The order of the Yom Kippur service TB Yoma 40

 The last quarter of yesterday’s daf and all of today’s daf TB Yoma 40 discusses whether the lottery determining which goat is offered up as a sin offering and which goat is the scapegoat is an essential and critical part of the service or just a mitzvah. If it is only a mitzvah and the lottery does not take place, this part of the service remains kosher and valid. Rabbi Yannai and Rabbi Yoḥanan, two amoraim, begin this disagreement. The Gemara tries to incorporate these two amoraim into the context of a different disagreement between two tannaim, Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya. It is a very complex and difficult sugiya to say the least. To best understand the flow of the Gemara, for the first time we have to know the order of the Yom Kippur service. Rashi ד"ה אִי הַגְרָלָה דְּקָאָמְרִיתוּ הַיְינוּ הַנָּחָה provides us with the background we need. Because Rashi gives us the bare-bones order, I’m going to share with you the order of the Yom Kippur service that takes place immediately after the second immersion as found in Rabbi Soloveitchik’s Yom Kippur Machzor. (page 588) 

The second immersion

donning the four white vestments

. washing his hands and feet

3.   . reciting his personal confession over the bull offered as a sin offering

4.      performing the lottery over the two goats

5.     reciting confession for the other Kohanim over the bull

6.     slaughtering the bull

7.     gathering coals from the Inner Altar

8.     scooping a palm of incense into a spoon

9.     bringing the incense and coals into the Holy of Holies

1  sprinkling the blood of the bull in the Holy of Holies

11 slaughtering the goat

    sprinkling the blood of the goat in the Holy of Holies

    sprinkling the combined blood of the bull and the goat on the Curtain and Inner Alter

     reciting confession over the second goat

     sending the goat to the desert

A short passage on today’s daf is interesting to note. First, which action gains atonement for Israel, the sprinkling of blood or the recitation of the confessional?

“As it was taught in a baraita: The verse states that the goat should remain alive “to make atonement” (Leviticus 16:10). This indicates that it must remain alive until it effects atonement. Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon dispute which atonement the verse is referring to. The verse speaks of atonement through the application of the blood of the sin-offering goat. And similarly it states: “When he has made an end of atoning for the Sanctuary, and the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat” (Leviticus 16:20). Just as there the reference is to atonement through blood, so too here the verse is referring to atonement through blood. This is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda.

“Rabbi Shimon says: “To make atonement over it”; the verse speaks of atonement through speech, i.e., the verbal confession that is recited over it.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Rambam poskins that the verbal confession is what gains atonement for Israel. (Mishneh Torah, Sefer Avodah, the laws of Yom Kippurim, Chapter 2 Halakha 6) Today just confessing our sins on Yom Kippur is insufficient as we shall learn when we study the last chapter of our massekhet. It is only an early step in the process of real repentance. Stay tuned to find out what else we need to do to gain atonement on Yom Kippur.