Hebrew Voices #226 – Yom Kippur: Afflicting Your Soul for Repentance

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Nehemia: There is this profound message in Isaiah 58, which is, in some ancient and even modern cultures, this idea that true righteousness is fasting, and constant prayer, and what’s called asceticism. You deny yourself, and that’s what is true righteousness. You’re up on a mountaintop, you don’t participate in the world, and that’s true righteousness. And the Torah teaches us, and the Tanakh reiterates this, is righteousness is to interact with the world in a righteous way.

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Nehemia: Shalom, everybody, and I hope you’re having a productive and easy fast, for those who are fasting. And so, someone asked here, during the kind of pre-session chat, “Why are you celebrating Yom Kippur today, when in the Rabbinic calendar it was,” you know, in the Jewish count, the Hillel calendar, “it was celebrated two days ago?” So, that has to do with the way the calendar functioned in ancient Israel. And I have a lot of teachings on my website about that, so I’m going to refer people to that.

So, the short answer is that, observing Yom Kippur today, the Day of Atonement, is based on the sighting of the new moon in Israel, and determining when the year begins is based on the aviv barley. So, there’s a whole bunch of teachings on that. I used to do that quite a bit, and I’ve stepped back from that, let other people handle that, and… but yeah, I’m observing it today. And I have friends who observed it a month ago. So, you know, and a lot of family who observed it two days ago. So, I just want to do the best I can with the information that I have.

All right, so, there was a request: “After Yom Teruah, come back and do something for Yom Kippur.” I’m going to do it a little bit different today; I’m not going to do the PowerPoint thing. And so, you’re going to have to jot down verses and look them up yourself, although we’ll read some of them. And, because I don’t have any water today, because I am fasting… I’m doing a food and water fast, not eating or drinking. They also call this a dry fast in English. In Hebrew, it’s just called it a tzom, a fast. So, I’m going to have Lynell read some of the verses, which is what we do in our morning Bible study.

Alright, Yom Kippur. So, what is Yom Kippur all about? And if I had to answer it in, like, one sentence, or sentence fragment, I would say, “Fasting, repentance, prayer, confession, asking for forgiveness, and resolving not to do it again.” That’s what they call… the young people call that TLDR; too long, didn’t read. So, now for some more details. So, Yom Kippur is first mentioned, although not by name, in Exodus chapter 30 verse 10. It talks there about chatat hakipurim, the sin offering of atonement, which is brought once a year. Doesn’t say the date; doesn’t really tell you too much about what it’s about, but it tells you there is such a thing.

And then Exodus 30:15-16, a few verses later, has the half-shekel for atonement. Which is the way in ancient Israel… they were commanded not to take a census and count people. But rather, they were commanded to give the half-shekel, which would go to the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, and be used for the service there. The sacrifices and everything, and that was an atonement. So, that also is related.

So, we have two references, essentially, to Yom Kippur, and then we have the big one. And all of this is before the phrase “Yom Kippur” ever appears in the Torah. The really big one is Leviticus 16. I’ve done teachings on that before, but that’s not the direction we’re going to go today. Maybe during the Q&A we can discuss it a bit.

But Leviticus 16, the entire chapter, is the ceremony for Yom Kippur. But it never uses the phrase, it talks about… It’s really interesting; Lynell and I were reading over this yesterday. It has the root… Hebrew, or all Semitic languages, are based on three-letter roots, and the three-letter root for Kippur means atonement. And we were reading the JPS translation, the 1995 New JPS in Leviticus 16. We read through the whole chapter. It took us about three hours, for some reason. We had a lot of sidetracks, or what I call “rabbi trails”.

So, we noticed that it has three different translations for the word… for the root Kaf-Pei-Reish, atonement. It has purge, expiate, or expiation, and atonement. So, the same root, within a span of a couple of verses, two or three verses, it was three different translations. And that kind of tells you that this word doesn’t have a perfect correspondence to English. You know, people who only speak one language, they think, “Well, there’s one word in, let’s say in English, and that has an exact word in Spanish, and one word in English, and that has an exact word in German.” But once you learn some languages, you realize that that doesn’t always work that way. That you might have something that… there’s one word, let’s say in English, and there’s, you know, three words in Hebrew, or there’s three words in English and one word in Hebrew.

And it’s a bit misleading in Western culture, because the European languages were in such constant contact with each other that they developed a lot of words to correspond to the word in another language. Right? So, you will be able to have the words line up really nicely in European languages, but that doesn’t really work in ancient Hebrew as well. In Modern Hebrew it works great, because if we don’t have the word for it in Modern Hebrew, we generally will translate it and invent a word. Or famously, the Germans have a word, schadenfreude, which means the pleasure of watching somebody else… I don’t remember exactly what it means. Is it watching somebody else fall or something, or fail? I don’t know exactly. But I just had to say a whole sentence in English for that, right?

All right. So, all that’s to say kippur means something like atonement, purification, purging. The phrase that we often will have in Leviticus is, there’s atonement, which leads to forgiveness. I’m going to focus today on the forgiveness. Leviticus 23:27 is the first time we have the word, or the actual name of the holiday, Yom Hakippurim. So, everybody in English knows it as Yom Kippur. It is not called Yom Kippur in the Tanakh, or the Torah, it’s called Yom Hakippurim. Let me read it: Ach be’asor lachodesh hashevi’i hazzeh, “But on the tenth day of this seventh month,” yom hakkippurim hu, “it is a day of atonement,” Yom Hakippurim. And I’ll talk about that “im” ending in a second. Mikra-kodesh ihiyeh lachem, “It will be a holy convocation for you,” or a holy proclamation, a holy gathering. Different explanations of that. Ve’innitem et-nafshoteichem, “And you shall, you shall…” Why can’t I remember the word? “You shall afflict your souls.” This is what happens when I don’t have my coffee. Vehikravtem isheh la’Adonai,
“And you’ll bring a fire offering to Yehovah.” So, why is it Yom Hakippurim and not Yom Kippur? So “ha” just means “the”, right? So, it’s the day of Yom Kippurim, is “ha”.

So, in Hebrew, this is the short answer, we have three kinds of plural. See, there’s an example, we have something in Hebrew we don’t have in English. Not that I’m aware of, in English, at least. So, the three types of plural in Hebrew are: there is a quantitative plural, a qualitative plural, and an abstract plural. So, quantitative plural, that’s just like the plural in English. You have one penguin, and you have multiple penguins.

Lynell: Pinguin–im.

Nehemia: Right? So, in Hebrew that would be pingvin and pingvinim.

