How to End Yom Kippur
Mishna Yoma, dedicated to Yom Kippur, is noteworthy for its choice of content and structure. The first seven chapters go into detail on the processes of the Temple service on the Day of Atonement, including a fair amount of material relevant to the ongoing, daily operation of the Temple. Only the final chapter is dedicated to the contemporary observance of Yom Kippur, including the five prohibited acts on the day, and a discussion of those who are exempted from fasting due to risk to their life. The final Mishna focuses on matters of atonement and repentance, and is the only part of the tractate that addresses the themes relating to the way that many of us experience Yom Kippur today.
Interestingly, this Mishna is less about Yom Kippur itself and more about atonement (kappara), repentance (teshuva), and purity (tahara), both in general and as it relates to the day. This dabbling in theology is fascinating – as we will see, it’s not necessarily prescriptive for what one should do to achieve atonement, but more descriptive of how these categories work in Jewish thought.
While there is no obvious organizing principle to this Mishna, I would like to read it as a unit and with an eye to its literary artistry as it deploys and describes the fundamental themes of Yom Kippur. Literary Mishna studies have seen some interest in academic circles in recent years, advanced by the work of scholars such as Profs. Avie Walfish and Moshe Simon-Shoshan. It can also be used productively in educational contexts, both for classes focusing on Mishna and those focused on Gemara, as a preliminary level of study before entering the Gemara’s approach.
As we will see through this reading, Hazal’s organization of this theological material packs a real punch, with the resulting text replete with thematic meaning. Let us consider together how the Mishna, presented as an integrated literary unit, ends its discussion of Yom Kippur. The text reads as follows:
חטאת ואשם ודאי – מכפרין. מיתה ויום הכפורים – מכפרין עם התשובה. תשובה מכפרת על עבירות קלות, על עשה ועל לא תעשה, ועל החמורות הוא תולה עד שיבא יום הכפורים ויכפר. האומר אחטא ואשוב, אחטא ואשוב – אין מספיקין בידו לעשות תשובה, אחטא ויום הכפורים מכפר – אין יום הכפורים מכפר. עבירות שבין אדם למקום – יום הכפורים מכפר, עבירות שבין אדם לחבירו – אין יום הכפורים מכפר, עד שירצה את חבירו. דרש רבי אלעזר בן עזריה: מכל חטאתיכם לפני ה’ תטהרו עבירות שבין אדם למקום – יום הכפורים מכפר, עבירות שבין אדם לחבירו – אין יום הכפורים מכפר, עד שירצה את חבירו. אמר רבי עקיבא: אשריכם ישראל, לפני מי אתם מטהרין, מי מטהר אתכם – אביכם שבשמים, שנאמר וזרקתי עליכם מים טהורים וטהרתם ואומר מקוה ישראל (ה’) מה מקוה מטהר את הטמאים – אף הקדוש ברוך הוא מטהר את ישראל
A hattat offering and a definite asham offering atone [for sins]. Death and Yom Kippur atone when accompanied by repentance. Repentance atones for minor transgressions, for [both] positive mitzvot and negative mitzvot. For severe [transgressions] it suspends until Yom Kippur comes and completely atones.
One who says: “I will sin and then I will repent, I will sin and I will repent,” we do not provide him the opportunity to repent. One who says: “I will sin and Yom Kippur will atone,” Yom Kippur does not atone. For transgressions between a person and God, Yom Kippur atones; for transgressions between a person and another, Yom Kippur does not atone until he appeases the other person.
Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya taught: “From all your sins you shall be cleansed before the Lord” (Lev. 16:30). For transgressions between a person and God, Yom Kippur atones; however, for transgressions between a person and another, Yom Kippur does not atone until he appeases the other person.
Rabbi Akiva said: How fortunate are you, Israel; before Whom are you purified, and Who purifies you? It is your Father in Heaven, as it is stated: “And I will sprinkle purifying water upon you, and you shall be purified” (Ezek. 36:25). And it says: “The hope/bath of Israel is God” (Jer. 17:13). Just as a ritual bath purifies the impure, so too, the Holy One, Blessed be He, purifies Israel (Mishna Yoma 8:8-9 = Bavli Yoma 85b).
The Mishna includes a list of pathways to atonement, some scenarios where it cannot be achieved, and two derashot, the latter about purity. The analysis of the Mishna’s content below will try to find connections among the sections, and also explain why this material was chosen to conclude Massekhet Yoma.
