Yom Kippur as Passavor

Original Article  2009

By

Sampson Iroabuchi Onwuka

Imagine yourself in a classroom taking a final exam and in one of the questions you are asked to choose between two solstice right for an Exodus from Egypt, bearing in mind that the sea is supposed to have parted and people crossed on fairly dry land,

a, the solstice of spring that take place in the last week of March of every year, when the seas are open, calm, and gentle, followed by a solstice of Summer when the seas are much gentle.

B, solstice of autumn that take place in the last week of September when the wind is getting frigid, the sea restless, uncertain and cold, followed by a solstice of winter when the sea is rough and turbulent.

Mind you that the Passover supposedly set in memory of Exodus from Egypt in current tradition is March and Yom Kippur supposedly 'day of atonement' in current tradition is September

Many people will give the answer (b) and the most probable answer is (b). The choice without doubt is the simplest answer anyone could possibly imagine unless you are Jewish. If you are Jewish and you answer (b) I can say, may this be your last Yom Kippur as the 'day of atonement' and 'purification of Synagogue' because Yom Kippur is the beginning of the Jewish year and the time the Exodus took place and not the Day of Atonement. If your answer is (b) you are saying effectively that the parting of the Sea of Reeds as we read in the Bible book of Exodus most probably occurred during the Yom Kippur (September ending/Oct) at the behest of autumn solstice and not during the so-called Passover which in ancient times take place during the spring solstice, a solstice that mark the beginning of the Bailey season in Palestine.

 

The setting of the above question and answer is seriously based on a quotation I came across in a Book by Jerome Murphy titled 'Paul; A critical life', where he highlighted the dangerous sea voyage of Paul in one his travels. That "the danger of winter travel in the eastern Mediterranean is underlined by Luke, 'the voyage was already dangerous because the fast (i.e., Yom Kippur, celebrated near the autumnal equinox) was already over (Acts 27; 9; cf.28; 11). Pliny makes the same point more succinctly 'spring opens the sea to voyagers' (NH2. 122).".... Jerome Murphy also made especial reference to Dio Cassius that 'if anyone ever risked a voyage at that season (winter) he was sure to meet with disaster'"...this according to him was also confirmed by Suetonius in recounting the sea ordeals of a certain Claudius who was emperor of Rome.

 

These lines affect our knowledge of the whole Exodus episode, and by that I mean that the perfect knowledge of the air waves rattling the sea in autumn would have forced any possible action of departure of the Israelites from Egypt. The escape theory postulated by many Biblical archeologists, at least at the beginning years of Israeli life, will make a lot of sense given the idea behind the movement from Egypt by Moses and his people. It is now clear to me that the Moses knew what he was doing when he decided to depart from among the Egyptian in the time of autumn season leading to winter. He was aware of the wind effect and the careful manipulation of the sea and the need for the strong hands of God to truly unleash the drowning waves. Winter shuts down the sea, and in autumn the cold air and the uncertainty of wind force be-devils the waters. The autumn also begins exactly at the appearance of the new moon which in times past may have meant more than public sacrifice of sheep. The relationship between spring/ summer solstice and autumn/winter solstice is that one of the solstice calms the sea and the other sparks the sea. According to Exodus, there is a whole day gap between the Israelites who crossed the sea of Reeds and the Egyptians who pursued after them. The number of these Israelites may probably be in the neighborhood of 600, and based on Egyptian text as we are told, 600 or thereafter about is a number for wilderness retreat.

 

As such the mighty arms of God in Egypt in terms of pestilence became an excuse to appease God by all asunder, an excuse Israelites capitalized on. With the retreat setting on for the new moon, the Israelites crossed the sea of Reeds by night of the last summer day. The Egyptians probably heard about it and then chased after them and then came the Solstice of autumn that forced the rippling of the sea and the waters covered them who came after. It is also possible that by horse the Egyptians might have reached Israelites, suggesting that the horses were few in number and that obstacles accepted as miracles also took place.

 

The Passover in whatever form we assume it, cannot take the fanciful shape of Exodus as we know it, as such the claim that such an occasion occurred at the end of the month of March is a serious error that Rabbis of Jewish essence would have corrected if they knew the actual meaning of the word Yom Kippur. I guess they don't know the meaning of Yom Kippur since many of them were Ashkenazi Jews. We may gaze upon the facts of current day of atonement too much on the ground, which may force us to reject the temptation to accept the occasion as wrongful, but here in Nigerian Igbo language we learn something new, that the Yom Kippur as we call it is nothing else than 'Y-owwa Kippuru' which refers to the month you departed. In many ways therefore, Yom Kippur is the old name of Exodus, a kind of departure akin to separation. Exodus, which is not a Hebrew word by itself still speak of the departure of any people from any place but we dealing with Hebrew language is it's evident form. There is a greater need to conduct a more useful research on the relevance of this Igbo word Yoma;Y-owwa Kippuru to our knowledge of Yom Kip-Purim. The occasion is in many ways fraught with error.