Lynell: Pingvinim.

Nehemia: Or kelev and klavim, which is more of a native Hebrew word. And notice it’s kelev, klavim, not “kelavim” right? The vowels actually change once you add that ending. The qualitative plural is something like Elohim, right? So, it expresses something like greatness. Adonim, which is an owner, could be the owner of an ox, is called adonim with the “im” ending, and it functions differently than the quantitative plural grammatically. I’m not going to get into it unless somebody asks in the Q&A.

Sometimes Elohim is plural, right? When it says “don’t worship other gods” in the Ten Commandments, it’s elohim acherim, which is other gods, not other god. And then the third type, which is what’s relevant to us today, is that abstract plural, which is something like rachamim, is mercy. And sometimes they’ll translate that in English as mercies, which is technically true, but it’s actually wrong, because it’s referring to an abstract concept. So, rachamim is mercies, or mercy rather, but literally it’s mercies, and kippurim is literally atonements, but it’s the abstract concept of atonement. All right. In other words, you have a verb, “to atone”, lekhaper, and then you have kippurim, which is the name of the holiday. Yom Hakippurim is the Day of Atonement.

Leviticus 23:32 says Shabbat shabbaton hu lakhem. “It is a Sabbath of rest to you.” Ve’innitem et-nafshoteichem, “And you shall afflict your souls.” Betish’a lachodesh ba’erev, “In the ninth of the month, at evening,” mi’erev ad erev, “From evening to evening,” tishbetu shabatkhem, “You shall rest your Sabbath.”

So, here it’s telling us very clearly, in case you had any doubt, this fast is from evening to evening, meaning from sunset to sunset. And what’s interesting is that this is the only place in the Tanakh where something is referred to as “your Sabbath”. When he refers to the weekly Sabbath, he calls it “my Sabbath”, and here he calls it all y’all’s Sabbath. Shabatkhem is the plural “you”. So, that’s interesting.

So, you can see this reference to “afflicting your souls.” That’s what we’re going to talk about a little bit. And I have a whole study on nehemiaswall.com about that. I’m just going to give a tip of the iceberg here.

Leviticus 16:29 and verse 31 mentioned that, Numbers 29:7 as well. We’re not going to read those today. Isaiah 58:3. And here I’m going to ask Lynell to pull up her Bible. Lynell, which Bible are you using?

Lynell: I have the JPS.

Nehemia: Mm-hmm. And, you know, people can find online the 1917 JPS, which it’s really just the King James Version with some Jewish modifications. So, instead of “behold the Virgin” it’s “behold the young woman”. Right? That’s literally what they did; they took the King James and they corrected, from the Jewish perspective, some of the translations.

Lynell: Where do you want me in Isaiah?

Nehemia: So, this is the 1985 JPS, which isn’t based on the King James. It’s actually a new translation. Isaiah 58, I want to read, but first let’s start with verse 3. I’ll read that, and then I’ll have you read the whole chapter from the beginning. See, while we’re reading this…

So, they say, “Why did we fast, and did You not see? We afflicted our soul, and You did not know?” And what we can see there is, this is what we call biblical parallelism, where the Bible says the same thing twice in the same or very similar words. And the parallel to “we fasted” is “we afflicted our souls”. So, people might think, “Oh, afflicted our souls; that’s when you take a switch and you whip yourself on the back,” like some people did that in the Middle Ages. No. Afflict the soul means to fast, to refrain from food and water. We’ll talk about a little bit more nuance later.

And the reason that “afflict our soul” means to fast is that the word nefesh, which is literally soul… Actually, it’s not literally soul… nefesh means soul, but literally it’s this part of the body. And why do I point to this part of the body? Here is an example where we have a word in Hebrew that doesn’t exist in English. And we have a word in English, by the way, that doesn’t exist in Hebrew. In English we have the word neck. So, this is a neck, but this is also a neck. But in Hebrew this is a completely different word than this. This is a tzavar, and this is an oref. Completely different word. And if you say tzavar, you don’t mean this. I guess you could be inaccurate. But no; normally, this is oref and this is tzavar, or this and not this… I don’t know that I can show it here because… this is his tzavar and this is his oref, I guess.

So, that’s a word you’ll see in Modern Hebrew, where they talk about pikud ha’oref, which is the Rear Command, or the Home Command they call it now. Right? So, if you’re in Israel, and there’s a Hezbollah attack and you have to run to your shelter, it’s the Oref Command that tells you there’s an air raid siren, or an attack siren, that you have to go run to your bomb shelter. And why is it called oref? Because it’s the back of the neck, right? So, it’s the back of the military, the… and actually the vulnerable back is kind of the implication there. Okay.

Ah… so, why did I mention that? Because nefesh is this on the outside, but also on the inside. Right? So, both the neck and the esophagus… is it esophagus? What’s the one you eat with? Yeah, that’s esophagus. All right… Oh, but then also the… what’s the other one called? We’ve got esophagus and air… air pipe? I don’t know, whatever it’s called.

So, all three of those are nefesh in Hebrew. So, when I eat something, it goes into my nefesh. But there’s this beautiful phrase in Psalms, and elsewhere, where it says, “The water has reached my nefesh.” So, he’s standing in the water and it’s up to here…

Lynell: Trachea. Troy gave us the word.

Nehemia: Trachea! Wow.

Lynell: That was the word you were looking for.

Nehemia: Okay, so the trachea and the esophagus, and the front of the neck are all called nefesh in Hebrew, and that’s why “soul” is nefesh. Because when I breathe, it comes out of my nefesh. And it says in Genesis, “God finished creating the world,” va’yinafash, and we translate that, “and He rested”. But what it really means is that He went [exhaling sound]. He exhaled from His nefesh, from His trachea. Is it trachea? Yeah, okay; trachea. Nice.

Okay. So, to afflict your nefesh means to deprive yourself. I guess it could mean you hold your breath for 24 hours. But no, it means to fast, because you’re depriving your throat of food and water. And boy, do I feel that right now. My throat is parched.

All right. Let’s start from verse 1. Isaiah 58. Lynell, you’re up.

Lynell: “Cry with full…”

Nehemia: And Isaiah 58 is a really interesting chapter because the last two verses are about Shabbat, and the first 12, I believe it’s 12 verses, are about fasting, a fast day. And some scholars have said, “Oh, this is about Yom Kippur,” because it’s a fast day, which is also Shabbat. Now, I don’t know that it’s about Yom Kippur, but it applies to Yom Kippur as well. So, go ahead, read verse 1, please, and I’ll jump in and comment from time to time.

