Introduction

This episode focuses on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) ritual. Unlike many popular commentaries teach, this important Old Testament ritual was about “resetting” the tabernacle/temple sanctuary, its priesthood, and the Israelite people to the state of ritual purity (holiness) evident when the entire Levitical system and the Tabernacle was originally sanctified in Leviticus 8. The episode reviews the nature of “atonement” language discussed in earlier episodes, the matter of the goat “for Azazel,” and the conceptual meaning of the “mercy seat.”

paper referenced: Equilibrium and the Sacred Compass: The Structure of Leviticus