 

The reason for this introduction to the subject is that human beings are likely to believe anything they want, because they were meant to believe in it. This is in fact the case with all facts and sometimes all Faith, including scientific fact, that unless we learn new things around the subject of interest, there is no way we can eagerly proceed. William James once hinted that "we can be right, at any moment, only 'up to date' and 'on the whole' "...."subject to the better insight of the morrow". Perhaps a favorite quotation of mine by Theordor Herzl Gaster will do much better that "our knowledge of the remote past increases with new discoveries from day to day, so that the conclusions at which scholars have arrived on the basis of material at present available may have to be modified in the future" from his book 'Passover, its history and traditions', including the citations on William James.

 

For nearly 200 years, Jews all over the world celebrate the 'day of atonement' on the Yom Kippur, the day and date in question upon which the rest of their sins are to be purged. This is called the Day of Judgment, when the most high priest enters the holy of holies carrying the sins of Israel to atone for them as if he was the sheep for the sacrifice.

 

In many ways, this is the current and lasting picture of the ceremony in question, except that it mirrors what is supposed to happen in first day of the New moon of Pesah/Paschal...if at all there is such a name for a month.

 

What we find is that current Jewish calendar is wrong in its rendition, that is to say that the current Jewish calendar speak of Nisan as March/April and Tishri as September/October and April/May as Iyyah. Iyyah ideally refers to Inyinya in Igbo, unless we are looking at the mistake from Hebrew lectionaries, then Iyyah is closer to the Igbo word Inyinya&;Iyiya (Inyanya) which means the Horse, and altogether feed the facts of the Iyyah month as December as in the sign of Horse/the Sagittarius. The Sagittarius is by above example the actual month called Iyyah seventh away from the current Jewish Calender. Yet still, such case can be made using the 7 months of separation in current recycle of Jewish Calender. The name Iyya is entirely feminine in Nigerian Igbo and could not have been the month of say April, yet we learn from 2 Maccabees 10.1-2, 5-7; 1.1-2, 10, 18 of the command of the so-called Judah Maccabees saying that "see that you keep the feast of Tabernacles in the month Kislev....where as we are now about to celebrate the 'purification of the temple' in the month Kislev, on the five and twenty day, we deem it our duty to inform you, that you too may keep the feast of the Tabernacles." Here in this piece, almost word for word, the feast of Tabernacles is the feast of purification of the temple. This issue of the 'temple purification' in the month of Chislev or Kislev has troubled many Jewish scholars.

 

Philip Goodman in his book (Sukkoth and Simhat) found the above quotation troubling, so did Jonathan A. Goldstein, who in his commentary on 'II Maccabees' provided examples of other scholars of Jewish recued who seem puzzled by the rather bizarre mention of 25th day of Chislev in the accounts of feast of Tabernacles and purification of the Temple. In his review of the above quotation Goldstein mentioned that "the history of the time and even the text in its present defective state offer clues to what the intact original has been. The naming of the Feast of purification as the "Days of Tabernacles in the month of Kislev" was puzzling, and so was the eight day duration of the celebration. The author of School. Megillat Ta'anit 25 kislev also found the eight days difficult."

 

It must be noted that Chislev in current Jewish calendar is November/December and the Twenty five of Chislev is accepted as the day of Christmas (25th of December) in current Jewish calendar and it is called the Hanukkah. What is wrong about this is that Chislev is rooted in Nigerian Igbo language as Chile. At least several Hebrew sources call it Chile' showing an affinity with the Nigerian Igbo language and pun on 'v' as in 'h'. For the second time, I shall use metathesis as a part of speech, suggesting that Chile is really two words in Igbo 'chi' 'le' and is probably pronounced right to left. In the place of Chi'leh, we can simply obtain Leh' Chi or Lechi, which in current Igbo is nothing but Ele'-chi. Ele'-chi is a male name and a common Igbo name for the 'antelope of God' or 'Ram of God'. In many ways, it chimes entirely with the month of April as the month of the Ram, or perhaps Bull, but in Igbo Egela is a female Calf, as such the confusion with the Chislev is that current Jews didn't know what the name of the Calendar month Chislev simply means.

 

The whole anomaly with Hebrew interpretation of Nisan and Iyyah as March/April, April/May seem to have caused the confusion in the dates concerned. There is in fact nothing wrong with the 2nd Maccabees when Chislev is mentioned as the month of tabernacle feast since this would be the exact month of Ram leading to May. Chislev is the month of the Ram or most probably the Bull. In current Calendar Western Calendar it will be April/May and as such seven months behind the current Jewish calendar. I discovered this connection of Chislev to Chile by applying the separation of the seventh months of mistake which I have in the past noticed from Zechariah 7;5, that we might be looking at the clue to the rest of the Calendar and ceremony. And from the account of the ceremony in Zechariah 7;5 that suggested the 7th month as the month of the purification of the temple and atonement, I seem to relapse into the fact that the day of atonement celebrated in the first month is actually the seventh and the month of Nisan which is supposedly the First month occupy a pre-meditated position as the seventh month forcing the whole misinterpretation of Calendar and ceremony in today's Jewish Society. If you add seven months to the first month of the year - argued by some Jews as right atonement month - you are likely to get something of the month of Tislev/Kislev/Chislev.

