Materia giudaica XII/1-2 and Yom Kippur
Not that I read Italian, but I wonder if there were any articles in English in the newest volume of Materia giudaica, edited by Mauro Perani. Not only are there a number of articles in English, but they are also available online here. This volume includes in English, in addition to what seem like many interesting articles in Italian:
-Michael Segal, “The Text of the Hebrew Bible in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” pp. 5-20
-Moshe Bar-Asher, “Mishnaic Hebrew and Biblical Hebrew,” pp. 63-71.
-Yochanan Breuer, “Innovations in The Hebrew of the Amoraic Period,” pp. 83-88.
Regarding עניני דיומא, Yochanan Breuer writes the following about יום הכיפורים versus יום כיפור.
Having discussed the change from מחוסר כיפורים to מחוסר כפרה, we would like to add that a similar shift from יום הכיפורים ‘the day of atonement’ to the later expression יום כיפור, which is documented only in Medieval Hebrew. As noted, the biblical verbal noun כיפורים was replaced in Mishnaic Hebrew by כפרה. In the pi’el conjugation, however, the verbal noun pattern qittul is common. The frequency of this pattern and the frequency of the form כיפור eventually led to the replacement of the older יום הכיפורים by יום כיפור. This replacement completely eliminated the ancient verbal noun כיפורים from the Hebrew Language.
Breuer points out in a footnote that G.B. Sarfatti holds by a different explanation for the change. See Scripta Hierosolymitana 37, which I can’t seem to find in the library.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Rav Soloveitchik commented that there are many different kinds of kapparah experience, all valid. “The viduy of the Vilna Gaon was not the same of Baal Hatanya etc (quoting from memory).” It is brought down in the Mesoret Harav machzor.
The expression Yom Kippur may be based on the fact that “itsumo shel yom mekapper”. Thus there is one single moment when Kapparah takes place, hence Yom Kippur.