Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Ben Sira, the High Priest, and the Yom Kippur liturgy

PROF. RABBI DALIA MARX: Mareh Kohen: Ben Sira’s Description of Simon the High Priest (TheTorah.com).
Written while the Second Temple was standing, and the Yom Kippur sacrificial service still performed, Ben Sira’s poem traces the history of the world through Simon son of Johanan, the High Priest in his time, thus expressing the cosmic importance of the Temple and its priesthood. The poem appears to be the antecedent or literary inspiration of the Yom Kippur Seder Avodah’s framing liturgy.

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