 

The difference in current Jewish calendar mistake is like seven months of separation and that would mean my saying that current month of Nisan is like seven months ahead of the current Jewish calendar and should chime in with the first month of the Jewish calendar as the seventh month. It will also mean, that the recurrent month of Tishri as the seventh month is entirely accurate to the degree that Tishri is not the first month of Jewish calendar that it is issue concerning the seventh month as Tishri and the confusion with it may have added color to the faith that Tishri is the month of Tabernacles. Chislev, which is supposedly November/December may actually be seven months ahead. For that the Jewish resolution on December 25th as Hanukkah is in actual practice wrong. November 25th is the right-on date for Hanukkah, going entirely by current Jewish calendar. It will also mean that Hanukkah which is the 'dedication of the temple' with direct emphasis on the Jewish wars lead by Judas Maccabees against Antiochus IV, may have truly been the 'Feast of Tabernacles' which is equally noted to exist as the 'dedication of the temple' on what is now Hanukkah. All these examples chime in on the fact that the Hanukkah refers to Temple dedication, and refers to Temple purification and feast of Tabernacles, done on 25th of Chislev and never to be confused with the Passover, which as I have demonstrated is nothing more than the feast of departures, that is Yom Kippur (in Nigerian Igbo Y-owwa Kippuru/meaning the 'month you departed').

 

Yom Kippur ends the one "Week feast of unleavened" that marked the occasion of our departure from Egypt and the beginning of Ro-sh Hashanna (In Nigerian Igbo/Aro-shi/Aro-chi) meaning "the year of lord." If Chislev, by older Hebrew Kislev, is in Nigerian Igbo language Chile and through Metathesis 'le'chi/Elechi' (for right to left is how you read Hebrew) meaning the "ram of God", then the current Calender is the major mistake and that mistake is by 7 months stretch and can be corrected using what is now Igbo language. Further prove of the anomaly with Jewish calendar is the fact that Nisan in olden times is supposed to be the first month of Jewish year. Then we can accept that Yom Kippur which is supposedly celebrated on the first month of the very Jewish year - known to us as Rosh Ha Shana/New Year - could not have been the right day for day of atonement since atonement in the Bible is done on the seventh month of the Jewish Calendar. Secondly the first month in Jewish Calendar cannot be the Tishri, since we can add the seven months gap to Yom Kippur kept in September/October as the beginning of Jewish year, and we will precisely get the March/April date and possible April as the right month for temple purification and day of atonement with Yom Kippur coming seventh earlier as the Exodus and departure date confined to the First Month of Jewish Year.

 

The confusion is very modern in essence and we can refer to other instances of such confusion in the study of Hebrew. There is the case we have made for Rosh Hashanah and Chislev, which are rooted in Igbo language and can be used to help us better understand the current Jewish calendar and the Jewish practices. We can further clarify the issue at hand by mentioning the presence of Hanukkah in this Chislev and how it burrows into Jewish practice. For instance, Hanukkah is interpreted as the "dedication of the Temple" perhaps in keeping to the tenet of temple sacrifice. We can improve our position on this whole thing with quotations from J. A Emerton's essay titled 'Hebrew' on the Oxford Essential Guide to Ideas and Issues of the Bible P.194, where some consonants like H is also equal to vowels like a, o, and e.

 

We can presume that the Hanukkah is more to so Annuka is actual lettering, and that Hanukkah is just another Hebrew for Honnuka given the derivative vowel. Honnuka is therefore perhaps the same in meaning as Hanukkah and may not be mistaken as 'Onwuka', which refers to "dedication of the temple". Here the Nigerian Igbo language comes to the rescue once more because of the presence of the word 'Onwuka' in the language, meaning 'conscious sacrifice' like a voluntary suicide reserved for soldiers willing to give their life than face the defeat of his people. It is also a role reserved for suffering servants of God in the Bible, willing to take upon them the sins of Israel like the one we find in Isaiah 53, who was placed the sins of Israel. A back drop to this fact is located in Japanese Sepuka, which involves the voluntary death. Memuca is a name familiar with Bible readers and Esther, but the Persians reserve the title for Priest willing to die for righteousness and for the King and for Assyria. In the Bible we read of 'throat' as open Sepulcher/Sepuca, that is what happens when the lamb is severed in the temple and blood which is life is poured out on the altar. Here the sins of Israel is purged. The connection of this practice 'Hanukkah' to Christ may have been the inspiration for calling 25th of December as the 25th of Chislev. But Christ as Hanukkah is merely in practice as in the Lamb, but in reality, it was not entirely a unique undertaking.

