Amir Tsarfati - The True Meaning of Yom Kippur

As we approach the most solemn day on the Jewish calendar, I wanted to share with you my short commentary on Leviticus 23:27: “….it shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord…” (Leviticus 23:27)

One of the most common questions one will be asked over the next few days is: did you fast on Yom Kippur? Fasting on Yom Kippur is not Biblical. It is traditional. The Bible says something else that was interpreted by rabbis throughout the course of Jewish history as neither eating nor drinking but praying and making petitions before God for forgiveness. The interesting thing is that fasting is being perceived as the way to “afflict our souls” but the most common blessing one will hear from another during that very season will be “Have an easy fast”.

Should we fast? Should it be easy? What are we doing this for? Is it for us? Is it for God? Is it so we will feel good with ourselves? What then is the reason man feels terrible with the way he conducts himself throughout the year that makes him feel so good with himself after not eating for 25 hours? Is it our soul that we afflict by not eating or just our very empty tummies? God has asked the nation of Israel to afflict their souls. In light of the scriptures one must search what is that way one should be afflicting his soul.

Please pay close attention to the fact that there were 2 things required from the nation of Israel at the same time: Afflicting the souls and offering an offering made by fire. Tradition is nice when it leads you to where the word of God is leading – true worship of God and humility of us. Whenever tradition brings the ME as the holy one and ME as the suffering one and ME as the righteous one – then this tradition is no better than any false teaching and false doctrines of other religions and faiths who believes in other gods. When God is telling us “afflict your souls”, He is talking about our souls, spirit, and not our tummies and body.

I can show you numerous books and courses of how to get along without eating much. Weight-loss programs have become a very popular thing in our “health-conscious-world”. Glorifying God and humbling ourselves in His sight so He will lift us higher and higher is something that only the Word of God – written and in the flesh (Jesus) can show us how to do.

My point is very simple: The Jewish tradition has missed the point of this holiday even without talking about Jesus. Instead of afflicting the soul they choose to afflict the body (a very common thing in many new age and old age religions) so the spirit can feel good, clean and even happy about its ability to make a sacrifice to the God it worships. In other words: We afflict the wrong thing. We shift our focus from God to us, as usual.

What is then the affliction of the soul? – Here comes the point of Jesus – One can afflict His soul only when one understand that one has no chance becoming holy by one’s own strength and deeds. This helplessness is the worst thing one’s soul can experience.

What then is our option if we can not do it by ourselves? Here comes the second thing God has demanded: Offering! Who is then that was offered for us since we can not justify ourselves by our own strength and deeds:

Peter and Paul, both Jewish people by all opinions, were well acquainted with the Law and the traditions, and both of them understood that precious truth that was revealed in Messiah’s life, death and resurrection:
- In His Life he was purer than anyone else and fulfilled the Law making himself later on the perfect “Passover Lamb” who was examined while being alive for it’s purity.
- In His death – we understand how insufficient the blood of Animal was and how perfect the sacrifice of Christ was:

Hebrews 10:1-18 - For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.’” Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.”He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.0

Psalm 40:6-8 - “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”

Jeremiah 31:31-34 - “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,[a] says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Allow me to end this short commentary with these wonderful words that should echo in the ears of all who still believes that somehow there is something they can do to please God besides their simple but sincere trust and faith in the one whom God sent to pay our debt and remove sin’s power once and for all:

“….for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved….” (Acts 4:12)

And you shall call His Name Yeshua (Jesus’s name in Hebrew which comes from the word “salvation” in Hebrew) – For He will SAVE His people from their sins…” (Matthew 1:21)

Afflict your souls oh Israel by understanding that by your own strength and deeds you will NOT be saved! Bring this perfect sacrifice that is better than any animal can ever be and is the only way truth and life – Yeshua!

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved – you and your household …” (Acts 16:31)