Literary critic Adam Kirsch is reading a page of Talmud a day, along with Jews around the world.
The conclusion of Tractate Yoma this week brought Daf Yomi readers face to face with the heart of Yom Kippur: repentance. For months now, we have learned about the color of the high priest’s robes and how to sacrifice a goat to Azazel. Most of these matters concern the ordinary Jew not at all, and the overall picture of Yom Kippur that one gets from the Talmud feels very far from the holiday as we experience it today. But now, at the culmination of the whole tractate, the rabbis zero in on the spiritual and ethical questions that concern us most. How exactly does Yom Kippur achieve atonement for our sins? What steps must we take to show that repentance is sincere?
Continue reading "In the Talmud, One Sin Is Beyond Repentance: Giving Jews a Bad Name" at...
From Tablet Magazine
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