A day like Purim – Ask the Rabbi
Q. Why does the Torah call the day Yom Kippurim, literally “Day of Atonements”?
A. One view is that each person has and needs a different atonement. Another says that there are two streams of atonement or reconciliation – man and God, and God and man.
There is even a suggestion that Kippurim can be read K’Purim – “a day like Purim”. This is not entirely facetious; both occasions are full of joy, the one physical and the other spiritual; both have to do with masks, the one a piece of harmless costumery, the other the veneer of pretence that that separates us from God.
