relations. It is a day completely devoted to God. Most people are expected to worship or participate in the fasting, with the exception of children under the age of nine, women in childbirth, and the incredibly ill. Yom Kippur was first celebrated in
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A ritual is a religious ceremony consisting upon a series of actions or words. The book, “Cult and Culture”, questioned where the meaning of the ritual resides, whether it was the physical actions or what was prescribed in the texts of the Hebrew Bible. The only way to study rituals that involve activity is to observe them. Our only access to ancient rituals is through the ancient text, which only captures the rituals rather than the experience. Therefore, the Israelite cult believes ritual actions have no inherent meaning. In order for a ritual to be sufficient it needs to have a meaning supporting it.
The Israelites display this kind of meaning during Yom Kippur. The overall meaning is to purify the sins between God and man. Any other sins between man and man need to be resolve prior to the holy holiday. The purification of evil and forgiveness is known as the outer-altar. “The goal of the ritual is to offer a purification offering to YHWH (God) that accomplishes purgation on behalf of the chieftain, who has committed a wrong, so that he may receive