Yom Kippur for the children of Noah
הרב צבי אבינר
Yom Kippur, Isaiah 53
and
The Suffering Servant
*
Rabbi Z Aviner
What is the importance of Yom Kippur to the children of Noah?
Yom Kippur atones for sins between man and G-d along with repentance.
For sins between a person and his fellowman, Yom Kippur does not atone until he pleases his friend.
Sins between a person and G-d are transgressions of commandments such as eating meat and milk, taking lulav, sitting in the sukkah. No one else was hurt in the process. For example, all the commandments on the left side of the Two Tablets of Sinai
דיאגרמה 2 לוחות
Sins between one person and another are those that another person is hurt by. For example, all the commandments on the right side of the two tablets.
And here the Torah says that for offenses between a person and his fellowman, Yom Kippur does not atone until he appeases and compensates the injured person.
The offender must confess to the offended fellowman, in as much detail as possible, asking him to forgive him. Only then may he stand before God and ask God to forgive him. If the victim refuses to forgive, the offender should repeat the request 3 times in front of witnesses, and then it is considered as if the victim has forgiven and therefore the offender can face Hashem and his Judgment.
What are the type of the sins involving the children of Noah?
Of the seven commandments, the first is the prohibition of idolatry, which is between man and God. Here teshuva and Yom Kippur are all that is necessary (suppose Yom Kippur applies to every person).
The same applies to the sixth mitzvah – Blasphemy – it is a commandment between man and God, and as such demands Teshuva Repentance.
For example, the very fact that you’ve become the Children of Noah is a repentance from idolatry.
Also, the violation of the seventh mitzvah of eating blood and an animal organ is between man and God and requires s repentance to achieve atonement. No other fellowman is involved.
But what about the second commandment of ADULTERY? And a third of BLOODSHED? And a fourth of CIVIL ORDER AND JUSTICE? These commandments are between Man and his Fellowman, requiring the appeasing the damaged party before coming to God.
And here lies a deep psychological burrier.
Can a man come to his friend and confess that while the friend attended a professional conference in Florida, the perpetrator slept with his wife? Can the offended party really forgive? Even if he would say he has forgiven, did he forgive in his heart?
And what about a man who abused his daughter between the age of six and twelve – can he ask for forgiveness? Can the daughter whose life he destroyed forgive him in her heart?
The same applies to the third commandment of bloodshed. Can the murderer ask for forgiveness? Would the victim’s family really forgive him?
The same applies to the fourth commandment of THEFT and ABDUCTION – Is there any point in asking for forgiveness? Can the victim ever forgive him for the atrocities?
And the same applies to DINIM, CIVIL JUSTICE . Can a person who has been severely Injured by injustice, lies, distorted judgment, REALLY forgive?
Yet, the Torah in her wisdom recognizes this difficulty and tells the offender that nevertheless, he should ask forgiveness . Should the offended one deny the request, the perpetrator may repeat his request three times in front of public witnesses, then he would be permitted to stand before Hashem and ask forgiveness from the Heavenly Court.
We will return to the children of Noah.
Suppose that Christianity undergoes a repentance process by a miracle and seeks to atone it atrocities against the Torah and the Jewish people that lasted two thousand years.
Christianity has violated all the Six Commandments of Adam. In her relationship with Judaism, she has transgressed all the Commandments between Man and Fellowman. To atone for her mistreating Israel, Christianity has to –
Recognize her transgressions one by one in details
Ask forgiveness from the offended one – Israel
Then face God’s judgment
Thus In order to atone Her sins against Judaism Christianity has to admit her
IDOLATRY – Their violation of God’s Oneness
ADULTERY – Ask forgiveness for raping during the numerous attacks on Jewish communities
BLOODSHED – so much Jewish blood was shed in vain during the last two thousand years, especially by the crusaders, by the Spanish inquisition, by the Ukraine revolt in 1660 and by various pogroms and blood liables up to the holocaust.
