Читать книгу The Jewish Religion, Ethically Presented - Henry Pereira Mendes - Страница 20
ОглавлениеTHE DAY OF ATONEMENT (KIPPUR).
1. The Day of Atonement is called in Hebrew Yom Kippur.
2. It is the day on which we solemnly ask pardon from God for sins which we have committed against Him.
3. Pardon is granted to us for those sins only when God, who knows our hearts, sees that our repentence is sincere.
4. On Yom Kippur we do not obtain pardon for sins committed against our fellow-being unless we have righted any wrong we have done to him.
5. We fast on the Day of Atonement.
6. We fast in order to humble ourselves before God, to realize how dependent we are upon Him for food, and therefore for life, and to learn to restrain earthly desires.
*7. “Fasting” in Hebrew is called “afflicting the soul.”
8. We must be conscious of deep remorse for having offended God in the past year by any wrong-doing to Him or to our neighbor by word, deed or thought, and must make a sincere confession of our faults.
9. Remorse, or real sorrow for sin committed, is the beginning of repentance. To be complete, it must be followed by amendment of our conduct.
10. We pray for pardon for ourselves and for all Israel. Hence our confession includes sins which others have committed.
11. Atoning to God for our sins by offering to Him our contrite heart and sincere promise of amendment, makes us “at one” with Him. This “at-one-ment,” or being “at one” with God, is the source of consolation and strength to the truly religious man or woman at all times.
12. Our sins separate us from God.
13. To be separated through our own fault from those whom we love, is always a source of deep sorrow, and we try to become reconciled. How much greater should be our sorrow when our faults separate us from God, and how much more should we try to be at one with Him again!
14. God invites us to repent. He promises pardon if we do. He declares that He delights in pardoning the penitent.
BIBLE QUOTATIONS.
2. For on this day he shall make an atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins; before the Lord ye shall be cleansed.—Levit. xvi, 30.
3. I, the Lord, search the heart; I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings.—Jerem. xvii, 10.
4. If a soul sin ... then it shall be, because he hath sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he robbed or that which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was confided to him, or the lost thing which he hath found, or all that about which he hath sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in the principal and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it to him to whom it belongeth, in the day of his trespass-offering.—Levit. vi, 2-5.
5. And ye shall have on the tenth day of this seventh month a holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls; ye shall not do any work thereon.—Numbers xxix, 7.
7. Is it such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul?—Isa. lviii, 5.
8. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.—Psalm xxxiv, 17.
I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess mine transgressions unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.—Psalm xxxii, 5.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving kindness; according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.—Psalm li. 1.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.—Psalm li, 2.
For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.—Psalm li, 3.
9. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.—Psalm li, 17.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.—Psalm li, 10.
Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.—Psalm li, 11.
10. And Moses returned to the Lord and said, O this people have sinned a great sin .... And now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin.—Exod. xxxii, 31-32.
Pardon, I beseech Thee, the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt and even until now.—Numbers xiv, 19.
God be merciful unto us.—Psalm lxvii, 1.
11. Happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.—Psalm xxxii, 1.
Happy is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.—Psalm xxxii, 2.
Thou, O Lord, hast helped me and consoled me.—Psalm lxxxvi, 17.
I lift mine eyes unto the mountains, whence cometh my help?—Psalm cxxi, 1.
My help is from the Lord who made heaven and earth.—Psalm cxxi, 2.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the man of iniquity his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.—Isa. lv, 7.
12. Your iniquities separate between you and your God, and your sins hide His face from you, that He will not hear.—Isa. lix, 2.
Your sins withhold good from you.—Jerem. v, 25.
13. O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee; my soul thirsteth for Thee; my whole being longeth for Thee.—Psalm lxiii, i.
14. If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.—Ezek. xviii, 21.
All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him; in his righteousness that he doeth, he shall live.—Ezek. xviii, 22.
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God, and not that he should turn from his ways, and live?—Ezek. xviii, 23.
