This year's 10-Minute Torah for Yom Kippur 5782 (September 16, 2021):

https://youtu.be/aG1Io4VJwKc

Yom Kippur 2021 / יוֹם כִּפּוּר 5782

Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) for Hebrew Year 5782 begins at sundown on Wednesday, 15 September 2021 and ends at nightfall on Thursday, 16 September 2021.

Yom Kippur (Hebrew: יוֹם כִּפּוּר or יום הכיפורים), Also known as Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year for the Jews. Its central themes are atonement and repentance. Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a 25-hour period of fasting and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services. Yom Kippur completes the annual period known in Judaism as the High Holy Days (or sometimes "the Days of Awe").

Yom Kippur / יוֹם כִּפּוּר Thursday, 16 September 2021 / 10 Tishrei 5782

Torah Portion: Leviticus 16:1-34; Numbers 29:7-11

1: Leviticus 16:1-6 · 6 p’sukim

2: Leviticus 16:7-11 · 5 p’sukim

3: Leviticus 16:12-17 · 6 p’sukim

4: Leviticus 16:18-24 · 7 p’sukim

5: Leviticus 16:25-30 · 6 p’sukim

6: Leviticus 16:31-34 · 4 p’sukim

maf: Numbers 29:7-11 · 5 p’sukim

Haftarah: Isaiah 57:14 - 58:14 · 22 p’sukim

The Torah reading for Yom Kippur Shacharit picks up after the death of Nadav and Abihu, Aaron’s two sons who entered the Holy of Holies during a time not proscribed by Hashem. The Cohen Gadol, High Priest, now gets specific directions when and how to come into the innermost sanctum of the Mishkan.

The High Priest is to come into the Holy of Holies after he has made his own offerings for his own sins. He is to remove any golden vestments and be dressed only in clothes of simple white linen after he has bathed in the mikveh. He is to take a pan of burning incense. He makes atonement for the Children of Israel. This is the only time of the year that he is to use the true pronunciation of the holy Name of Hashem.

He is to then take two goats. He will determine by lot which is sacrificed as an offering of atonement for the community, and which is to be sent off into the wilderness for Azazel. This latter is a symbolic gesture for casting off everyone’s sins. The term “Azazel” or “scapegoat” has been rendered as “dismissal”; it has also been translated as the “strength of G-d”. It has also been translated as “steep mountain” in later days as the custom became to send the goat over a cliff to its death as another offering.

After offering the goat and sprinkling some of its blood on the horns of the alter, he will remove his garments and bathe in the mikveh. As the priest puts his hands of the goat, he confesses various transgressions on behalf of Israel. He confesses iniquities (עון), which are willful departures from Torah and only forgivable on Yom Kippur; transgressions ( פשע), rebellions; and sins (חטא), sins or unintentional deviations.

Finally, this is to be a statute forever. This is a Shabbat of solemn rest. We are to afflict our souls, interpreted as fasting and denial of gratification. This demonstrates to us that we can, indeed, conquer our own temptations that lead to sin, and demonstrates our resolve to do better in the coming year.

Yom Kippur (Mincha) / יוֹם כִּפּוּר מנחה

Torah Portion: Leviticus 18:1-30

1: Leviticus 18:1-5 · 5 p’sukim

2: Leviticus 18:6-21 · 16 p’sukim

3: Leviticus 18:22-30 · 9 p’sukim

Haftarah: Jonah 1:1-4:11; Micah 7:18-20 · 51 p’sukim

This important passage addresses moral and social purity. It gives precedence to the institution of marriage and the family as sacred; the home is the basis of learning morality, and thus should our relationships be pure. Marriage is sacred in Judaism. The husband, during the wedding ceremony, pledges to love his wife as himself and honor her more than himself.

This chapter addresses the prohibitions of specific relationships and enumerates forbidden relationships. As other pagan societies had no restraints and engaged in immoral practices, by abstaining from these relationships Israel would be a spiritually clean and just society. This chapter prohibits relations between blood relations and cases of affinity.

We are also admonished not to “pass our children through fire for Molech”, a warning against child sacrifice.