 

There is nothing Hebrew about the above word 'Yom Kippur' that refers to 'a day of atonement'. It was said that it is a day of fasting and dedication usually in concert with other occasion of fasting leading to the day. The interpretation of 'Yom Kippur' is based on other matters arising from the dedication of the temple during the time of Ezra, but then the books of Ezra and Nehemiah made enough emphasis on what happened in the that 'day of days' concerning the sins of Israel. The tilt of the confessional exercise and purification exercise is intended as a stage in rebuilding of the 'temple' or 're-dedication of the Synagogue' concerning the returnees, that is when the captives of Israel returned from Babylon. Current Israelites are probably confusing the issue of accounting as done during the purification of the Synagogue with whole issue of captives returning, which some may see as a replica of the incident of Egypt. It is not.

 

 It will appear that the Talmudic Rabbis who inherited some of the tradition directly from older sources may have themselves given an added impetus to such an occasion of temple cleansing and re-dedication of Israel, but the attention is so proper that there is never a doubt that the Yom Kippur (the real Exodus) is the Passover, the occasion so to speak before the Laws of God where given to Moses, an occasion completely different from the 'day of atonement' which came after the Laws of God.

 

Yet much of the school of interpretation available at some point in Spain could not maintain the link with the more ancient interpretation of the ceremony given the terrible incident of 1492. The Jews continued with the problem of expulsion in many parts of the world and they themselves adjusted to half trained priest and acculturate to the society in Europe in which they found themselves. In many ways, the returnee Jews from Ashkenazi could not have been the best people to truly interpret the very wordings of the Hebrew in its actual organic form. This aspect of poor interpretation of the very words of the Hebrew found in the Bible, and adding the marriage of Judeo-Christian tradition may have endowed the subjected Jewish Festival known as the Yom Kippur.

 

Yom Kippur in practice is based on the incident of Zechariah 7; 5 and other portions where the name 'Yoma kippurim' appeared. If we are to pretend that we are not aware of this whole mistake then, and may look at the Bible quotation in Zechariah 7;5 and Zechariah from beginning to the end, we are easily aware of the problem of the shortfalls in tradition and how we keep up to it. By reading the Bible, you should be able to see that the bible book of Leviticus 16 which Jewish scholars claim refer to the day of affliction and the day you purify yourself, that a hole in the argument and practice widens given. The day in question which appeared also in Zechariah 7, in keeping with other parts of the Bible indicate that it is a day when 'rites of expiation' are performed and a lamb sacrificed. Matters concerning this day of affliction reflect a purity exercise among the Jews, an exercise that deal eloquently on the very needs of cleaning the temple or purifying the people towards such an occasion. There is nothing in the above Leviticus 16 to Zechariah 7 that mentions the day as a day of judgment or a day of accounting as Yom Kippur, except for the emphasis on the sins of Israel which on the said occasion the priest in charge elaborates after which he enters the inner sanctuary carrying the sins of the people.

 

In place of such adoption of the sins of the people, we shall find activities regarding the purification of the temple which in terms past could have been any relation to the very Passover. In all probability, there is something wrong with the idea that Yom Kippur which is a day of Passover regarding the beginning of Jewish year, should rather be a day of accounting, when by the very interpretation of the practice the Israelites were just beginning to depart from among the so-called Egyptians. There is something wrong with the idea that you are forced to account for your sins you have not technically committed, is like going to secular court where you are sentenced by the Chief Justice for breaking a law that is yet enacted. This is what is like when we celebrate Passover in March/April Calendar and atonement in September/October. The probability that the role of Judges in secular Justice department are much the same as those role of High priest is quite reasonable, since we can suggest that both in question respectively proclaim the crimes and sins of the people and work to remove it.

That the whole issue concerning the departure of the people of Israel is an occasion askew to the very ceremony we note for Passover. More to so, it is useful to indicate that the month of Nisan is not only a month when the bailey harvest in the middle east is due, it is also a time of weeklong festivity that leads to the new moon of April, the first of April which is the month when a Sheep is slaughtered marking the dedication of the temple and its purification. Such an occasion as we find throughout the Bible is a day when Jewish people were supposed to account for their sins, especially in post exilic Israel of Ezra and in Nehemiah, a day when Jews purify themselves. Ezra contains all that we need to know about the occasion and for that reason, it is easy to understand the flaw with the interpretation of current Yom Kippur as a day of atonement. For beginners we can clarify that the 'day of Judgment' is much the same as the 'day of accounting' not to be confused with the 'day of atonement'. In both Christian and Jewish traditions, the Day of Judgment is the last of the days.

 

In many ways the combination of the day of accounting which is also the Day of Judgment as the Day of Atonement is root of all the trouble with Yom Kippur...which is neither of the two. There is no confusion with the date in question, considering that the book of Ezra and other portions of the book of Maccabees speak correctly that the fourteenth of first month as the month when the Passover is kept. For instance Ezra 6; 17 read the following "and the children of the captivity kept the Passover Upon the fourteenth day of the first month". In v.22 the book of Ezra tells us that they "...kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy; for the lord had made them joyful and turn the heart of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hand in the works of the house of God, the God of Israel"

 