Lynell: All right. “Cry with full throat without restraint. Raise your voice like a shofar. Declare to My people their transgression, to the house of Yaakov their sin. To be sure they seek Me daily, eager to learn My ways. Like a nation that does what is right, that does not abandon the laws of its God. They ask Me for the right way. They are eager for the nearness of God.”

Nehemia: So, they want a relationship with God, but they’re sinning. And sinning alienates you from God.

Lynell: “Why, when we fasted, did You not see? When we afflicted our souls, did You pay no heed? Because on your fast day you see to your business and oppress all your laborers, because you fast and strive in contention, and you strike with a wicked fist. Your fasting today is not such as to make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast I desire, a day for men to starve their bodies?”

Nehemia: Oh, yeah, there we have to stop. So, “a day for men to starve their bodies” in the JPS, but the Hebrew says, “a day for a man to afflict his soul”. Right? Which, again, means afflict your appetite; don’t eat, don’t drink. And you can see the function here of what they were trying to accomplish with fasting. Fasting is a form of prayer, and you accompany it with prayer. And if you’re sinning, then, you know, we have this really… I would say it’s a scary verse.

There is this verse in… let me find it here, I hadn’t written it down in my notes, so, we’re kind of ad libbing it here. So, or… going as we’re led, I guess is a better way to say it. So, we have these series of things in Proverbs. I won’t do this whole teaching, but this is a whole interesting teaching. Wherever it says in Proverbs, “Something is an abomination,” that’s something you should pay attention to. And it talks about the prayer of the wicked. Ooh, this is beautiful. So, it actually… Proverbs 15:8, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Yehovah, but the prayer of the yesharim (of those who walk in the straight path) is His will (is acceptable).”

And then Proverbs 28:9 says, “Mesir ozno mi’shmoa Torah,” “He who turns his ear from hearing the Torah,” “gam tfilato to’eva,” “His prayer is also an abomination.” In other words, if you turn your ear away from God, He will turn His ear away from you. That means if you say, “I’m not going to listen to you, God.” Oh, that’s… I guess it’s more like this… then, He’s saying it’s an abomination, your prayer. And so that’s what’s going on here. He’s saying, “You guys are praying, praying with your words and in the form of fasting, and I’m ignoring you because you are continuing to sin.” Right? This is one of the classic issues of the prophets of ancient Israel, is sacrifice and ritual without repentance. You know, as Samuel put it, he says to Saul, “God wants obedience, not sacrifice.” So, alright, let’s continue.

Lynell: “Is such the fast I desire? A day for men to starve their bodies? Is it the bowing of the head like a bulrush and lying in sackcloth and ashes? Do you call that a fast? A day when Yehovah is favorable? No. This is the fast I desire. To unlock fetters of wickedness and untie cords of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to break off every yoke. It is to share your bread with the hungry and to take the wretched poor into your home. When you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to ignore your own kin. Then shall your light burst through like the dawn, and your healing spring up quickly. Your vindicator shall march before you. The presence of Yehovah shall be your rear guard. Then, when you call, Yehovah will answer. When you cry, He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you banish the yoke from your midst, the menacing hand and the evil speech, and you offer your compassion to the hungry and satisfy the famished creature…”

Nehemia: It’s… it’s, “satisfy the afflicted soul.”

Lynell: Okay! It’s like… what?

Nehemia: Right. So, they obviously, the JPS translators, don’t like what it says in Hebrew, so they’re looking for a bunch of different English idioms to translate it.

Lynell: Gotcha.

Nehemia: And look, they have a point. “To afflict the soul” doesn’t make sense in English unless you explain it. But there are other phrases in the Bible that don’t make sense. Did you know that “to find favor in his eyes” didn’t exist in the English language until they translated the Bible into English? And they said, “There’s no way to translate this. We’re just going to translate it very literally, and people will learn the expression.” And today, I think certainly people who are biblically literate know, more or less, what it means. “He found favor in his eyes.” Right? Because before that was translated, if you said to, you know, an English speaker, I don’t know, 600 years ago, “I found favor in your eyes.” He’d be like, “Were you looking in my eyes?”

Lynell: [Laughter]

Nehemia: Right? It’s like you’re looking in this little eye, and you see favor, right? Which is actually kind of what it means, but that’s a different discussion. I mean, it does have a literal meaning. So, right. So, “afflict the soul” is a Hebrew idiom that comes from soul, meaning, actually this part of the body, the inside and the outside. Which it doesn’t in English, and therefore it’s “to afflict your esophagus”. So, your appetite.

And I love it; there’s a verse… because I’m really a dog person. I know there’s a penguin and a hedgehog here, but I’m primarily, you know, a dog person. One of my favorite verses about afflicting the soul, or about the meaning of soul in the sense of… and this I think I… have here, is in Isaiah 56. Which is a passage I love for other reasons, but we’re going to jump to verse 11. So, it’s talking about the watchers, right? The watchers who are the leaders of Israel; they’re supposed to warn Israel when they sin. It says they’re all blind. They don’t know anything. They’re silent dogs, right? A dog that can’t bark is a, believe it or not, a worthless dog.

And then it says, “The dogs,” referring to the leaders of Israel, “are mighty of nefesh. They know no satisfaction.” They’re insatiable. Right? Anybody who’s ever had dogs, or been around dogs, dogs are always hungry. No matter how much you feed them, they’re always going to be hungry. So, maybe there’s some dogs that are not, but generally dogs, no matter how much they eat, they’re always hungry. Their attitude is… “This might be the last food I ever eat; I better eat it.” I think that’s how dogs are wired. And so, when it says, “the leaders of Israel are dogs”, “azei nefesh”, they have a “mighty nefesh”, right? This part of the body knows no satisfaction. Right? So, nefesh there is the appetite.

All right. So, we’re back in Isaiah 58, we’re reading from the New JPS, with my commentary. And I think we’re in verse… are we in verse 11? Yeah.

Lynell: We’re at the end of verse 10. See, this is what we do, guys, in Bible study, like in our mornings. And I’ll say, “What does it really say?” So, we’ll read it, and I’ll say, “What does it really say?” So, that’s why when I get to something that I notice it makes sense, he’s going to stop and he’s going to say, “Well, this is what it means.”

And then, so, after we just talked about… if you do all these good things, “Then shall your light shine in darkness and your gloom be like noonday. Yehovah will guide you always. He will slake your thirst in parched places and give strength to your bones. You shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose waters do not fail. Men from your midst shall rebuild ancient ruins. You shall restore foundations laid long ago. And you shall be called repairer of fallen walls, restorer of paths for habitation.”

