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THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE LITURGY OF YOM KIPPUR Joseph Tabory Yom Kippur1 is arguably the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. It is possibly second only to the Passover Seder in the prevalence of its observance in modern Judaism. The popular observance of the day centers on two motifs: one of omission and one of commission. Omis- sion consists of the cessation of normal activities, including eating and drinking. The motif of commission focuses on spending most of the day in the synagogue, engaged in prayer and ritual. The two motifs are not necessarily connected. Some people fast and refrain from work but neither attend the synagogue nor pray at home, while others spend the day in prayer and ritual but do not fast, for health or other rea- sons. In this article, I will portray the early history of Yom Kippur as a day of prayer and ritual, starting with the earliest sources and continuing until the close of the talmudic period, with some overlap into the ga’onic period. It is a pleasure to offer this article as a tribute to a colleague, Menahem Schmelzer, who is a scholar and student of prayer and has made his own contribution to the study of the liturgy of Yom Kippur.2 Although the observance of Yom Kippur as a day of prayer and ritual in the synagogue is such a major feature of the day in modern 1 This day is referred to in the Torah as Yom ha-kipurim (Lev 3:27) or Yom kipurim (Lev 3:28), which is commonly translated as “Day of Atonement” (NJPS and other English translations; it is rendered in a similar fashion already in the Septuagint which translates “Day of Expiation”). Milgrom translates “Day of Purgation” ( Jacob Mil- grom, Leviticus 23–27: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008). The literature of the sages seems to be consistent in the use of the biblical term for this day. It is only in post-talmudic sources that we find the shortened form, Yom Kippur, which has been adopted into modern languages. 2 See his articles “How Was the High Priest Kept Awake on the Night of Yom Ha-Kippurim?,” Saul Lieberman (1893–1983): Talmudic Scholar and Classicist, ed. Meir Lubetski (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002), 59–70; and “Penitence, Prayer, and (Charity?),” Minah le-Naum: Biblical and Other Studies Presented to Nahum M. Sarna in Honour of His 70th Birthday, ed. M. Brettler and M. Fishbane, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 154 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993): 291–299. Both are reprinted in Menahem Schmelzer, Studies in Jewish Bibliography and Medieval Jewish Poetry (New York: JTS Press, 2006), 209*–229*. 284 joseph tabory times, this would not seem obvious from an analysis of the passages in the Torah that refer to Yom Kippur (Lev 15:29–34; 23:24–32; Num 29:7–11). Although the observance of the day as prescribed in the Torah also focuses on two themes, one of omission and one of com- mission, the theme of commission is very different from the modern concept of the ritual of Yom Kippur. Instead of the day being one of communal prayer in the synagogue, the ritual focuses on the rite con- ducted by a single person, the high priest, in the temple. It is not sur- prising that this is also true of Yom Kippur as prescribed in the Temple Scroll. In this context, the report in the Mishnah of the vigil conducted by the high priest during the night of Yom Kippur is remarkable. He stayed awake during that night, attended by priestly elders. However, the night was not spent in prayer but in study. The Bible was read or expounded. The Mishnah specifies that they would read from the books of Job, Ezra, and Chronicles (m. Yoma 1:1). The only mention of prayer connected with the ritual, other than the confessions of sin prescribed by the Torah, is the report that the high priest prayed a short prayer in the holy of holies (m. Yoma 5:1). Neither the text of this prayer nor its general content is mentioned in the Mishnah.3 The only other connection with modern ritual was the reading of the Torah’s prescriptions for Yom Kippur, accompanied by appropriate blessings, which took place during a break in the sacrificial ritual (m. Yoma 7:1). The significance of the lack of evidence for the observance of Yom Kippur as a day of prayer is compounded by the Mishnah’s report of what people did on that day. A great number of people spent it observing the high priest conducting the sacrificial ritual in the temple. The Mishnah reports that early in the morning, even before the cock crowed, the temple court was filled with people who came to watch the service (m. Yoma 1:8). The observation of the ritual was of such great import that the Mishnah thought it necessary to remark that when two events of the ritual took place at the same time, observers could not be present at both. The two events referred to here are the read- ing of the Torah, mentioned above, which took place in the temple court, and the burning of the flesh of the bull and of the goat, which took place on the Mount of Olives. Some people went to observe 3 For a description of this prayer in later sources, see J. Tabory, “The Prayer of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement in Piyyut and Prayer” [Hebrew], Piyyut in Tradi- tion 2, ed. Binyamin Bar Tikva and Ephraim Hazan (Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2000), 55–82..

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