The 'Special laws' of Philo of Alexandre bring us to the frontline of what happens in the end of Jewish years, that the feast called the 'closing' is the last of the Jewish festivals and it "forms its conclusion". The feast of closing was interpreted by many Jewish scholars as the 'feast of Passover' for reasons I don't seem to understand, and this include the venerable Philip Goodman who hinted on such occasion as one of the last. But from the whole treatment of the pages in Special laws (2.204, pages 206-211) it is really the feast of Tabernacles or the feast of harvest which is the feast of accounting, a week long activity that leads to the Judgment day, known in today’s Judaism as Rosh Hashanah. In many ways the issue torches what we might take seriously as a week that runs into the 'day of Judgment' that is called Rosh Hashanah. In many ways, the last day of Jewish calendar is supposed to be the first day of Jewish year, and that is Rosh Hashanah. Such position of the Rosh Hashanna as the year of the lord is entirely accurate, since in Nigerian Igbo language we can say that Ro-sh Ha-sh-a-nna is rooted in the Igbo word 'Aro-shi' (meaning in English year of our lord) as it is for 'Rosh' and 'sh-nna' in Igbo may mean (lord of father), possibly 'lord of our father' or 'God of our father’. In respect, Rosh Hashanah could in spite of its plurality, should well mean in Igbo proper 'the year of the lord our God/father" or "the year of the lord/God of our father". All of which suggest the Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of the Jewish year as according to old and modern practice, and not the day of Judgment, rather the beginning of the year or the Jewish New year, that co-inside with the departure of the Israelites from among the Egyptians.

 

After the day in question, Jews are expected to go home, to share the portion of their food with others and so carry on with a celebration. That day of days will not in particular refer less to the last of the seven and then eight day celebration in a Passover outing. It is possible that this so called month of Nisan which is March in current calendar is a month that lead us into April, literally the Month of Fish and the month Lamb respectively. The missing item in the whole description is what happens during the Yom Kippur which many Jews agree involve a large extent of Passover rites; the Sukkah and Succoth and the rest of what becomes the New Year.

 

The beginning of Jewish society is the Rosh shanahan, the day when a trumpet is blown, while this is not in many ways the Yom Kippur, it is supposed to be the part of the week-long celebration which include a corresponding acts of purity concerning the year as if the end of the year brings the sins of Israel to a close. As if the end opens new avenues of righteousness to the people. I must mention that In Igbo the parallel occasion is called Ichu-afo, when people discard their lives in the world of sins. It is difficult to blind out these facts that the Jewish days of celebration mirrors what happens during the 'Passover'. Evidently as we speak in New York, and many parts of the United States, Jews are finalizing their weeklong preparation.

 

The Manhattan Jewish Sentinel weekly Newspaper (September 25 - October 1, 2009 edition) even featured interesting articles concerning the occasion, and in one of the articles by Edmon J. Rodman, titled 'you are what you build; raising Sukkahs and consciousness the DIY way' he made a reference to the Sukkah as building done in memory of the wilderness, going the distance to demonstrate that Sukkah was a building that we make, that "as Sukkah buildings begins, remember that for many Jewish households, long before DIY became a trend, building the Sukkah was the original do-it-yourself project". In one of such quotations, he even cited the wholesale auction for Sukkah buildings as prepackaged by department stores who will ship everything from $200 to $700, and he mentioned that in respect to the green wood ('Bamboo'...my addition), the Jewish liturgy "presents us with the concept of a "sukkat shlomecha"...struggle with poles, supporting members and sharp-edged schach". In the same edition of the Newspaper, you will read Linda Morel (Moreh/Woreh) writing about Succoth as a form of food delicacy eaten during the occasion.

 

What is wrong with the above use and abuse of Hebrew is that it mirrors the varying depth of confusion with Hebrew by way of Modern Hebrew, which has forced the whole stock of modern Judaism to miss the directions of the Torah. It also shows that much of the people in very current Jewish tradition are not entirely following the right courses of Jewish practices and probably do not even know what they are doing. My complain that certain Jewish practices are by courage misunderstood is given new evocations, on the weight that a learning curve towards serious adaptions of words that are copied and matching these words to meanings that are found in Bible illustrations had positively misguided Jewish feasts and festivals. Let us make sure that we pass this point to the people that 'Sukkah' does not mean 'tenth making' in any Hebrew form of language, neither does 'Succoth' refer in any way to a food delicacy. That much can begin our knowledge of what we know to be entirely Jewish and more than that, it allows us to see why Yom Kippur which does not mean 'atonement' by any stretch is counterfeit for atonement, when in reality it proves its case by definition to be the right day of Jewish Passover.