Nehemia: There’s this profound message in Isaiah 58, which is… in some ancient and even modern cultures, there’s this idea that true righteousness is fasting, and constant prayer, and what’s called asceticism. You deny yourself, and that’s what is true righteousness. You’re up on a mountaintop, you don’t participate in the world, and that’s true righteousness. And the Torah teaches us, and the Tanakh reiterates this, is that righteousness is to interact with the world in a righteous way. Right? I don’t cut myself off from society and spend my days in fasting and prayer, I interact with society, and I do so fairly and justly.

What people were doing in the time of Isaiah is, the people who could were taking advantage of others in a financial way. They were, you know… it talks about the yoke. Yoke is slavery, right? There’s somebody who you’re forcing to work for you, and you’re not paying them, and they have no other source of income. So, you’re taking advantage of them, and they have no choice. That is what Isaiah is speaking against, and he’s saying, “If you come to me praying and fasting while you do that, I’m not going to hear your prayers.”

And so, the purpose… you know, we’re commanded in the Torah to afflict our souls. By the way, it doesn’t say “fast”. We’ll talk some more nuance there in a minute. But that means to deny your gullet, I think we would say in English, water and food, and so, we are commanded to do that. He’s not saying don’t do that, but don’t do that and also not repent. You need to repent. The prayer and the fasting without repentance is, as we saw in Psalms, or in Proverbs, is an abomination to Yehovah. He wants repentance, and He wants it all. He wants repentance, and He wants you to be righteous and walk a righteous lifestyle and not cut off from society.

So, let’s read those last two verses, then we’ll talk a little bit more about afflicting the soul. And then we’ll go to the Q&A.

Lynell: “If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your affairs on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath delight and Yehovah’s holy day honored, and if you honor it and go not your ways, then you can seek the favor of Yehovah. I will set you astride the heights of the earth, and let you enjoy the heritage of your father, Yaakov. For the mouth of Yehovah has spoken.”

Nehemia: It’s so unfortunate they don’t translate what it says. I just don’t understand why! So, I mean, some of that was okay. It says, “If you turn back your leg from Shabbat doing your desire on My holy day…” and I understand desire there to be that which is forbidden that you desire to do. Which, if you’re a farmer, you want to plow your field, or you certainly want to harvest your field before, you know, something bad happens to your crop. And you have to stop; you have to refrain from doing that. And hold back your leg… that’s what it talks about in Exodus 16. They were going out into the fields to collect the mana, even though he told them there was going to be no mana. So, you want to walk out to the field and plow your field. He says, hold back your leg from doing your desire on My holy day, “and you will call Shabbat oneg.”

I know there’s a lot of people out there who will get together for a fellowship meal, and they’ll call it Oneg Shabbat; that’s where this comes from. “You will call Shabbat pleasure for the Holy One of Yehovah is honorable,” or is honored. “And you will honor it from doing your ways, from finding your desire, and speaking your matter.” So, what it’s saying here is: don’t go to do your own business, things that are forbidden on Shabbat. Right? It’s not saying here don’t do things you enjoy. This isn’t a commandment or a verse against pleasure. Your desire here is things you enjoy that are forbidden. That’s what that means.

And then, the next verse is… so, here’s the part that it completely lost the nuance of. It says, “Then you will take pleasure in Yehovah.” Right? So, if you deny something you desire to do that God has forbidden, you’re going to get your pleasure, it just won’t be from doing the forbidden thing. It says, “Then you will take pleasure in Yehovah, and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth.” Meaning, you’re going to be, like, successful. “And I will cause you to eat from the inherited portion of Jacob, your father.” Right? So, if you fast on Yom Kippur and don’t go to do your business that’s forbidden; even “speaking about business”, it says there, “speaking the matters”, is what says. That means speaking about business. If you refrain from doing that, then God’s going to make you successful, and He Himself will feed you. He’ll feed you from the inherited portion that you’re entitled to, that you’re supposed to have if you’re righteous. If you sin, you’re not going to get it. You’re going to be cast into exile, and when you repent, then you’ll come back and rebuild, right?

So, we have this… what we might call today, the Zionist Settler verse. Right? I mean, literally, it’s talking about “and they will build from among you”, verse 12, “they’ll build from among you the ancient ruins.” Right? So, that’s talking about the ingathering of the exiles, where Israel, the Land of Israel, the inherited portion of Jacob, our father, will be rebuilt, and then we’ll enjoy the fruits of our labor. And so, what it’s saying is, if you hold back from doing your business, you won’t have to worry about business, right? So, people think, “Well, if I don’t carry out my business today, I’m going to be destitute.” And God’s saying He’s going to bless you if hold back and you observe His Shabbat.

So… all right. I want to talk. We’ll go to questions in a minute. Oh, no. I have, like, another four pages of notes. I won’t bring it all. All right. So… I do want to jump to… well, I do want to… here’s one really important verse: Psalm 35:13. He says, “And I, when they entreat Me,” meaning they pray to me, “dressed in sackcloth.” Let’s see, can you read that, Psalm 35:13?

Lynell: Sure. It says, “Yet when they were ill…”

Nehemia: Sorry, I’m reading the wrong thing. Va’ani  ba’chalotam levushei sak, “And I when they were sick.” Yeah. Go ahead.

Lynell: “My dress was sackcloth. I kept it fast. May what I prayed happen.”

Nehemia: And it says, “I afflicted my soul with fasting,” or “with the fast.” Right? There, it combines the two in a single phrase.

Lynell: “May what I prayed for happen to me.”

Nehemia: Right. So, here we have, linguistically, “to afflict your soul” is to fast. All right. So, that verse we actually brought. Ah… so, this is interesting. Daniel 10:3. So, why doesn’t the Torah just say “fast”? Why does it say, “to afflict the soul”? And in ancient Hebrew, fasting generally was not eating or drinking, but not necessarily. It’s surprising; when you look into the details, look at Daniel chapter 10, and can you read verse 3?

Lynell: “I ate no tasty food, nor did any meat or wine enter my mouth. I did not anoint myself until three weeks were over.”

Nehemia: So, he does a three-week fast. Now, he hasn’t used the word “fast” yet. He just says, “I didn’t eat any…” it says, “hamudot”, “precious food”, or “pleasant food”. “Meat and wine did not enter my mouth.” I lost my place here. Ah. “And I didn’t anoint myself for three weeks.” Right? So, we know he didn’t not eat food or drink water. You could actually probably go three weeks. I could definitely go three weeks without eating food if I needed to. But I would be dead if I went three weeks without water, and you need salt as well.

