Atonement

[Shimon]

“For the soul of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”

• Leviticus 17:11, New Messianic Version

“Both Yom Kippur and the death of the righteous bring atonement” (Yerushalmi Talmud Yoma 1:1). The deaths of Nadav and Abihu are mentioned, before describing the Yom Kippur service in Acharei Mot. The question is asked, why are their deaths mentioned in connection to Yom Kippur? The answer given is because as Yom Kippur serves as an atonement, so do the deaths of the righteous. This teaching serves as a background understanding of the role of Moshiach ben Yosef.

“Without a kapporah [atonement] by means of shefach dahm (the shedding of blood) there is no selicha (forgiveness).”

• Hebrews 9:22, Orthodox Jewish Bible

The placement of the sins of Israel upon the Yom Kippur offering points towards the Righteous One, who “poured out his soul to death, and was counted with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12, TLV). He represents the Yom Kippur offering: “Thou shalt make his nefesh (soul) an asham offering for sin” (Isaiah 53:10, OJB). This was accomplished through his actual death on HaEtz (literally, the tree). On a symbolic level, he entered into the Kadosh Kadoshim, the Holy of Holies, where the blood of the Yom Kippur sin offerings would be placed – both the bull, and the he-goat designated for the L’RD.

“He entered the Holiest Place once and for all. And he entered not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus setting people free forever. For if sprinkling ceremonially unclean persons with the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer restores their outward purity; then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to G’d as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living G’d!” (Hebrews 9:11-14, CJB). “For the Messiah has entered a Holiest Place which is not man-made and merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, in order to appear now on our behalf in the very presence of G’d” (Hebrews 9:24, CJB).