G'mar Hatima Tova is a phrase Jewish people around the world when they greet each other in a season called Yom Kippur.
It means May you be sealed in the Book of Life.

Before we go any further, I wish you a personal greeting like that, adding that my sincere wish is that you too will have your name inscribed in the Book of Life.

This annual event is the holiest day of all in the Jewish calendar that is like the climax of a ten-day period known as The days of awe.

In Hebrew, Yom means “day” and Kippur means “to atone” so it is it is also known as the Day of Atonement. What follows next is another special event called Sukkot, also known as the Feast of tabernacles. As it is with other Jewish feasts like Shavuot and Passover, they all have enormous prophetic significance to us.

Whilst Yom Kippur is a solemn event, Sukkot is totally different, being a time of great rejoicing.

I will touch firstly on G’mar Hatima Tova, then share a thought on Sukkot.

Yom Kippur is a serious and solemn day, so people do not greet each other with a “Happy Yom Kippur”.
The reason is that Jews believe that the Book of Life is opened on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and is sealed at the end of Yom Kippur following the period of repentance. It is considered important because they believe that this determines their fate for the coming year.

Traditionally, Jews believe that God decides who will be sealed in the Book of Life to live for another year after judging their deeds over the past year. Others simply use the day as a time to reflect on what they want to do differently in the coming year, just as we in the Western world make New Year resolutions that are often forgotten.

Yom Kippur is “the tenth day of the seventh month” known as Tishrei and it is regarded as the “Sabbath of Sabbaths.” It is a period of time where Jews are required to take stock of their lives, to ask forgiveness from friends and family and to prepare to improve for the year to come.

When Yom Kippur begins, Jews are prohibited from eating or drinking, bathing, anointing the body with oil, wearing leather shoes and having any sexual relations.

During Yom Kippur (a 25-hour period) five synagogue services are conducted and a special memorial service is held for those who have died during the year. The Yom Kippur services contain many recitations of something called Vidui (confession) and a list of communal transgressions for which Jews ask for forgiveness.

Jewish believers in Jesus spend the day in similar manner, but with a difference. They give thanks that their names are indeed written in the book of life, as are ours. We see mention of this in Exodus 32:32-33, Philippians 4:3, Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12-15, 21:17 and 22:19. Those dear brethren usually wear white garments on this day, symbolizing purity and the promise in Isaiah 1:18 saying that our sins would be as white as snow.

On this day of atonement, we can think of Leviticus chapter sixteen, where God told Moses to instruct Aaron that he could not come into the holy place at any time he wanted because if he did, he would die.

He laid down strict guidelines on how to make his approach.

Aaron had to bathe first, put on his priestly garments, present sin and burnt offerings and bring two goats, one of which was for the Lord and the other was ʿazāʾzēl (the scapegoat).

The concept was that after first making sure he had properly prepared himself and his house by making his own sin offerings, Aaron took the two goats to the door of the tent of meeting. Here he cast lots to choose which goat was to be sacrificed and which goat was to be the scapegoat.

The Lord’s goat was sacrificed. The other was to be released into the wilderness. Aaron first laid his hands on this scapegoat and confessed the sins of the people over it. That way, their sins were transferred to that goat and when it was sent away, those sins were taken away with it.
There is a saying that Jews tied a cloth that had been dipped in blood to the goat and looked carefully at the red stain so see what happened as was set free. If it turned white, it meant that God had accepted their sacrifice and their sins were taken away.
I am not certain if this is true, but it “lines up” with what God has done for us because of Jesus.

He is our ʿazāʾzēl.

As we have seen, the English phrase the Day of Atonement is Yom Kippur. The root meaning of Kippur seems to come from the word Kofer and here it gets interesting. Let us look at Psalm 49:7-

None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.

That word redeem is pādâ and it essentially means to transfer ownership of something from one person to another. The word ransom is kōper and it is really interesting. One meaning means young lion. Another meaning is a village. Other meanings relate to covering, a sum of money or even paying a bribe. OK, I think you can see some links here. Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. He paid the price of the bribe to purchase our redemption and just as a village is somewhere someone lives, we are the temples of the Holy Spirit, He lives in us.

We have been redeemed because someone made an atonement by offering a substitute and paying the price for it...by the priestly rituals of sprinkling the blood of the sacrificial animal to sin and defilement...the placing of hands on an innocent beast and transferring sin to it to be taken away never to be seen again.

The whole meanings of the Jewish feasts now starts to mean something to a believer.

Leviticus 16:20-34 states-

When he has finished purging the Shrine, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, the live goat shall be brought forward. Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness through a designated man. Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.
And Aaron shall go into the Tent of Meeting, take off the linen vestments that he put on when he entered the Shrine, and leave them there. He shall bathe his body in water in the holy precinct and put on his vestments; then he shall come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, making expiation for himself and for the people. The fat of the sin offering he shall turn into smoke on the altar.
He who set the Azazel-goat free shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may reenter the camp.
The bull of sin offering and the goat of sin offering whose blood was brought in to purge the Shrine shall be taken outside the camp; and their hides, flesh, and dung shall be consumed in fire. He who burned them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may re-enter the camp.
And this shall be to you a law for all time: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall practice self-denial; and you shall do no manner of work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you. For on this day atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you of all your sins; you shall be clean before the Lord.
It shall be a sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall practice self-denial; it is a law for all time. The priest who has been anointed and ordained to serve as priest in place of his father shall make expiation. He shall put on the linen vestments, the sacral vestments. He shall purge the innermost Shrine; he shall purge the Tent of Meeting and the altar; and he shall make expiation for the priests and for all the people of the congregation.
This shall be to you a law for all time: to make atonement for the Israelites for all their sins once a year.
And Moses did as the Lord had commanded him.