And then verse 10: “And he said to me, ‘Do not fear, Daniel, for the first day that you gave your heart to understand and to afflict yourself.’” Right? So, it doesn’t say “to afflict your soul”, says “to afflict yourself”. So, maybe you think there’s a difference there. Could be. “And to afflict yourself before God, your words were heard, and I came because of your words.” So, this angel came to him because he afflicted himself, which is a later Hebrew word for fasting. And how do I know that? Because Ezra 8:21, he says, “I called there a fast on the River Ahava to afflict ourselves before our God.” So, fast equals “afflict oneself”, and then fasting is to afflict your soul, right?

So, those are three things that are equivalents, just “afflict the soul” is an earlier Hebrew phrase which was later replaced with “to afflict oneself”. Right? They understood, by that time, which part of yourself you’re afflicting, right? Your appetite. And so, you could fast by refraining, not from all food and water, but according to Daniel… now, he did it for three weeks, so that was quite afflictive, I think, or afflicting. So, somebody asked here, I saw a question pop up: “What do you do if you’re diabetic and you’ll die if you go into diabetic shock?” Well, God didn’t give you a command to kill yourself. He gave you a command to afflict your appetite. And for you, that might just mean that you, instead of, you know, cake, you eat crackers. Right? It might mean that. Right? I know that for me, it’s don’t eat and don’t drink water, and I’ve been doing that since I was a small child. It doesn’t seem to have had a very big effect, but I’m still doing it.

Anyway, so… So, there’s no specific commandment actually to starve yourself to death. It says to afflict your soul, to afflict your appetite. And that could mean different things for different people. And for Daniel, that meant going three weeks on probably just water and bread. Probably bread without salt.

All right. So, Jeremiah 14:12 is really interesting. “When they fast, I do not hear their prayer.” And what the Hebrew says is, “I do not hear their shouting,” which could also mean a song. And He says, “When they bring a burnt offering and flour offering, I do not accept them.” So, prayer and fasting are intertwined. Prayer itself is essentially a form of fasting in the Tanakh. So, I have a bunch more verses here. I’ll read this one. Isaiah 1:15… and guys, go after this study and go read Isaiah chapter 1. Maybe we’ll read it anyway, and then we’ll end with that. There’s so many interesting verses I have here that I wanted to read that I guess we’re not going to get to.

Psalm 50. No… Isaiah 1:15. “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you. Even when you multiply prayer, I do not hear, because your hands are filled with blood.” So, here He’s saying that if you don’t repent, doesn’t matter if you pray all day long. And boy, do I connect with that. Because, when I was a kid, in the Orthodox synagogue we would start at eight in the morning, and it would go until an hour after sunset. And I remember going to my mother…

So, let me paint the picture here of the synagogue I went to growing up. We went to two synagogues. The one we went to more often was this huge synagogue. It had room for, I don’t know, 300 to 500 people. And most of the year, on Shabbat there were 30 people there. On Yom Kippur, it was full to the brim from, you know, everybody came and… and they actually charged. Most synagogues outside of Israel charge money to go to the synagogue. And some synagogues charge thousands of dollars. You have to be a member, and then you get a free ticket. But you have to be a member, which costs, you know, thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, it could be. So, they would come to our synagogue, where it only cost a few hundred dollars. People who we’d never see all year, they would show up on Yom Kippur and the other what are called High Holidays.

Well, so, the synagogue felt like they had to put on a show, and they hired an actual, an actual opera singer. And I called it yodeling. He would do the thing where he would sing. Laaa… You’d probably do it better than I do. And it was painful for me as a child. It actually… and I think, probably, in retrospect, it was like an autistic thing, like that was like nails on the chalkboard for me. And I would go to my mother, I’d say, “Mommy, I’m so bored.” And you would literally be sitting there for h-o-u-r-s. So, it could be whoever set up that kind of format, they thought “afflicting the soul” meant afflicting your ears, maybe? I don’t know. Or your boredom. It would be for hours, hour after hour, and I was so bored, and I would say, “Mommy, I’m bored and I want to go home.” And she would say, “Well, if God likes opera, we’re all going to be blessed.” That’s what she would say. And it was a joke, but it kind of wasn’t, because he was literally an opera singer.

And so, I read this verse, and I really connect with it. “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you. Even when you multiply prayer, I don’t hear because your hands are full of blood.” And so, what He’s saying there is, “Prayer is great. I’m not against prayer; I’m not against fasting. I’m against doing that when you haven’t repented. It should be a path to repentance. It should be part of repentance.”

And there’s a very famous verse that’s repeated in the synagogues on Yom Kippur. It’s Proverbs 28:13 Mekhasseh pesha’av lo yatzliach, “He who covers his transgressions will not succeed.” U’modeh ve’ozev yerucham, “but he who confesses and abandons his transgressions will be given mercy.”

So, the point here is, don’t just fast, but also you have to have repentance. And what is repentance? You have to confess to God. I don’t have to confess, you know, to any man, but I have to confess to God what my sins are. And we see that in prayers. Like, Daniel has his prayer where he says, “We’ve done wicked. We’ve done evil.” Or, in the Tanakh, you see that a number of places. And then you ask God for forgiveness. So, you have to confess to God, “I’ve sinned,” and what you’ve done, and then abandon it. Don’t do it again, and then God will have mercy.

And I’ll just end with this, before we go to the Q&A, which is… So, the other famous verse in synagogues on Shabbat, two verses, is Exodus 34:6-7, which I happen to know is my wife’s favorite passage. Because Moses asked God, you know, “Reveal to me your nature.” And God says, in verses 6 to 7 of Exodus 34, it says, “Yehovah passed over his face, and he called out,” Yehovah called out, “Yehovah, Yehovah,” which could also be translated, “Yehovah is Yehovah.” It’s called the nominal sentence. “Yehovah is Yehovah, a God who is merciful and gracious, abundantly patient, and has great chesed and truth.” Chesed is something like lovingkindness. It’s a whole study, a series of studies of chesed. “He guards chesed for the thousandth,” I can’t say that, “the thousandth generation.” And then it says, “noseh avon vafesha ve’chata’a. “He forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.” And what it literally says is not “forgive.” The word forgive there is “to carry”. He bears it. So, if we repent, He’ll take it off our shoulders and carry it for us. That’s the literal meaning of the Hebrew word there.

