8. The Mishna gives very strict rules for the fasting of the people. In the law itself no express mention is made of abstinence from food ; but it is most likely im- plied in the command that the people were "to afflict their souls." According to Yoma, every Jew (except invalids, and children under thirteen years of age) is forbidden to eat anything so large as a date, to drink, or to wash from sunset to sunset.— Smith, s. v.
VI. On the Scape-goat, see Azazel.
VII. Modern Observance of /he Day. — The day pre- vious to the day of expiation, the strict class of Jews provide a cock, which they send to an inferior rabbi to be slain ; the person whose property it is then takes the fowl by the legs, and with uplifted hands swings it nine times over the heads of himself and his com- pany, and at the same time prays to God that the sins they have been guilty of during the year may enter into the fowl. This cock, which they call (Tn&3 (pardon, atonement), seems to be substituted for the scape-goat of old. They then take the fowl and give it to the poor to eat, with a donation according to their means. On the same evening, one hour before syn- agogue service, the}- partake of a sumptuous feast, which they call taking their fast, after which the}- go to the synagogue. In the great synagogue in L< n- don, the clerk stands up in the midst, where a large stage is erected for the accommodation of the singers, who chant the customary prayers. The clerk offers up a blessing, and afterward the free-gift offering. Every man, according to his capacity (but it is not compulsory), gives a sum, which is offered up, and in- serted in a book kept for that purpose. Most of the Jews endeavor on this occasion to provide themselves with the best apparel, as they say they appear before the King of kings to have their final doom settled upon them. Then begins the evening prayer of the fast, when the reader and chief rabbi, and many of the congregation, are clad with the shroud in which they are to be buried, continuing in prayer and supplication for upward of three hours. There are many who will stand upon one spot from the ninth day (of Tisri) at even until the tenth day at even ; and when the ser- vice is ended on the ninth eve, those who return home ro their dwellings come again in the morning at five o'clock, and continue until dark, observing the follow- ing order: First are said the morning prayers, which commence as soon as they come to the synagogue. After saying the usual prayers and supplications pe- culiar to the day, they then take forth the Law, and read the portion Lev. xvi ; the mopkter (a certain por- tion of the Law so named by the Jews) is Num. xxix, 7-11 ; the portion from the prophets from Isa. lvii, 14, to the end of chap, lviii. They then say the prayer for the prosperity of the government under which they dwell, and then put the Law into the ark again, which ends the morning prayer, after having continued for six hours without intermission. They next say the prayer of the masoph (i. e. " addition"), which makes mention of the additional sacrilice of the day (Num. xxix, 7), and supplicates the Almighty to be propi-
tious to them. They finally say the offering of the day from Num. xxix, 7-27. They abstain from food altogether during the day. For many more ceremo- nies observed among the present Jews on the Day of Atonement, see Picard, Ceremonies et Coutumes Jieii- (ji< uses, etc. t. i, c. 6, p. 18.
VIII. Typical Import of the Entire Observance.— As it might be supposed, the Talmudists miserably de- graded the meaning of the Day of Atonement. They regarded it as an opportunity afforded them of wiping off the score of their more heavy offences. Thus Yoma (cap. viii) says, "The day of atonement and death make atonement through penitence. Penitence itself makes atonement for slight transgressions, and in the case of grosser sins it obtains a respite until the com- ing of the Day of Atonement, which completes the reconciliation." More authorities to the same general purpose are quoted by Frischmuth (p. 917), some of which seem also to indicate that the peculiar atoning virtue of the day was supposed to rest in the scape- goat. Philo (Lib. de Stptenario) regarded the day in a far nobler light. He speaks of it as an occasion for the discipline of self-restraint in regard to bodily indul- gence, and for bringing home to our minds the truth that man does not live by bread alone, but by what- ever God is pleased to appoint. The prayers proper for the day, he says, are those for forgiveness of sins past and for amendment of life in future, to be offered in dependence, not on our own merits, but on the good- ness of God. It cannot be doubted that what especial- ly distinguished the symbolical expiation of this day from that of the other services of the law was its broad and national character, with perhaps a deeper refer- ence to the sin which belongs to the nature of man. Ewald instructively remarks that, though the least un- cleanness of an individual might be atoned by the rites of the law which could be observed at other times, there was a consciousness of secret and indefinite sin pervading the congregation which was aptly met by this great annual fast. Hence, in its national char- acter, he sees an antithesis between it and the Pass- over, the great festival of social life ; and in its aton- ing significance, he regards it as a fit preparation for the rejoicing at the ingathering of the fruits of the earth in the Feast of Tabernacles. Philo looked upon its position in the Jewish calendar in the same light.