Index Breishis Shemos Vayikra Bamidbar Dvarim Return to Eflip

Yom Kippur - Kaparah

In Hebrew, the shoresh Kuf Peh Resh has several words with different meanings that derive from it. Let’s look at some of the words that have this root, and then examine what they have in common.  Perhaps then we can have a better idea of the meaning of the shoresh itself.

First, there’s the word Kapora.  If a person does an Avera such as an inadvertent sin, he can bring a Chatas offering, and then get a Kapora, which means an atonement, a forgiveness for the sin. 

This is similar to the name Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement.  On Yom Kippur we abstaining from various physical pleasures, and atone and ask for forgiveness for sins that we did the previous year, and this brings forgiveness.

There are also words that spring fom the shoresh Kuf Peh Resh that have what appears to be an opposite meaning.  For example, the word Kapar means to deny.  If a person is accused of owing money, and ‘Kapar’s – i.e. denies – part or all of it, he has to swear that he is telling the truth in a Jewish Court of Law.

Similarly, a Kofer is someone who denies the very basics of Judaism, an apostate.

In addition, the Kapara was the cloth that covered the Aron Kodesh in the Mishkan and the Bais Hamikdosh. 

The pitch-like material that was spread over Noah’s ark to protect it from the water seeping in was called Kofer. 

And lastly, if a person’s ox killed a human being, he must pay a Kofer which is usually translated as a ‘ransom’ for his soul. 

What do all these words have in common that tie them to the Shoresh, Kuf Peh Resh?

We would like to suggest that they all have in common the idea of ‘covering’ something.  It is interesting that the English word ‘cover’ has the same three letter root – CVR, similar to Kuf Peh Resh.  How do they all relate to ‘covering’?
This understanding the of the Shoresh can bring us to a better understanding of the word Yom Kippur itself. This may imply a meaning for the name Yom Kippur that is realistic and not overly ambitious.  For the vast majority of Jews, the rumination and fasting brings about the type of forgiveness where sins are covered over.  An analogy might be that if a person gets a stain on a couch, a covering is placed over it so that the couch is  presentable and usable.

However, if a person is more ambitious and more able, he may want to try to remove the stain entirely.  This would ‘return’ the couch to its original condition.  This requires more than Kapara, it requires Tshuva.  The word Tshuva means to ‘return’ to the state where the sin is no longer there, not only just covered over.  This is a much harder level to achieve on Yom Kippur, or at any time.

We can also guess at why the day is referred to as Yom Hakippurim – the day of many coverings, to use our understanding of the word.  It’s possible that this implies an even more realistic assessment of what happens on Yom Kippur.  If, let’s say a person has 100 sins, he will be able to admit to 80 of them – but there may be some that he still denies.  Perhaps Yom Hakippurim is in the plural because there is both forgiveness – covering over of our sins, and in addition we are denying some of the sins at the same time.

Perhaps this understanding can lead us to try to accomplish more on Yom Kippur. We can try to reach the higher level of Tshuva, so that our sins are erased instead of just covered over.  And we should try to own up to a greater percentage of our sins.