Now, the next phrase is ve’nakeh lo yenakeh, “And he will surely not make clean,” but literally it’s “and make clean, He will not make clean.” And when you put those together, it means, “He will surely not make clean.” Hebrew likes to repeat things with two forms of a verb, which means surely or indeed, if it’s a conditional.

So, what’s really interesting here is, Lynell and I were discussing this, and I was trying to tell her the Rabbinical interpretation. Or, not Rabbinical interpretation so much, but the way this verse is used in the synagogue is, it says, “And make clean He will not make clean,” meaning He will definitely not make clean. And when they recite this verse numerous times on Yom Kippur, they end with the word, “and make clean”. Right? So, if you don’t repent, God’s not going to make you clean. And in fact, if you don’t repent, God’s going to punish you not only for your own sins, but the sins of your ancestors. That’s what it says there.

But the rabbis, when they formulated their prayers, they stopped after “make clean”. It’s kind of like how, you know, you want to always end on a high note. But I think if we don’t acknowledge the other half of the verse, the rest of the verse, well, that could be problematic, because “Why would I repent,” you might think, if there’s no consequences. Right? So, there’s reward and punishment.

And we actually found this really interesting website; do you remember that one, Lynell? I’m trying to look for it now, and I don’t… it was…. oh, it was My Jewish Learning talking about that verse. And it was so interesting, especially because, like, this isn’t meant for Jewish intellectuals, it’s meant for people who don’t know a lot about Judaism. And it said it better than I could say it, meaning the Rabbinical position. Here it is. So, we’ll post the link on nehemiaswall.com… or why don’t we post the link here in the chat? That’s a great idea, because I don’t know if we’re going to… hopefully we’ll be able to edit this and share it with people, but you never know.

So, how do I do the chat? Myjewishlearning.com. So, they’re talking about Exodus 34:6-7, which in tradition are called the 13 Midot or 13 Attributes of God. And they explain the biblical origins, et cetera… and there’s something about Kabbalists that we’ll skip… Here. They say, “The Hebrew phrase ve’nake lo yenake, and he who cleanses but does not cleanse,” but grammatically that means ‘he will certainly not make clean’, “is a common biblical grammatical form that uses repetition to stress the action.” This is myjewishlearning.com. That’s more or less correct. “The rabbis ingeniously cut off the verse after ve’nake, thus changing the meaning to indicate that God does forgive all sins. This remarkable midrashic transformation has become the standard format whenever this Torah verse is used in a synagogue service.”

Lynell: Ingenious.

Nehemia: Ingenious. “Although it may go beyond the plain meaning of the biblical text.” Ya think? “The change is consistent with the general concept of the passage, ‘the merciful and forgiving nature of God’.” So, when I strip out half the verse and take part of the verse out of context, that’s consistent with the message of the verse. Umm… by definition, it’s not! God does forgive all sin, only if you repent. If you don’t repent, there’s a consequence. And they say it’s ingenious that they’ve stripped out the consequences. Wow!

Lynell: Yeah.

Nehemia: That’s…

Lynell: It’s sad. It’s very, very sad that they’re not teaching that you have to…

Nehemia: Well, they’re teaching you have to repent, but they’re teaching… that there’s always forgive… It’s kind of like this idea, “God is all love”. Hey, guys, read the Tanakh. It says in Isaiah 45, he says, “He creates good and He creates evil.” It’s the same God; there aren’t two gods. Or it’s not that there’s… I mean, there’s this idea that people have that God is all love, and if there’s anything that’s evil in the universe, that’s outside of God. No! That’s Zoroastrianism, that’s not what the Tanakh teaches.

Lynell: Daniel said, “It smells a lot like, ‘Once saved, always saved’.” It’s exactly what it smells like to me, too!

Nehemia: Okay. Well, that’s not what they’re saying, though. What they’re saying is, the way they’re using the verse “ingeniously” is to emphasize only the reward and not the potential punishment if you don’t repent.

Lynell: Mmm.

Nehemia: Well, why does God tell you about the punishment? The central message of the prophets is, “Repent, and if you don’t repent, here’s all the bad things that are going to happen. And if you do repent, here’s good things that’re going to happen. If your sins are as scarlet, they’ll be made white as snow.” Right? It’s in Isaiah 1; we skipped that verse because I think I used up too much time.

But let’s do some Q&A here. All right, somebody asked about, how do you recognize the new moon when it begins in the morning in America?

So, that’s not what new moon is. New moon is… and I have a study on my website, nehemiaswall.com. The new moon is the last moon that you see, usually just after sunset; technically, in some instances just before sunset, in the early evening after it’s not been visible between one-and-a-half and three-and-a-half days.

My question is on the Asean calendar versus the Jewish calendar, and which is more accurate.

So, Jewish calendar is a very broad statement. Which one do you mean? The Asean calendar was a Jewish calendar. The Hillel calendar is a Jewish calendar. I try to follow what was the original biblical calendar to the best of my ability. It’s based on the sighting of the new moon and the finding of the aviv barley in the Land of Israel.

George asks, “What is your understanding of the Hebrew word azazel?”

Ooh! We did some studies on that yesterday. So, azazel… So, there’s one goat which is to Yehovah and one goat to azazel. So azazel might be a geographical location. That’s my opinion. There are other people who interpret azazel, based on the Dead Sea Scrolls and various other things, as being some sort of a spiritual entity or demon. Which, I mean, I find that ridiculous, but there are people who interpret it that way. Meaning, why would you send one goat out for a demon? Right? That doesn’t make any sense. That seems demonic to me.

What were the three English words for the Hebrew word kippur?

So, what we saw in the JPS was it has different words, the New JPS, in Leviticus 16: purge, expiation, atonement.

How does the Hebrew word ana spelled the same but listed and translated differently, meaning answered, related to afflict?

So, they’re two completely different roots that have… I don’t want to get into complicated linguistic matters, but we would call those homographs; they look identical. And maybe they’re even homonyms, although it’s not obvious that they were homonyms in ancient Israel. Homonyms are words that are pronounced the same; homographs are words that are spelled the same but maybe pronounced differently. English has a lot of homographs, like perf-ect and per-fect. Right?

Somebody says, “Should we begin Yom Kippur based on sunset in Israel?

No, it should be based on your local sunset.

Lynell: Hey, Nehemia, just wanted to say, Natan’s here.

Nehemia: Oh. Hey, Natan!

Lynell: Natan, you have to answer everyone. It just says, “host and panelist”. Hey, Natan, we love you.

Nehemia: Hey, Natan. My nephew Natan is here. Should we bring him on?

