The Shema vs the Trinity.

"Shema" is the Hebrew word for "hear" or "listen". The term "Shema" is used by extension to the whole part of the daily prayers that commences with "Shema Yisrael..." and comprises Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41.

The Shema begins with the most succinct and famous Jewish and Christian statement of Monotheism.

"Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad."

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." (Deuteronomy 6:4)

Some people take this verse, and suggest that it contradicts the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
Most people who use this arguement also misrepresent the Trinity as being a polytheistic belief system, which it most cirtainly is not. Belief in the Trinity, is a belief that:

1. God is three persons; The Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit/Ghost.
2. Each person is divine; Each of these if fuly God and not simply a part of God or different manifestation of God.
3. There is only one God; Belief in the Trinity is wholly monotheistic.

Even the Shema however, supports the Trinity! Firstly it supports that there is indeed one and only one God. But also the deliberate and divinely inspired use of the Hebrew word Echad, is in support of the Trinity doctorine.

The word translated "one" from the Hebrew is echad, which demonstrates a compound unity of oneness. Some specific examples of how echad demonstrates compound unity are found below:

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one [echad] flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

Now the whole world had one [echad] language and a common [echad] speach. (Genesis 11:1)

The LORD said, "If as one [echad] people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. (Genesis 11:6)

Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We'll settle among you and become one [echad] people with you. (Genesis 34:16)

When Moses went and told the people all the LORD's words and laws, they responded with one [echad] voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will do." (Exodus 24:3)

When they reached the Valley of Eshcol, they cut off a branch bearing a single [echad] cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. (Numbers 13:23)

The whole [echad] company numbered 42,360, (Ezra 2:64)

They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness [echad] of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. (Jeremiah 32:38-39)

These are but a few of the many examples of how echad is used to show the unity of oneness or a compound unity.

One may ask "How would the Hebrew be different if God had wanted to express absolute, numerical oneness?" The answer is that there is another Hebrew word, yachid, that is used to express the idea of absolute, numerical oneness. Examples of "yachid" are shown below:

Then God said, "Take your son, your only [yachid] son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." (Genesis 22:2)

"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only [yachid] son." (Genesis 22:12)

The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, (Genesis 22:15-16;)

When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only [yachid] child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. (Judges 11:34)

Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely [yachid] and afflicted. (Psalms 25:16)

God sets the lonely [yachid] in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. (Psalms 68:6)

When I was a boy in my father's house, still tender, and an only [yachid] child of my mother, (Proverbs 4:3)

O my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter wailing as for an only [yachid] son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. (Jeremiah 6:26)

I will turn your religious feasts into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only [yachid] son and the end of it like a bitter day.

(Amos 8:10)

"And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication. They will look on Me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only [yachid] child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.(Zechariah 12:10)

If the Shema had intended to express absolute oneness, it would have used the Hebrew word yachid instead of echad. However, the word yachid is NEVER used in reference to God, while echad is!

Since Scripture is the Word of God, and since God both says what He means and means what He says, it is reasonable to say that God intended to use the word Echad because it correctly destcribes the type of oneness found in God. Yachid is not used to describe God, because it would be an incorrect description. Since Echad (compound unity) is an accurate description of God and Yachid (absolute, numerical 'one') is not, the Shema gives more support to the Trinity than being a contradiction of it.

From Strongs Dictionary: We can see that both echad and yachid are correctly translated as 'one'. However, echad tends toward a connotation of unity or a compound oneness while yachid has conotations of singularity and an absolute numerical oneness.

259. 'echad (ekh-awd')

A numeral from 'achad; properly, united, i.e. One; or (as an ordinal) first

a, alike, alone, altogether, and, any(-thing), apiece, a certain, (dai-)ly, each (one), + eleven, every, few, first, + highway, a man, once, one, only, other, some, together,

258. 'achad (aw-khad')

Perhaps a primitive root; to unify, i.e. (figuratively) collect (one's thoughts), go one way or other.

(yachid is spelled yachad in Strong's Dictionary)

3161. yachad (yaw-khad')

A primitive root; to be (or become) one, join, unite.

3162. yachad (yakh'-ad)

From yachad; properly, a unit, i.e. (adverb) unitedly

alike, at all (once), both, likewise, only, (al-)together, withal.

Yom Kippur - The Day of Atonement

"The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God."
- Leviticus 23:27-28

Yom Kippur (Hebrew:יום כיפור yom kippūr) is the Jewish holiday of the Day of Atonement. Atonement is the process of forgiving or pardoning a transgression. This was originally accomplished through rituals performed by a High Priest, the Kohen Gadol, on Yom Kippur. In Christian theology, the atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, which made possible a reconciliation between God and creation.

Yom Kippur is observed on the 10th of Tishri. This year Yom Kippur will begin at sunset on October 1 and end at nightfall on October 2. The Bible calls the day Yom Hakippurim (Hebrew, "Day of the Atonements"). It is one of the Yamim Noraim or Hebrew "Days of Awe". The day is commemorated with a 25-hour fast and intensive prayer. It is the most holy day of the Jewish year. Yom Kippur is a Sabbath day. Therefore most Jews refrain from working and will attend synagogue services.

It was on this day - the only day - that the High Priest was able to enter the Holy of Holies, and then only after elaborate ceremonial washings, offerings, and rituals. This was also the day that two goats were selected, one for an offering and one as the "scapegoat." As many aspects of the feasts were prophetic, the scapegoat is also Messianic. The scapegoat died to pay the penalty for the sins of Israel, the Messiah, Jesus died to pay the price of the sins of His people, both Jews and Gentiles. The ceremonial acts that were to be carried out by the High Priest on Yom Kippur are described in Leviticus 16 (see also Exodus 30:10; Leviticus 23:27-31, 25:9; Numbers 29:7-11).

Since the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD, the God-centered observances of the Torah have tragically been replaced with a man-centered, good works system of appeasement through prayer, charity, and penitence.

Yom Kippur traditionally ends with one long note of the Shofar, a musical instrument usually made from a ram's horn. The significance of the ram's horn is traditionally rooted in Genesis 22:1-19. Here God commands Abraham "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." Abraham is called upon by God to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, as a test of his faith. After God halts the sacrifice at the last minute, Abraham spies a ram trapped by his horns in a nearby bush and provides the animal instead as a sacrifice. God providing the Lamb is prophetic of Jesus as Jesus is often called the Lamb of God in the Scriptures. Also when Isaac asks his father where the lamb for the offering Abraham replys, in total faith but also prophetically "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering..." (KJV) Many scholars believe that the very same hill upon which this event took place was later to become the place of the skull, Golgotha, the very hill where Jesus was crucified. The very place where God did provide Himself, the Lamb as an offering for the sins of mankind.

It is also interesting to note that the first instance in which the word "love" appears in scripture(in most translations, it is the second in the time NIV) is when God commands Abraham to sacrifice "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love..." Compare the commandment God gave to Abraham with John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Woven throughout all the Old Testament feasts is the foreshadowing of God’s plan for the redemption of mankind.

Those of us who have placed our trust in Jesus Christ are able to enter behind the veil and stand in the Holy of Holies. We have forgiveness because of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

On a day where The Jews fast and celebrate a Day of Atonement, we should be thankful that Christ has already made atonement for our sin. His body broken and His blood poured out so we might be blameless and righteous in His sight. Not by any merit of our own, but purely the Grace and Sacrifice of our Lord and Saviour, our King of Kings and Messiah, our Creator and Friend. Jesus Christ.

See also Yom Kippur by Rand at A Form of Sound Words.