The Mishna begins with a list of atoning entities – the hattat and asham sacrifices, and the trio of death, Yom Kippur, and repentance, which combine in complex ways to atone, for sins of various categories.
What is immediately striking is the difference between hattat and asham and the other expiatory categories. The Mishna does not explicitly note repentance as part of the processes of successful sacrificial atonement. By contrast, both death and Yom Kippur do not atone on their own, and the Mishna tells us they must combine with repentance in order to accomplish that task. That being said, aside from repentance, the other two categories of atonement – death and Yom Kippur – may be more passive than active, especially if “Yom Kippur” refers to the day itself rather than certain rituals that take place on the day. (That certainly seems to be what the term refers to, especially in contrast to the various atoning sacrifices of Yom Kippur spelled out in Mishna Shevuot, chapter 1.)
If so, both Yom Kippur and death distinguish themselves as processes of undoing sin that the sinner does not actively pursue, but which are experienced by the sinner and yield atonement, on condition that basic repentance for that sin is in place. (I have elsewhere addressed the status of the day of Yom Kippur itself serving as atonement and its relation to sacrificial atonement.)
The continuation of the Mishna addresses several cases where atonement is not effective: (1) One who says “I will sin and repent; I will sin and repent”; (2) one who says “I will sin and the Day of Atonement will atone”; and (3) one who sins against their fellow person and fails to appease the victim.
It is not immediately clear why and how these attempts at repentance and atonement are ineffective. One might argue that repentance in such cases is likely to be insincere and hence ineffective, but it is hard to assert that as a rule. Alternatively, this restriction on repentance applies regardless of sincerity, and it serves as a sort of failsafe against “gaming the system.” If one knows they can sin and repent and the sin is totally wiped away, what is to stop one from sinning? Thus, only a sin that doesn’t cynically entertain its resolution prior to the sin itself is worthy of these modes of atonement. This understanding might explain the unusual language attending the first case of “we don’t provide him with the ability to repent,” which sounds like this is almost an artificial blockage that the rabbis or the halakhic system overlays on the usual ability to repent. (It is notable that the second rule simply says “Yom Kippur does not atone” – does this mean that the atonement is unsuccessful for more fundamental reasons in such a case?)
The third case in this unit seems somewhat distinct from the first two. Here the problem is not one of possibly insincere teshuva or “gaming the system” but rather that one has failed to make right to all wronged parties. In sins against one’s fellow person, one wrongs not only God but also their fellow. Hence, in order to achieve atonement, one must first appease his or her friend and only then can one approach God and seek full atonement. This rule might indicate to us the ways in which repentance and resolving sins against God resemble, structurally speaking, resolving sins against one’s fellow. We can think of sin as an offense against God, and the process aiming at kappara as an attempt to rectify that relationship, parallel to human relationships. (See here for more on repentance as healing a relationship with God and/or fixing a particular sin.) This also touches on the close association between appeasement, ritzuy, and atonement, kappara, which we find throughout rabbinic literature, and especially in the context of sacrifice.
The most intriguing, and possibly also most puzzling, part of the Mishna appears last. Our Mishna, and thus the entire Tractate of Yoma, ends with Rabbi Akiva’s teaching on how God purifies Israel like a mikveh (ritual bath).
Rabbi Akiva said: How fortunate are you, Israel; before Whom are you purified, and Who purifies you? It is your Father in Heaven, as it is stated: “And I will sprinkle purifying water upon you, and you shall be purified” (Ezek. 36:25). And it says: “The hope/bath of Israel is God” (Jer. 17:13). Just as a ritual bath purifies the impure, so too, the Holy One, Blessed be He, purifies Israel.
At first glance, this teaching does not appear to fit with the preceding material. Rabbi Akiva does not explicitly mention Yom Kippur, and does not engage the earlier themes; indeed, he speaks of tahara, purification, rather than kappara, atonement.
It is possible that this is a mere rhetorical flourish, a derasha that is added to the end of the Mishna, in order to end the tractate with an inspiring sermon, but which is otherwise detached from what preceded it.
However, upon closer consideration, Rabbi Akiva is engaging directly with various elements from earlier in the Mishna.
First of all, his account of how God “purifies” Israel features an active God and a passive Israel. Merely being “before God” leads to that purification, just as earlier in the Mishna the day of Yom Kippur itself atones for Israel. In contrast to categories of atonement through a human-initiated sacrifice or repentance, the day of Yom Kippur itself, when one stands before Hashem, yields the resolution of sin. Moreover, we know that Yom Kippur is a time where one experiences more than usual their presence before God; as the Gemara puts it elsewhere (Rosh Hashana 18a), God’s presence is particularly manifest during the Aseret Yemei Teshuva.
