Questions for Seder HaAvodah on Yom Kippur

1. The night of Yom Kippur, the Cohen Gadol learns Divrei HaYamim/Chronicles (the first Kingdoms of Judah/Israel), Daniel (in exile), Ezra/Nechemiah (return from exile), and Iyov/Job (written by a non-Jew). What texts (Jewish or secular, written/visual art/music/dance/stage/film/TV) would be most helpful to you in preparing for the Avodah on Yom Kippur if you were the Cohen Gadol – and why? What selection of two to four such texts would represent the fullness of what you want to bring to the Avodah of Yom Kippur – and why?

2. The Cohen Gadol/High Priest presses down on the head of the bull (his sin-offering) and the goat sent to Azazel (the sins of Israel) and makes confession of sins – a total of three. Which three sins or other situations that separate you from G!d and/or others and/or yourself do you most want to press into the goat sent into the wilderness and be free from this year?

3. According to Tractate Yoma of the Mishnah and Talmud, Yom Kippur only atones for sins between a person and G!d – one must make peace with other people. What are the things you need to atone for with G!d? With others? With yourself?

4. What has been the best Yom Kippur observance for you and why? What can you bring from that experience into this year’s Yom Kippur?

Thought for the Siyyum of Masechet Sukkah

 "The Gemara relates that the Sages said of Yonatan ben Uzziel, the greatest of Hillel’s students, that when he sat and was engaged in Torah study, the sanctity that he generated was so intense that any bird that flew over him was immediately incinerated." (Sukkah 28a)

Rav Yonatan was the translator who produced Targum Yonatan, the Aramaic translation of the Prophets. The bird being incinerated by the holiness of the Torah study speaks to Torah study taking the place of the korban olah (burnt-offering) in the absence of the Temple.

May our Torah study and our translation of that Torah into the targum of our lives serve as a pleasing offering to G!d.

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