Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.beitberl.ac.il>]

Today's Tiorah portion in the synagogue was Leviticus 16, the Yom Kippur
purgation ritual, and there I found support for the claim that kipper
be'ad means "puify, c;eanse, purge" and not "atone for".
     In :ev. 16: 19. wetihero weqiddesho is
used in similar context, like word sequence, and with the same connotation
as wekhipper 'al haqqodesh in Lev. 16: 16. Also, don't forget Akkadian
kuppuru. I don't have RLA in front of me, but if I remember correctly,
it occurs in the context of the akitu festival. Correct me, please, if
I am wrong.
As Y. Kaufmann pointed out long ago, the type of sacrifice known as
hattat, of which several are offered in Lev. 16, has nothing to
with sin, put is instead a "purification offering; Heb. hitte',
in the pi'el, means to purify, and indeed it is used in Modern Hebrew as
"disinfect".
Chag Sukkot Sameach, to those of you who celebrate Sukkot.

--
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Beit Berl Post Office
Israel