Lynell: Yes, I can do that.

Nehemia: Let’s bring on Natan.

Nehemia: This is my nephew, Natan.

Lynell: He is wonderful.

Nehemia: He lives in Israel; he was born and raised in Israel.

Concerning nefesh, wasn’t the description of creation for Adam and Eve that they became a living soul?

Yes. Nefesh chaya. Right, because nefesh means soul, it also means life. You could also say, like, you know, “70 nefesh”, which means 70 people.

Natan: Hello!

Nehemia: Natan, where’s your video?

Lynell: Hey, Natan!

Natan: Yep. There it is. I’m actually outside right now.

Nehemia: I don’t see your video. Oh, there you are! Okay. Oh, it’s nighttime in Israel. Alright.

Natan: Yeah. So, Yom Kippur would have gone out by now.

Nehemia: Okay.

Lynell: Yes. One day.

Natan: Yeah. So, I won’t spoil to you what happens, since I am in the future.

Lynell: [Laughter]

Nehemia: Okay. Everyone can see that he got all the hair in the family, and I didn’t. Um…

Natan: Yeah, it’s not fair.

Lynell: I think you had plenty of hair at that age.

Nehemia: Not like that I didn’t.

So, Natan, why don’t you tell people what you… because they don’t know anything about you. How do you observe Yom Kippur?

Natan: Oh, so, I fast. I don’t eat; I don’t work. I think that pretty much covers the bases.

Nehemia: Do you drink?

Natan: No.

Nehemia: Okay. Because there’s some people who think a fast is not to… or it is, for them, maybe, a fast might be they only don’t eat, but they do drink.

Natan: Oh, interesting. What is that based on?

Nehemia: Right. I think that’s more of like a health thing, right? There’s something called like intermittent fasting, where people will do like a five-day fast, where they only have water and salt, which is more like the fast that Daniel did, perhaps. Although I think he had a little bit more than that. He did it for 21 days, in the Tanakh… Daniel. So… okay, cool!

Natan: I mean…

Nehemia: Did you go to synagogue this year?

Natan: Um, I did not, no, but you’re talking about fasting.

Nehemia: Right.

Natan: Moshe, Moses, was on Har Sinai for, like, 40 days fasting, and he ended up glowing in the end. So, I think there might be something to it.

Lynell: [Laughter]

Nehemia: Right. Well, I think we have to take that to be a miracle, because he didn’t eat or drink for 40 days and 40 nights, so…

Natan: Yeah.

Nehemia: All right, well thanks for joining us.

Natan: My pleasure.

Nehemia: All right. I got some more questions for you.

Natan: Thank you for this webinar.

Lynell: We love you, Natan.

Nehemia: Isaiah 1… yeah, I love you.

Somebody says… this a great question; is it permitted to watch sports on television during Shabbat? Peter asks. “The reason I’m asking this is because the ones partaking in sports are doing some form of labor. They’re getting paid to do so.” I guess, unless it’s prerecorded. “However, I would be at home keeping Shabbat and taking a break from my study by watching television.”

So, it’s interesting. The rabbis have a whole lot of rules about things you’re not allowed to do, and I was given all these explanations, when I was younger, about why you’re not allowed to turn on and off a light switch. You can leave it on, but you can’t turn it on and off. And I said, “Okay, so can we leave the television on?” “No, that’s not appropriate for Shabbat.” Right?

So, what the rabbis did is, they said, “This is a picture of what our Shabbat experience looks like, and now let’s create a bunch of rules around it to make that experience.” And you know, to me, that’s adding to the Torah. Now, look, I don’t read or answer emails on Shabbat, because I get work emails. I get financial emails, right? So, I think you have to work it out for yourself with fear and trembling and prayer and study before the Creator of the universe. But be very careful not to add commandments to the Torah. Okay.

Lynell: Are we supposed to wear white on Yom Kippur?

Nehemia: No, that’s just a made-up tradition. You can wear white if you want. The advantage of wearing white is that whenever I wear white, I spill food on it. But there’s no danger of that on Yom Kippur.

Lynell: How many times did the High Priest enter the Most Holy Place at the Temple on Yom Kippur?

Nehemia: Wait. I’m reading… I’m reading the questions in order.

Natan: If I recall correctly, that TV thing was about to marit ha’ayin, isn’t it? Like, somebody might think it’s okay to watch TV?

Nehemia: But why isn’t it? That’s the question.

Natan: No, because I might think you turned it on on Shabbat now.

Nehemia: Right. But why aren’t you allowed to turn it on on Shabbat? Like I said, because they wanted to perpetuate, essentially, a medieval experience, let’s just be really honest here, in the modern world. Because they felt, “Look, this is what our ancestors did for thousands of years.” But our ancestors also used outhouses. Why don’t you use an outhouse on Shabbat? Because it’s not pleasant.

Is this holy day just for men?

No. Some of these are easy questions.

Ooh! 2 Chronicles 7:14! We had a whole half hour on 2 Chronicles 7:14 that we had to forego; we literally had a whole section in my notes on 2 Chronicles 7:14. So, here’s the question… ooh, we should have done a survey on this. So, guys, I’m not going to answer it, but without looking it up…

Lynell: Do you want me to do a survey?

Nehemia: Can you do a survey?

Lynell: Yeah, just give me a second.

Nehemia: No, we’d have to spill the beans. But guys, in the chat, post “what is the context of 2 Chronicles 7:14?” In other words, who is God speaking to? And on what occasion?

Lynell: What is the verse you’re talking about? Do you want to quote it?

Nehemia: 2 Chronicles 7:14. Oh, you want to read that verse?

Lynell: Yes.

Nehemia: That’s the most famous verse in the Christian world, from the Tanakh, at least. Well, that and pay your tithe to the church, to the Temple, right?

Lynell: Do you want me to read that?

Nehemia: Yeah. 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Lynell: “When My people who bear My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear from My heavenly abode and forgive their sins and heal their land.” And what was your question?

Nehemia: So, my question is: who is God speaking to? And on what occasion? So, somebody says, “self-explanatory”. Nothing self-explanatory about it. Oh, maybe they’re answering somebody. Wow! So, people actually know the context. I’m impressed.

Oh wait, somebody says here… “He’s speaking to all the people who accept, follow and love His name.” That’s true, but originally there’s a context, and if you just read a few verses before, you’ll see that. So, 2 Chronicles 7:14… and a lot of people got it here is, Solomon prays a prayer when he inaugurates the Temple. And it’s this long, beautiful prayer that talks about God forgiving when we turn towards the Temple in Jerusalem and we pray. “Even if you’re a foreigner in a far-off land and you come to that place, God will hear the prayer from heaven through the Temple where He puts His name forever, even though He may destroy it.” Right? That’s all there in 1 Kings 8, and then 2 Chronicles chapter 6, which repeats it with some more details.