 

Once more, we can begin by using the actual meaning of these words in Hebrew and Igbo context, and by the Nigerian Igbo language, 'Sukkah' is nothing else than 'formal discussions' or moral instructions that pass between two or more people in any useful environment. That the discussion usually involves an elder person versus a young person, or elderly persons speaking among themselves. Succoth is another Igbo word 'Usokku' meaning the booth (Kitchen) and not and never the food. The Usokku is where food is prepared and in times past it is where certain grains are kept by the light flames. In Nigerian Igbo language, Usokko, can also mean the 'booth' which is usually made of Palm fronts, supported with Bamboo which in Igbo is called 'achara' and the current Hebrew term for is 'schach' or sacha. All three words correspond in ancient and actual Hebrew and Igbo language to be of the same meaning, casting immediate doubt on the veracity of the current rabbinic teachings of New York. These view of better Hebrew interpretations of the said words, as proper Hebrew in itself affecting Yom Kippur, may be key to our understanding of what is essentially right about Yom Kippur and wrong as with other Jewish practice of these days. In Nigerian Igbo, Yom Kippur/Yoma Kippurim, is entirely understood as Y-owwa Kippuru, a linguist secular directive which emphatically mean 'the month you departed' and not even the 'month of departure' which by stretch is acceptable in Igbo language. In this view and mainly in this view, it is possible to conclude that the idea of Yom Kippur is modern terms is very misleading, as unconscionably misled as the people of today's Israel on what Yom Kippur is. The Passover should corrected on many account especially on the count of its relationship with Exodus.

 

That forward match concerning the date of Passover should be matched with enough diligence. The Yom Kippur is one of the holiest Jewish days in the world and it is a day they actually have to fast to seek forgiveness of sins from the lord. Jews are expected to travel from various parts of the world to Israel to mark the occasion. The question some of us are now asking is this, can it really be true that this so called Yom Kippur is the very fasting day of Jewish calendar and not the Passover, is it really the day when the 'Sabbath of Sabbath' is supposed to take place in spite of the many wealth of information arguing against it.? Secondly, some of us want to ask if it is at all possible that the Yom Kippur is in fact the beginning of Jewish calendar or had co-incised with the Rosh Shanahan and as such the month commemorating the Passover - the departure from Egypt. The answer you are likely to get depends entirely on who you are asking.

 

I shall propose that Yom Kippur whose actual Hebrew meaning is forgotten may actually be the beginning of Judaism and beginning of Exodus, I shall also propose that the day of days or the fast of fasts, or Jewish Sabbath of Jewish Sabbaths is a mere truncation that tend to come between the Easter celebration of dedication of the Temple - now mistaken as the Passover given the Christian influence of the occasion - and that the real Passover that occurred in October towards the winter solstice not after. I shall demonstrate that it is seriously difficult perhaps impossible for anyone to accept this fact except in the context of Nigerian Igbo language which translates Yom Kippur as (Y-owwa Kippurim, literally meaning the day you departed) and the issue concerning the 7 days from the 1oth day of the 7th month of Tishri. I shall provide commentaries on certain significant quotations from both the holy Bible and other Jewish writings.

 

The many presence of the word 'pesah' and the word 'pasa' dedicated in varying measure to the lord make bold the case that the mistake which is now part of Jewish way of life has everything to do with the translation of 'pasah' for 'pesah' where one refers to lamb offering to the lord used in varying degrees in the Bible and the other refers to which footsteps passing so to speak through the house of the Israelites. The very fact that the two words also appear in Leviticus 16 and Zechariah will indicate that no real difference occur between what is believed to have happened in the 'April Solstice's Passover' and what is now believed to be the very Calendar day of 'Affliction' and 'Accounting' which is called 'Yom Kippur". It will mean that there is nothing that we can include in that Yom Kippur that will not be seen in what is now the Jewish 'Sacred order of the 'Passover', but there lots of things that will appear in what is now 'Passover' that will not be present in what is now 'Yom Kippur'.

 

In reality this two occasions carry enough similarity to confuse the rest of the world, and among Jewish people themselves, the two occasions are marks of Jewish identity that enables their Jewishness but do not really enhance any meaningful knowledge of the word 'Yom Kippur'. The patronizing of the word in question and the essence of the word in question forces the whole issue as an article of faith, which Jews ought to defend even when the very meaning of the word 'Passover' is taken as sheep does not mean much and perhaps a 'carry trade' inundating the week festivity and practice of the last week of Nisan.

 

In this case therefore, we shall look at some of the basic teachings concerning the whole exercise of Yom Kippur by some of the Jewish scholars today. One of such is the very Ronald H. Isaacs, whose relevant work is the book "Every Person's Guide to Passover" The book bears little in terms of title to Yom Kippur but the intention here is go beyond the argue of the Shift from the Passover to Yom Kippur, to meat out the flaws and holes in the presentation of the very book using basic notes on the Hebrew words translated in the book. It is also necessary to note that Ronald H. Isaacs is not a believer in the fact that the Yom Kippur is the Passover, rather he firmly believe in the current Passover as the real Passover and that Yom Kippur is the 'day of atonement'. We begin with a quote from his book, I love this quote - that "the entire month of Nisan (Passover falls on the fourteenth of the Month) has taken a festive character due to its historic background. The tractatae of Soferim Prohibits fasing during the month of NISAN because Moses had set up the tabernacle on the first of the month, and the traditional custom is that at funerals no eulogies are said except for persons of distinction."

