entered the
Holy of Holies with the incense shrouding his face.(1499)

In contrast to this priestly monopoly of service with its external and
archaic forms of expiation, the founders of the Synagogue invested the Day
of Atonement with a higher meaning in accord with the spirit of the
prophets of old, the doctrine of God's mercy and paternal love. Atonement
could no longer be obtained by the priest with the sacrificial blood, the
incense, or the scapegoat; it must come through the repentance of the
sinner, leading him back from the path of error to the way of God. As the
high-priest in the Temple, so now every son of Israel was to spend the day
in the house of prayer, confessing his sins before God with a contrite
heart, awaiting with awe the realization of God's promise to Moses: "I
have pardoned according to thy word."(1500) Indeed, a forward step in the
history of religion is represented in the interpretation of the verse:
"For on this day _he_--that is, the high-priest--shall make atonement for
you to cleanse you," which was now understood to refer to God: "He shall
make atonement for you through this day."(1501) Therefore R. Akiba could
exclaim proudly, as he thought of the Paulinian doctrine of vicarious
atonement: "Happy are ye Israelites! Before whom do you cleanse yourselves
from sin, and who cleanses you? Your Father in heaven!"(1502) No mediator
was needed between man and his heavenly Father from the moment that each
individual learned to approach God in true humility on the Day of
Atonement, imploring His pardon for sin and promising to amend his ways.
With profound intuition the rabbis attributed God's pardon to the petition
of Moses, saying that He revealed Himself in His attribute of mercy on the
very tenth of Tishri, foreshadowing for all time the divine forgiveness of
sin on the Day of Atonement.(1503)

As the Mishnah expressly states, even the Day of Atonement cannot bring
forgiveness so long as injustice cleaves to one's hand or evil speech to
the lips and no attempt is made to repair the injury and appease one's
fellow-man.(1504) Where justice is lacking, divine love cannot exert its
saving power. God's mercy and long-suffering cannot remove sin, unless the
root of evil is removed from the heart and every wrong redressed in
sincere repentance. The spirit of God is invoked on these great days at
the year's commencement only that the penitent soul may thus receive
strength to improve its ways, that goo