Parashat Acharei Mot

16 Then Adonai spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they approached the presence of Adonai and died. ² Adonai said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holiest Place behind the curtain^[a]—before the atonement cover which is on the Ark—so that he would not die. For I will be appearing in the cloud over the atonement cover.^[b]

Yom Kippur Service

³ “In this way should Aaron come into the Sanctuary: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴ He is to put on the holy linen garment, have the linen undergarments on his body, put on the linen sash, and wear the linen turban—they are the holy garments. He should bathe his body in water, and put them on.

⁵ “Then he is to take from the congregation of Bnei-Yisrael two he-goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. ⁶ Then Aaron is to offer the bull for the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and his house. ⁷ Then he is take the two goats and present them before Adonai at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. ⁸ Aaron will then cast lots for the two goats—one lot for Adonai, and the other lot for the scapegoat. ⁹ Aaron is to present the goat on which the lot for Adonai fell and make it a sin offering. ¹⁰ But the goat upon which the lot for the scapegoat^[c] fell is to be presented alive before Adonai, to make atonement upon it,^[d] by sending it away as the scapegoat into the wilderness.

¹¹ “Also Aaron is to present the bull of the sin offering which is for himself and so make atonement for himself and his house. He is to slaughter the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. ^{[e] 12} He is to take a firepan full of coals of fire from off the altar before Adonai plus two handfuls of sweet powdered incense and bring it within the curtain. ¹³ Then he is to put the incense on the fire before Adonai, so that the cloud of the incense may cover the atonement cover that is on the Ark, so that he would not die. ¹⁴ He is then to take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the atonement cover, on the east side. Before the atonement cover he is to sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times.^[f]

¹⁵ “Then he is to slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, bring its blood behind the curtain, and do with its as he did with the blood of the bull—sprinkle it upon the atonement cover, and before the atonement cover. ^{[g] 16} So he is to make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of Bnei-Yisrael and because of their transgressions, all their sins.^[h] He is to do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their impurities. ¹⁷ No one is to be in the Tent of Meeting when he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out, and has made atonement for himself and for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.

¹⁸ “Then he is to go out to the altar that is before Adonai and make atonement for it. He is to take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and dab it around on the horns of the altar. ¹⁹ He is to sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and consecrate it from the uncleanness of Bnei-Yisrael.

²⁰ “When he has finished atoning for the Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, then he is to present the live goat. ²¹ Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of Bnei-Yisrael and all their transgressions, all their sins. He should place them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. ²² The goat will carry all their iniquities by itself into a solitary land and he is to leave the goat in the wilderness.

²³ “Then Aaron is to come into the Tent of Meeting, take off the linen garments that he put on when he went into the Holy Place, and leave them there. ²⁴ He is to bathe himself with water in a holy place, put on his garments, and come out to offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, to make atonement for himself and for the people.

²⁵ “Then he is to burn up fat of the sin offering in smoke on the altar. ²⁶ The man who leaves the goat as a scapegoat is to wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. Afterward he may come into the camp.

²⁷ “The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, should be carried outside the camp, and their hides, their flesh, and their dung burned with fire. ^{[i] 28} The one who burns them is to wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. Then afterward he may come into the camp.

²⁹ “It is to be a statute to you forever, that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you are to afflict your souls, and do no kind of work—both the native-born and the outsider dwelling among you. ³⁰ For on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. From all your sins you will be clean before Adonai. ³¹ It is a Shabbat of solemn rest to you, and you are to afflict your souls. It is a statute forever. ³² The kohen who is anointed and who is consecrated to be kohen in his father’s place will make the atonement, and put on the linen garments, the holy garments. ³³ He is to make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, for the Tent of Meeting, for the altar, for the kohanim, and for all the people of the assembly.

³⁴ “This will be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for Bnei-Yisrael once in the year because of all their sins.” It was done as Adonai commanded Moses.

