Mishnah, Josephus & Philo on Yom Kippur

FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS on Yom Kippur from Antiquities 3.10.3 240-243

On the tenth day of the same lunar month [Hyperberetaeus, Tishri] they fast till the evening; and on this day they sacrifice a bull, and two rams, and seven lambs, and a kid of the goats, for sins.

And in addition they bring two kids of the goats, one of which is sent alive out of the limits of the camp into the wilderness to be a propitiation and an intercession for the sins of the whole people; the other they lead to a place of great cleanliness just outside the camp, and there burn it, with its skin, without any sort of cleansing.

With this goat is burnt a bull, not brought by the people, but by the High Priest, at his own expense; which, when it is slain, he brings some of its blood into the sanctuary, together with the blood of the kid, and with his finger sprinkles it toward the ceiling with his finger seven times, as also on the floor, and again as often onto the sanctuary and about the golden altar. The remainder he brings into the open court, and sprinkles it about the great altar. In addition, they set the extremities, and the kidneys, and the fat, with the lobe of the liver upon the altar. The High Priest also presents a ram to God as a burnt offering.

From Talmud Bavli Ta’anit 30b (Steinsaltz edition)

Rabban Shimon b. Gamliel said: There were no days as joyous for Israel as the Fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur.

Our Rabbis taught: The daughter of the king borrows from the daughter of the High Priest, the daughter of the High Priest from the daughter of the deputy, the daughter of the deputy from the daughter of the priest anointed for war, and the daughter of the priest anointed for war from the daughter of an ordinary priest, and all Israel borrow from each other, so that she who does not have should not be embarrassed.

All the clothes require immersion. R. Elazar says: Even clothes that are folded and lying in a box.

The daughters of Israel would go out and dance in the vineyards. A Tanna taught: He who did not have a wife would enter the vineyards and choose a bride from among the young women he saw dancing there, and if she and her family agreed, they would be betrothed.

Those of distinguished lineage among the daughters of Israel would say to a young man who followed them into the vineyards in search of a wife: “Young man! Lift up your eyes and see what you are choosing for yourself. Do not set your eyes on a woman’s beauty, but rather, on her lineage.”

Our Rabbis taught: What would the beautiful among the daughters of Israel say to the young men? “Set your eyes on beauty for a wife is only to be chosen for her beauty.”

What would those of distinguished lineage among the young women say to their potential suitors? “Set your eyes on family, for a wife is only for children, and a woman of distinguished lineage will bring into the world children of similar distinction.’

What would the ugly among them say? ‘Do not be seduced by a woman’s beauty. Acquire your purchase for the sake of Heaven but only provided that after the marriage you adorn us with golden jewels!”

PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA from De Specialibus legibus (The Special Laws) 1:186-7

Perhaps some of those who are perversely minded and are not ashamed to censure excellent things will say, “What sort of a feast is this where there is no eating and drinking, no troupe of entertainers or audience, no copious supply of strong drink nor the generous display of a public banquet, nor moreover the merriment and revelry of dancing to the sound of flute and harp, and timbrels and cymbals, and the other instruments of music which awaken the unruly lusts through the channel of the ears? (194) For it is in these and through these, it seems, that they think good cheer consists. They do this in ignorance of the true good cheer which the all-wise Moses saw with the most sharpsighted eyes and so proclaimed the fast a feast and named it the greatest of feasts in our ancestral language, “a Sabbath of Sabbaths,” or as the Greeks would say, a seven of sevens and a holier than things holy. He did this for many reasons. (195) The first reason is the temperance which the lawgiver is continually exhorting men to display at all times, both in their language and in their appetites, both in and below the belly. And he most especially enjoins them to display it now, when he devotes a day to the particular observances of it. For when a person has once learnt to be indifferent to meat and drink, those very necessary things, what can there be of things which are superfluous that he would find any difficulty in disregarding? (196) The second reason is, that every one is at this time occupied in prayers and supplications, and since they all devote their entire leisure to nothing else from morning till evening, except to most acceptable prayers by which they endeavour to gain the favour of God, entreating pardon for their sins and hoping for his mercy, not for their own merits but through the compassionate nature of that Being who will have forgiveness rather than punishment. (197) The third is an account of the time at which this fast is fixed to take place; for by this season all the fruits which the earth has produced during the whole year are gathered in. And therefore to proceed at once to devour what has been produced Moses looked upon as an act of greediness; but to fast, and to abstain from touching food, he considered a mark of perfect piety which teaches the mind not to trust to the food which it may have prepared as the cause of health or life..... (23) Again, who is there who does not pay all due respect and honour to that which is called “the fast,” and especially to that great yearly one which is of a more austere and venerable character than the ordinary solemnity at the full moon? On which, indeed, much pure wine is drunk, and costly entertainments are provided, and everything which relates to eating and drinking is supplied in the most unlimited profusion, by which the insatiable pleasures of the belly are inflamed and increased. (24) But on this fast it is not lawful to take any food or any drink, in order that no bodily passion may at all disturb or hinder the pure operations of the mind; but these passions are wont to be generated by fulness and satiety, so that at this time men feast, propitiating the Father of the universe with holy prayers, by which they are accustomed to solicit pardon for their former sins, and the acquisition and enjoyment of new blessings.

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