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280 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Atonement

of the righteous atones for the sins of the people. " Like the sanctuary, he is taken as security [" mash"

kon '"] for the life of the community Suffering' (Tan., Wayakhel.9; Ex. R. xxxv.'4; or Death of Lev. R. ii.). That the death of the the righteous atones is learned from II Righteous. Sam. xxi. 14, which says that after the burial of Saul and Jonathan " God was entreated for the land" (Pesik. xxvii. 1746). "Where there are no righteous men in a generation to atone for the people, innocent school-children are taken away " (Shah. 336). So also does the suffering of the righteous atone as in the case of Ezekiel (Sanh. 39k) and Job (Ex. R. xxi.). R. Judah haNasi's suffering saved his contemporaries from calamities (Gen. R. 96). God is the King whose wrath is, in Pro v. xvi. 14, referred to "as messengers of death," and the wise man who makes Atonement for it is Moses, who pacifies Him by prayer (Ex. R. xliii.). The death of Israel at the hands of his persecutors is an atoning sacrifice (Sifre, Deut, 333). Atoning powers are ascribed also to the study of the Law, which is more effective than sacrifice, especially when combined with good works (R. II. 18k; Yeb. 105k; Lev. R. xxv.). The table from which the poor received their share atones for Study of man's sins in place of the altar (see the Torah. Altar) the wife being the priestess who makes Atonement for the house (Ber. 55k; Tan., Wayishlah, vi.). The meritorious lives of the Patriarchs especially possess a great atoning power (Ex. R. xlix.). The Holy Land itself has atoning qualities for those who inhabit it or are buried in its soil, as is learned from Deut. xxxii. 43, which verse is interpreted "He will make His land an Atonement for His people " (see Sifre, Deut. 333 Gen. R. xcvi. Ket. 111k; Yer. Kil. ix. 32c). On the other hand, the descent of the wicked (heathen) into Gehenna for eternal doom is, according to Isa. xliii. (A. V.), an atoning sacrifice for the people of Israel (compare Prov. xxi. 18). "I gave Egypt for thy ransom [kofer], Ethiopia and Seba for thee " (Sifre, Deut. 333; Ex. R. xi.). The whole idea underlying Atonement, according to the rabbinical view, is regeneration restoration of the original state of man in his relation to God, called "tekanah" (R. H. 17k; 'Ar. 156). "As vessels of gold or of glass, when broken, can be restored by undergoing the process of melting, thus does the disciple of the law, after having Atonement sinned, find the way of recovering his state of purity by repentance" (R. AkIs Regenera- ibain Hag. I'm). Therefore he who astion. sumesa high public office after the confession of his sins in the past is "made a new creature, free from sin like a child " (Sanh. 14k compare Midi'. Sam. xvii., "Saul was as one year old"; I Sam. xiii. 1, A. V. "reigned one year'" R. V. " was thirty years old ''). In fact, the Rabbis declare that the scholar, the bridegroom, and the Nasi, as well as the proselyte, on entering their new station in life, are freed from all their sins, because, having by confession of sins, fasting, and prayer prepared themselves for the new state, they are, as it were, born anew (Yer. Bik. iii. 65c, d; Midr. Sam. I. c).





—



This

is

280

the case also with the change of name or loheart (Pesik.

when combined with change of xxx. 191k R. H. 166). The following

cality



classical pas-

sage elucidates the rabbinical view as taught by R. Ishmael (of the second century Yoma 86a)

" There are lour different modes ol Atonement. It a man fails to fulfil the duty incumbent upon him in case of a sin of omission, for him repentance suffices, as Jeremiah (iii. 22) says, Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your hacksliding.' If he has transgressed a prohibitory law— a sin of commission— the Day of Atonement atones of him the Law says, On this day He shall atone for your sins to cleanse you (Lev. xvi. 30). If he he guilty of crimes such as entail the death penalty and the like, repentance and the Day of Atonement can not expiate them unless suffering works as a purifying factor to this the Psalmist refers when he says, I will visit their transgressions with the rod and their iniquities with stripes' (Ps. lxxxix. 33 [A. V. 32]). And if the crime amount to a desecration of the name of God and the doing of great harm to the people at large, nothing but death can be the penalty; as Isaiah (xxii. 14) says, Surely this iniquity shall not be atoned for you [A. V. " purged from you "] till ye die, saith the Lord God of Hosts' " (compare Mishnah Shebu. i. 1-6). '



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'



'

Whether the Day

of Atonement atoned only for committed in error and ignorance or involuntarily (Heb. ix.T), or also for those committed wilfully with a high hand (Num. xv. 26, 30), whether only after due repentance or without it, is discussed by the Rabbis (Shebu. 13k Yoma 856) and the resultsins





ing opinion is that just as the scapegoat atoned for all the sins of the nation, whether committed involuntarily or wilfully (Shebu. i. 6), so also does the Day of Atonement, true repentance having the power of turning all sins into mere errors, such as are forgiven to the whole congregation according to Num. xv. All the greater emphasis is laid on sincere re26. pentance, without which the Day of Atonement is inefficient (Maimonides," Yad," Teshubah, i. 3). All the various elements effecting Atonement are in a marked degree combined in the Day of Atonement, to make it the occasion of the great annual redintegration of man. It is called "Shabbat Skabbaton," the holiest of rest-days as the Shabbath of the Sabbatical

Annual

because

Redinte- for the gration of Succoth

it

was

month

(Lev. xxiii. 32),

to prepare the people

festival of harvest joy,

the

feast at the close of the agri-

Man,

cultural season (Ex. xxiii. 16, xxxiv. 22; Lev. xxiii. 34, xxv. 9,10; Ezek. xl. Whereas Ezekiel (xlv. 18-20) intended to have 1). the first and the seventh day of the first month rendered days of Atonement for the year, the Mosaic law ordained that the new moon of the seventh month should be a Sabbath (Lev. xxiii. 24), heralding forth with the trumpet in more solemn sounds than

on other new-moon days (Num. x. 10) the holy month this was to be followed by the day which was to consecrate both the nation and the sanctuary by imposing atoning rites. These rites were of a twofold character. Atonement for the people was made in a form without any parallel in the entire sacrificial system, Lev. xvi. 7-22, or Deut. xxi. 4, perhaps ex-

and

of Atone-

A

scapegoat, upon which the laid the sins of the people, sent forth into the wilderness to

cepted.

Day

high priest

was

ment.

Azazel (a demon, according to Ibn Ezra on Lev. xvi. 10, related to the goatlike demons, or satyrs, referred to in Lev. xvii. 7; compare Yoma 676) and its arrival at the rock of Hadudo,