Jonah Runs From His Mission

1 Now the word of Adonai came to Jonah,^[a] son of Amittai, saying: ² “Rise, go to the great city Nineveh and call out to her, for their evil has risen before me.”

³ But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish, from the presence of Adonai. He went down to Jaffa and found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fee and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish—away from the presence of Adonai.

⁴ Then Adonai hurled a forceful wind into the sea and there was such a mighty storm on the sea that the ship was about to shatter. ⁵ So the sailors were afraid and cried out, each man to his own god. Then they cast the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest part of the ship, to lay down and fell fast asleep.

⁶ So the chief sailor came near to him and said to him, “What, are you sleeping? Get up! Call out to your god. Perhaps the gods will consider us, so we will not perish!”

⁷ Then each man said to his companion, “Come, let’s cast lots—so we may know because of whom this evil is happening to us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.^[b]

⁸ Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account is this evil happening to us? What is your profession and where did you come from? What is your land and from what nation are you?”

⁹ He said to them, “I am a Hebrew and I fear Adonai God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰ Then the men became afraid with an overwhelming fear and they said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of Adonai, because he had told them. ¹¹ So they said to him, “What should we do to you so the sea will become calm for us?”—for the storm was raging on.

¹² “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he said to them, “then the sea will become calm for you. For I know it is because of me that this great storm is upon you.”

¹³ Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to the land, but they could not, because the sea kept raging against them. ¹⁴ So they cried to Adonai and said, “Please, Adonai, don’t let us perish on account of the soul of this man and don’t put innocent blood on us. For you, Adonai, have done as you pleased.”

¹⁵ So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea—and the sea stilled from its raging. ¹⁶ Then the men became afraid with an overwhelming fear of Adonai, and they offered a sacrifice to Adonai and made vows.

2 Now Adonai prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.^[c][d]

Jonah’s Prayer of Distress

² Then Jonah prayed to Adonai his God from the belly of the fish, ³ saying:

¹¹ Then Adonai spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land.

Nineveh Repents

3 Now the word of Adonai came to Jonah a second time, saying, ² “Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out to it the proclamation that I am telling you.”

³ So Jonah rose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Adonai. Now Nineveh was a great city to God—the length of a three day journey. ⁴ So Jonah began to come into the city for one day’s journey, and he cried out saying: “Another forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown!”

⁵ Then the people of Nineveh believed God and called for a fast and wore sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least of them. ⁶ When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. ⁷ He made a proclamation saying:

“In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, no man or beast, herd or flock, may taste anything. They must not graze nor drink water. ⁸ But cover man and beast with sackcloth. Let them cry out to God with urgency. Let each one turn from his evil way and from the violence in his hands. ⁹ Who knows? God may turn and relent, and turn back from his burning anger, so that we may not perish.”

¹⁰ When God saw their deeds—that they turned from their wicked ways—God relented from the calamity that He said He would do to them, and did not do it.

Jonah’s Displeasure at God’s Mercy

4 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he resented it. ² So he prayed to Adonai and said, “Please, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my own country? That’s what I anticipated, fleeing to Tarshish—for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and full of kindness, and relenting over calamity. ³ So please, Adonai, take my soul from me—because better is my death than my life.”

⁴ Yet Adonai said, “Is it good for you to be so angry?”

⁵ So Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. There He made a sukkah and he sat under it, in the shade, until he saw what would happen in the city. ⁶ Then Adonai God prepared a plant and it grew up over Jonah, to give shade over his head to spare him from his discomfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But God at dawn the next day prepared a worm that crippled the plant and it withered away. ⁸ When the sun rose, God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint. So he implored that his soul would die, saying, “My death would be better than my life!”

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, “Is it good for you to be so angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said, “I am angry enough to die!”

¹⁰ But Adonai said, “You have pity on the plant for which you did no labor or make it grow, that appeared overnight and perished overnight. So shouldn’t I have pity on Nineveh—the great city that has in it more than 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left—as well as many animals?”