And then in 2 Chronicles 7, God answers the prayer, right? That’s Solomon praying. I don’t know if God’s going to do that. But that is the answer. And the answer is: “Yes, if My people call My name and they humble themselves.” And what does it mean to humble yourself? So, this is like a great excuse for me to bring that part of my notes. Like, we literally had all of this, because like, if you look at 1 Kings 8 verse 30 verses 34, 36, 39, 50, all of those speak about God forgiving and having mercy, and/or having mercy. I’ll post those in here.

And then the answer is… and then it says, you know, they translate it as… I think they often translate it “if.” Right? It says, “And My people will humble themselves, who My name is called upon them, and they will pray, and they will seek My face, and they will return from their evil ways. And I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.” And that’s a really important phrase; for God to heal something often means He accepts your ritual even when it’s not done right. That’s what it means. Or He accepts your repentance.

So, Hosea chapter 2 talks about… we can’t bring bulls, right? We’re living in the northern kingdom in the time of Hosea, and we can’t bring bulls to the Temple. The Temple is not accessible to us. He says, “Turn to God in prayer, and then God will answer the prayer, and he’ll heal their backsliding,” their rebelliousness.

What does it mean, “He’ll heal their rebelliousness?” He will forgive their rebelliousness even though they didn’t bring the required sacrifice. That’s what it means. You didn’t do the ritual exactly right, because you couldn’t for some reason, or you just didn’t know how to, and God will heal. He will accept that. Essentially, you could translate that as “God will reconcile.” Right? He’ll accept that despite it not being done exactly right. Yeah, that’s a beautiful verse.

Do women have to wear head coverings?

Not based on the Tanakh. But go and ask your priest or your rabbi and, you know, work that out with him and whatever. And also, whatever they decide in your church or synagogue or fellowship. You can either choose not to go to that fellowship, or you can follow the rules.

Somebody says, “A fast is up to us to decide what is afflicting our appetite.” I’m following the biblical pattern, which is not to eat and drink. If you have some medical issue where, you know, that’s a problem, then you should not kill yourself. You should not, you know, harm yourself either, right? If you’re a pregnant woman, you shouldn’t be fasting.

By the way, a lot of women in Israel… I just heard this yesterday from my sister, a lot of women in Israel go into labor on Yom Kippur because fasting can trigger labor. And so, there’s a lot of people whose birthday is Yom Kippur. Hey, Natan, isn’t your birthday Yom Kippur?

What is the Tanakh definition of a prophet?

Okay, that’s beyond the scope of today.

Natan: Hello?

Nehemia: Yeah. Is your birthday Yom Kippur?

Natan: So, my birthday was a day… like, I was born the day after Yom Kippur, by the Rabbinic calendar.

Nehemia: Did your mother go into labor on that day? On Yom Kippur?

Natan: I’m not sure.

Lynell: We’ll have to ask Ayala…

Nehemia: Um [laughter] okay.

Natan: Not yet. I was almost there. Just missed it.

Nehemia: He wasn’t paying attention. So, somebody asked how my nephews are doing. I have two nephews who are in combat units. I won’t say more than that, but please pray for them.

Is candle-lighting a must on Shabbat?

No, candle lighting is some Rabbinical tradition that was made up, based on somebody else’s interpretation that you weren’t allowed to have fire on Shabbat. So, they did what we call in Hebrew davka. They were saying, “Okay, we’re going to require it, if the other people say you’re not allowed to have it.” So, if that’s how you want to worship God, go for it. That seems kind of a strange way to worship God.

Jesse asks, “Can you explain what you believe mikra kodesh means? Is it more about proclaiming or a commanded gathering?

So, those are the two interpretations, that mikra either means “to gather” or it means “to proclaim”, a day that you proclaim to be holy, mikra kodesh, “holy convocation” in the King James. I think it means to proclaim, but if you want to interpret it the other way, there could be some justification for that. The reason I don’t interpret it as gathering is that the eighth day of Sukkot, and the seventh day of Passover, of Chag Hamatzot, are referred to as atzeret, and atzeret actually does mean an assembly. So, if every day is an assembly, then why would He say assemble on those days, have an atzeret, an assembly, when every holy day is an assembly? Right? So, that would indicate that mikra kodesh is just a holy proclamation. It also says, “and you will proclaim” using the same verb, proclaim the mikra kodesh, so…

Someone says, “Is there a flow or connection between Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, a larger theme, if you will?

So, definitely throughout history, people have tied them together. I don’t find that in the Tanakh. In other words, the idea in Rabbinical Judaism, and many Karaites accept this, is that Yom Teruah is when you begin your repentance process towards Yom Kippur. And there’s ten days of terror, of awe, they’re called; the Ten Days of Awe, which is ten days where I’m terrified God’s going to, you know, strike me down and punish me. And if He hasn’t decided by the end of Yom Kippur that I’m going to be forgiven, then I won’t be won’t be written into the Book of Life. That’s reading a lot into the Torah that’s not there.

Lynell: Concerning nefesh, wasn’t the description at creation for Adam and the animals that they become a living soul?

Nehemia: Yeah, yeah, I think I answered that question. They were called nefesh chaya. They became a living nefesh. And nefesh can also mean, in that sense, person, right? Meaning, like, when Jacob and his family went down to Egypt, it says they went down with 70 nefesh, 70 living people.

Lynell: There was a question here that said, “Yom Kippur is the only feast in which we are not to bring an offering. Is that true?”

Nehemia: So, I think you mean a personal offering. The Torah actually doesn’t say that. So, it doesn’t say you’re not allowed to bring a personal offering on Yom Kippur.

Lynell: Um…

Nehemia: Now, if you want to be nice to the priest, maybe don’t do it. Maybe do it the next day. But the natural time for most people to bring sacrifices, you know, individual sacrifices, would have been on the feast days. Unless you lived in Jerusalem, or in Shiloh, earlier. So…

All right, I think we should wrap it up. I really appreciate everybody. Thank you for joining us, especially on what… for most people today is a weekday. I know this wasn’t easy for some people, and so, I really appreciate everybody joining us. You’ve really blessed Lynell and me, and Heath. I feel that we got to observe Yom Kippur with you guys, and that means a lot to me.

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