Rabbi Schneider - Understanding Yom Kippur
The most holy day, beloved one, on God's sacred calendar is called in Hebrew "Yom", which is the Hebrew word for day, and "Kippur", meaning covering. So, Yom Kippur, the Day of Covering. This was the day that the high priest of Israel went into a chamber called the holy of holies, which first existed in the Tabernacle or the mishkan, and later the Tabernacle. Once the children of Israel got into the Promised Land, they built a permanent structure, according to the pattern of the Tabernacle, and that permanent structure of the Tabernacle in Israel became the temple.
So, the temple was modeled after the Tabernacle, and the Tabernacle was actually a blueprint that God gave to Moses. So, every part of the Tabernacle, and then later the temple was actually designed by the God of Israel himself. There are three portions of the Tabernacle and temple: there's the outer court, there's the holy place, and then there's the holy of holies. And inside this chamber called the holy of holies, the Ark of the Covenant dwelt. And inside the Ark of the Covenant were the Ten Commandments in the first temple, and in the Tabernacle as well.
Now, on top of the Ark of the Covenant there was something that the New Testament refers to as the Mercy Seat. And so, back to my earlier comment: on Yom Kippur the high priest of Israel would come into this sacred chamber, the holy of holies, and he would bring with him the blood of a bull, and the blood of a goat, and he would pour that blood on top of the Ark of the Covenant, on that Mercy Seat. And when he poured forth the blood, and the Lord saw the blood, he covered over (again, it's called Yom Kippur), he covered over the sins of Israel for the year because of the blood.
The Torah tells us in the book of Vayikra or the book of Leviticus chapter 17 verse 11, that "The life of the flesh is in the blood", saith the Lord, "And I've given it to you on the altar to make an atonement for your soul: for it's the blood by reason of its life that makes atonement".
Understanding this helps us to grasp why Yeshua is the only way to heaven. Because the Lord in the Hebrew scriptures told us point blank that the only way to have our sins covered is through a blood atonement. The children of Israel had to make an atonement with the blood of bulls and goats year after year. But when Yeshua was crucified, we read in the New Testament, that the veil that separated that holy of holies from the rest of the temple, tore in half mystically. And that was signifying that now God had made a way in once and for all for sinful humanity to have a relationship with them, because the blood of the spotless Lamb of God, Yeshua HaMashiah has been shed.
And because Yeshua is perfect, and he's God in the flesh, there is never a blood atonement needed again. And this is the point of the author of the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, that it's no longer necessary to offer up the blood of bulls and goats each year, that they were only shadows of what king Yeshua would ultimately do, shedding his blood, so our sins could be atoned for once and for all.