But this teaching of Rabbi Akiva connects to the earlier Mishna in another way. The immediately prior derasha, of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria, had interpreted the key verse of atonement on Yom Kippur as follows
Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya taught: “From all your sins you shall be cleansed before the Lord” (Lev. 16:30). For transgressions between a person and God, Yom Kippur atones; however, for transgressions between a person and another, Yom Kippur does not atone until he appeases the other person.
This interpretation draws upon one of the closing verses of the Torah’s description of the Yom Kippur Temple service (Lev. 16:30): “For on this day he will atone for you to purify you from all your sins before the Lord you will be purified” (Lev. 16:30).
On his reading, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria reasons as follows: Only sins that are “before God” are purified on Yom Kippur; sins that are before not only God but also another person as well fail to achieve atonement. They need the prior appeasement of one’s fellow, as there are two parties “harmed” by the sin against another person – both that person and God.
Rabbi Akiva’s teaching is presented as an exegesis of verses in Ezekiel (36:25) and Jeremiah (17:13) that utilize the metaphor of pouring pure waters on Israel to remove their impurity and that describe God as a mikveh. While it certainly relates to this, and this explains well the idea that the removal of the filth of sin can be as analogized to immersion, there is another verse that even more fundamentally underlies Rabbi Akiva’s interpretation.
Rabbi Akiva begins his exposition by asking lifnei mi atem mitaharim – “before whom are you [Israel] purified?” Having just read Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria’s interpretation of the verse that says lifnei Hashem titharu, “before God you shall be purified,” it is clear that the answer to Rabbi Akiva’s rhetorical question is “we are purified before God.” Indeed, he provides the answer “your Father in Heaven,” describing God in a personal role as the one not only accounting for, but also resolving Israel’s sins.
Rabbi Akiva adds that this process is akin to that of mikveh, where the purification happens not by virtue of an action per se, but through one’s very presence – being physically situated in a mikveh purifies a person from impurity, and – in equal measure – being physically in God’s presence purifies a person from sin.
In presenting this formulation, and its conclusion that “so too God purifies Israel,” Rabbi Akiva returns again to the formulation of that verse – lifnei Hashem titharu – but with an important modification. Instead of the impersonal “before God you shall be purified,” which expresses neither the nature of the process nor the One underlying it, Rabbi Akiva explains that this is actually a process of HaKadosh baruch Hu metaher et Yisrael, of God actively purifying Israel, and in a manner akin to a mikveh, based on one’s presence before God.
If we compare the interpretations of R. Elazar ben Azaria and R. Akiva, they both derive their teachings from the same verse (Lev. 16:30) – mikol hatoteichem lifnei hashem titharu – but they do so through very different readings. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria understands the words lifnei Hashem, “before God,” as governing the first half of the clause – only sins that are exclusively against God, only hatoteichem lifnei Hashem (“your sins before God”), can be atoned absent engaging any harmed party. Rabbi Akiva parses the phrase differently, arguing that lifnei Hashem, “before God,” should be read along with titharu, explaining that the nature of purification and atonement here is by virtue of being in God’s presence.
In this way, Rabbi Akiva’s teaching is not only a homiletical ending to Massekhet Yoma. It has deep ties to the beginning of the Mishna: First, with the idea that Yom Kippur atones automatically and through the grace of God, by being in God’s presence on Yom Kippur. And second, by offering an alternative reading of Leviticus 16:30, reading lifnei Hashem as explaining not the types of sins that are atoned by Yom Kippur but the nature of that atonement by purification.
The Mishna now holds together as a literary unit, focusing on the themes of Yom Kippur, transitioning from a world of hattat and asham to today’s reality with the Yom Kippur as a key moment for kappara, accompanied by teshuva hopefully correctly performed, and manifesting in the purification of being in God’s presence on that holy day.
May we all merit to experience the upcoming Yom Kippur with the full kappara and tahara that conclude Massekhet Yoma.
Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Zuckier is a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, a founder of The Lehrhaus and a member of TRADITION’s editorial committee. He thanks Dr. Mordechai Kornbluth, and the members of the SAR Gemara faculty, with whom he discussed these various issues, both over a decade ago and again last week, for their helpful insights.