When the Jerusalem Temple still stood, the rituals to be performed on Yom Kippur had two central figures and two specific places. First, the High Priest, and only he, was qualified to offer the sacrifices to be offered, and only he could enter the Holy of Holies on that day to offer a pillar of incense to God before the Ark of the Covenant (Leviticus 16:12-13). The Mishnah (Yoma 1:1) teaches that a replacement High Priest had to be appointed in case any mishap occurred to the one in office.
The other figure who occupied a central place in the rituals was the man who had to be assigned a day in advance (b. Yoma 66b) to carry the scapegoat. This animal, onto whom the impurities of the people’s transgressions were concentrated, was to be thrown from a rock in the desert (Leviticus 16:21, b. Yoma 67a). These actions, basic to the ritual followed in the Temple of Jerusalem, could only be performed individually, not in conjunction with others.
The purified place was the Temple, its inhabitants, and their cities. The place where the scapegoat was thrown was the desert, where everything is constantly changing, where it is impossible to plant a tree or sow crops, nor can the trace of human passage endure.
From this, it could be understood that the symbolism of the rituals refers to God helping individuals on that day to cast away their evil deeds and expel them to a distant, uninhabitable place. A projection of this concept for our days could be the mass destruction of drugs, weapons, and other elements that degrade existence and the dumping of degraded waste in a distant, inaccessible place.
The second symbolism lies in the fact that the actions must be carried out by a single individual. Hence, the purification process, which was witnessed by multitudes (Avot 5:5), was supposed to awaken a challenge in each of those present, which could be reflected in the High Priest and the person sent with the scapegoat to the desert. A mature society is not merely constituted by masses, but by individuals committed to justice, equity, mercy, and compassion. The biblical ideal is a society of prophets (Numbers 11:29).
The essence of Yom Kippur is to achieve a state of purity. Purity is associated in the Hebrew Bible with life, since the source of impurity is the lifeless body (Numbers 19). In Ezekiel 36:25 26, we find a profound explanation of the meaning of purity: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
A heart that does not feel is as if it were made of stone, as if it had no life. While the Bible and rabbinic literature present many rules about what defiles an individual and the rituals that must be followed to achieve purity, the words of the prophet reveal their quintessence. When someone lies beside a corpse, something in their being is paralyzed; they cannot return to full life. The purification process consists of rituals that help the individual return to life to serve it fully.
Death is not an ideal in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Psalms (118:17) we read: “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done,” and in 115:17: “It is not the dead who praise the Lord, those who go down to the place of silence; it is we who extol the Lord, both now and forevermore.” It is through life lived with a heart of flesh that God is honored.
The Talmud relates that one of the happiest days in ancient Israel was Yom Kippur, for on it young men and women would go dancing in the vineyards where they could fall in love (Ta’anit 26b). After the experience of seeking purity on Yom Kippur, the hearts of young people were predisposed to love.
The world today is overshadowed by violence and hatred. Many glorify death and despise life. Wars and misery obscure the dimension of purity from existence. Yom Kippur remains intact in Jewish liturgy and tradition, as does the hope for the universal fulfillment of its message.
Written by Rabbi Avraham Skorka, October 2025