 

From the above quote, there is no where we can escape the fact that the month of Nisan is a month merriment and not a month of affliction. At least, we can clearly state that this is not a month for eating 'unleavened bread' which in Ronald H. Isaacs translation is noted in Hebrew for 'Ha Lachma Anya'; the bread of affliction. How in the world the bread of affliction is food for merry making at a time when they are expressly forbidden in Israel is one puzzle that Mr. Isaacs did not rectify. The point that the whole occasion may have taken a 'festive mood' in the course of these Jewish years does not abuse the greater fact that even at the lasting and mournful 'burial ceremony' of the Jewish dead, there are no songs of sorrows to be sang on this Month except for an eminent grise'.

 

It is not wrong to impress that the 'unleavened bread' is meant for an occasion other the one celebrated in the month of Nisan. It is important at least at this opening level to open up the other translation made by Ronald H. Isaacs in his book 'Every person's Guide to Passover'. He translated Hebrew saying Ha lachma Anya as 'the bread of Affliction', where his Hebrew anthological interpretation of the world Lachama/Lachma' means Bread and possibly 'unleavened bread'. Ronald Isaacs also interpreted Matza/Maza as the more eloquent Hebrew for bread of affliction/unleavened bread. He also known maror for 'bitterness of slavery' but in Igbo it is 'aru' that refers 'evil'. He called 'maggid' a form of 'telling' which is Igbo for imaga, but this does not mean telling off by any stretch but a form of visitation by 'good fellows' and Afikoman he referred to children elsewhere. In Igbo 'Afikpo' is however a village in what is now Ebonyi State, Nigeria and the founders of the village are supposed to have come from Arochiku, a village in Northern part of Abia State, Nigeria. These Afikpo villagers were raised indeed by priests of Edda is Ebonyi state, Nigeria. There are other Modern Hebrew translation of Afikoma to mean the two cups, one for a stranger and the other for the host. Yet this is entirely wrong on the weight of the significant 'iko' or 'ikhos' which is ancient and modern Hebrew for cup as translated by Harold Bloom and Robert Eisenman, and nonetheless corresponds to Nigerian Igbo word for cup; iko.

 

I have often cited the connection between the two languages and the reason why they came from Spain, but for the words which undergone changes in lieu of the years of separation from the main group (real Israel I think is the Igbo Nation), as if the mistake came originally from Christians before the displaced Jews picked up the whole I must say that the near Igbo equivalent of the above words and meanings, come together as following 'achara nhusi anya' which is the 'bread of affliction' that is to say that 'achara' is Igbo for bread. If we say in Igbo 'achara anya' we are not talking about the 'bread of affliction' rather we are shortlisting the saying 'achara anyasi' meaning 'evening bread' for whatever would not have made sense in Igbo language achara and anya. Looking intently at the modern Hebrew clause 'ha lachma anya', it is possible to speculate that the real Hebrew in its essence will be very close to the English equivalent 'evening bread or night bread', and by this I mean in Igbo ' watch night bread or bread of the watch night' (referring to the Passover), would interpreted in Igbo as 'Achara imuanya' which really refers to 'bread of affliction' given the occasion, probably would not mean the unleavened bread, and most probably does equivocally mean bread of affliction is serious secular sense absurdity of Passa and Pessa for Passover. In many ways, it is now possible to see why some people might believe what they are led to accept.

Baruch Levine is the one individual that I recommend his lectures at any time, along with Jacob Milgrom, and his essay 'Unleavened Bread and the Passover' page 161 of the Oxford ...titled 'The pesah Festival (Passover) in the Spring, on which unleavened Bread was eaten, was historical in character, a commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt"

"The sense of the Hebrew verb pasah from which pesah derives, has been misunderstood to mean 'skip, pass over', during the occasion he added that the grain offering and libations are poured.

"According to Priestly law (?) the new moon was to be celebrated in the public cult by a triad of sacrifices - the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the libation, proceeded by the purification sin offering"

"…in Deuteronomy 16;3 a rationale is given for the unleavened bread. In symbolized affliction and its preparation was reminiscent of the hasty departure of the fleeing Israelites"

''…the priestly prescription for this festival reveal even changes in its celebration. The date even further changes in its celebration. The date is the fifteenth of the first month (Nisan), preceded by the Paschal sacrifice on the fourteenth, in the late afternoon. From the formulation of these priestly laws it is clear that the Paschal sacrifice, like those offered on each of the seven days, of the festival, occurred in the Temple"

Carol L. Meyers also writing in terms of the "Leaven in the Bible in most prominent texts dealing with the annual springtime Passover (Pesah) celebration, which incorporated an ancient and originally separate agricultural festival, the Feast of unleavened Bread"

She however complicate the brilliant point by indicating that "during this separate day feast, a flat unleavened bread called 'Massa' was to be eaten instead of leavened bread"

The above position is not very easy to take many people wil wonder at the absurd nature of the claim, but the bigger question is what exactly the Passover is? English for Pesa. Pesah (P-esoh) refers to sheep and the pasha the sacrifice of the sheep. What therefore comes out of this whole thing is that Passover as a word emanating from its English 'Pass over' is falsely taken as the English for Hebrew 'passa' (pasha) or 'pesa', an incident translation for words which tend to indicate a sound essence in translation or in the copying process, as opposed to the very organic meaning of the word 'passa'.