THEFT – Beside stealing Jewish properties, Christianity has to admit staling the Bible and distorted it to justify its theology. They need to admit cutting out words and replacing them with other words. Such as cutting out the word for a young lady, Alma, and replacing it with Betulah, a virgin. Or taking a whole section out of its context and relating it to the Messiah. Such as taking the story of the boy called Immanuel and relating it to their Messiah. Or simply quoting ideas from the Bible that in fact aren’t there at all. They have to apologize for stealing the name Messiah for their Cosmic figure which they call Messiah. They also stole the very name Israel for themselves.
And they should ask forgiveness for the injustice and lies they have perpetrated against the Jews.
They should also ask Israel for forgiveness for removing Israel from normal human society and making them live in a constant fear for their lives. Moreover, to repent, Christianity must tell the story in detail – in the ears of the offended ones – Israel.
There is only one person who has done just that – telling s the full story of the Church opposite Israel in the open with much currage
I’m reffering to James Carrol and his book Constantine’s Sword. Jams is a high level Catholic priest who was close to the Vatican. What led him to write about mistreatment of the Jews by the church was the Holocaust. As he says, that made him realize that the story of the Jews is at the core of civilization.
James Carrol took a sabbatical
at Harvard University, where he gathered all the related sources oof the subject then wrote a book on which the experts in Harvard say that no such book has ever been written over the last two thousands years.
In the Book, James Carrol tells the sad story of the Church and the Jews, beginning with the false account of Jesus trial till our very days, including Vatican I and II. In this book he counts step by step the deterioration of the Church attitude towards the Jews till the Holocaust.
The relation started with St. Augustine who wrote that the Jews should be kept alive but outside regular society.
They should live in ghettos, engage only in demeaning s occupations such as lending money at interest, they should be denied the right to purchase land and farm it, the right to be members of professional guilds, or be admitted to universities.
Over the medieval years Jewish life has become precarious. The Crusades hit them hard, and hundreds of communities were destroyed, thousands murdered or baptized by force. Many committed suicide.
From that point their situation worsened even more in Spain, through coercion to convert to Christianity until the final deportation. The inquisition burnt many converts alive as if the mere conversion was not enough. Says James Carrol – for the first time the issue of the Jewish race became a target of hatred, leading to the racial hatred of Nazi Germany.
By writing his book, James Carrol has fulfilled Isiah words –
Let’s read Isaiah chapter 53
New International Version
53 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was injured for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
—–
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.[
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Footnotes
Rashi explains “The Suffering Servant “ as referring to Israel
Based on Isiah 49
And he said to me you are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified (49: 3)
Those are the words of the nations as they recognize that the Servant of G-d, Israel, has been rendered a periah, a figure with no dignity and out of society.
But his bad status and look are our own deeds, the nations would say.
Hence, according to Isiah, Mankind would not progress, not see the Messiah unless they admit their mistreatment of the Jewish people and ask forgiveness from them.
Only then they may stand before Hashem in Judgement.
The pope.
There are mystical interpretations to the verses that we’ll discuss along with the Mystic Messiah
יום כיפור הוא שלב במהלך ההסטורי לסוף הימים
כי ר״ה הוא יום שבו נשפט העולם אם אכן התקדם להיות טוב מאד
ויום הכיפורים מאפשר התקדמות כזאת כי אחרת היינו מזמן יוצאים חייבים
מכאן שיום הכפורים נקבע לפני בריאת האדם – או העולם – כי הרי בתחילה עלה במחשבתו לברא במידת הדין ואז משראה שאין העולם יעמד בדין שיתף עמו מידת הרחמים
ומידת הרחמים בגן העדן קראה לאדם אייכה, כלומר הציעה לו את התשובה
מי יסלח? הסליחה היא לא מצד מידת הרחמים – שמציעה תשובה- אלא מצד הוויה גבוהה יותר – הבינה
הבינה היא כולה טוב, ולא רחמים