 

If this Passover is mainstay of Christian teaching, we are likely to see that the Christians who began the process before the acculturation from Jews may have taken the whole thing word e commentaries on the Bible is just absurd and why certain quotations like the one we find in Ezra 6; 20b that they "killed the Passover for all children of the captivity" NKJV, cannot be accurate. Much less can in fact be said that in the very Exodus sense of word, the month in question Nisan/March - considered a time of rejoicing and merry making - never exclusively chime with the severity of what is now Passover in April. Neither do activities of Nisan chime with Yom Kippur of September/October, which is the feast in question that bear the various stamps of Passover feast, in the dictates of Exodus. The mistake which has become the fact perhaps started with Christians as some point.

 

It is within us to counter this whole parade of bad facts using the issues and ideas around Christ, we can suppose that the birth of Christ which takes place in the Christian Calendar on the 25th of December every year, is meant to be at least 6 months later to the birth of John Baptist. If the Bible tells us that John the Baptist was conceived three months after month when Zechariah entered the holy of holies (Yom Kippur), then we can argue that the birth of John the Baptist probably took place six month earlier, probably late in the month of June as late in the month of December. Nine months (that is 9 months) before June/July is exactly Sept/October. The beginning of Jewish year is that Yom Kippur which becomes the first month of the Jewish calendar and the month of Tishri, which is considered the 7 month, is only 7 months from Yom Kippur then by Christ and John the Baptist, we can insist that the 7th month and the 7 months can easily be counted from the first Jewish month as in Sept/October Yom Kippur, and we shall confidently arrive at the month of March/April as the day for the atonement/the day of purification following the week-long celebration of merrymaking and drinking in the month of Nisan, the time of barley and wheat in Palestine. This celebration involves the 'sacrifice'/pesah of the 'sheep' that takes away the sins of the world and of Yisrael, and this solo sacrifice has no bearing to the sacrifice of the 'sheep'/pesah whose 'hind'/pasah is used to mark the lintel of Israelites. In the second sacrifice, the notice the use or unleavened bread which is all in the occasion for Yom Kippur as in the real 'Passover' or as in the real ceremony of the Exodus.

 

Secondly, we can argue that the Bible speak eloquently of the death of Christ, which is noted worldwide as part of the 'Passover' ceremony, which ended in the death of Christ, but the word 'Passover' a careful and actuated invention of modern Judaism and Christianity does not appear anywhere in the Septuagint (Lxx), nor in the old Testament of the Bible, nor even in the New Testament. This fact has been articulated by many writers, more articulate is a certain Philip Goodman. His book 'Sukkot and Sinhat; Torah anthology' explained away the varying degrees of interpretation concerning the Passover, and the Yom Kippur, which go with it and would tend to hint on the confusion that is evident is the whole exercise. Yet we look at the very tight interpretation of Christ by way of what is available in the history of his death.

 

Jesus Christ according to Christian tradition died on the cross during the Passover, he was not supposed to remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for according to Luke that was the Sabbath of Sabbath. If what we know today as the 'Sabbath of Sabbath' is by current Jewish tradition Yom Kippur, then we are referring to what happened at the time of Sept/Oct, by current Jewish calendar. Then by facts of the world history exercised in that Christian tradition concerning the death of Christ, it would then be wrong that Christ died during Good Friday, days after the Palm Sunday leading to Sabbath of Sabbath or high Sabbath which was a Saturday. This Sabbath brings in the April's Easter Sunday. If that could not be the case, then there is chance that Christ truly died on the 'Sabbath of Sabbath' which is 'a day of atonement' leading to the purification of the temple in month of Nisan and April and not what we call Yom Kippur during the months of Sept/October. September/October is nowadays argued as the Jewish day of days, a high Sabbath, Sabbath of Sabbath.

 

What the above paragraph make us understand is that Christ's death took place during 'sacrifice of the sheep', the sheep that take way the sins of Israel during the day of fast, in time contaminated with the 'sacrifice of the sheep' whose hind is used in writing on the doorpost of Israelites in Egypt to avoid the entrance of the 'angel of death'. But this is not to be confused with the day of fasting, which is really one single day we now call Yom Kippur when in reality we are looking. we now call Familiar with the day of atonement is a week-long activity leading to such a day of fasting...and the week long activity is noted with joyful harvest mood for this is the case in Nisan, a month of conviviality that respect the rites of spring of bailey harvest. It is hard to even contemplate a bread with yeast or the unleavened bread at the time of harvest and rejoicing when it was expressly prohibited by Moses in Soferim, it is even harder to contemplate the eating of ordinary bread at the time of Yom Kippur and the time of Exodus.

 

The time that the Jews celebrate their new year when the prevailing psychology is that the time of their departure and the Exodus was the end of a stay in Egypt and the beginning of a year world, which is also a new year. All things fit that the New Year which is still called the Yom Kippur Rosh Hashanahs and all customs fit the fact that the individuals were never wholly subject to the diving notions of the departure which cannot be that far from the necessary conditions of the occasion in question.