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Why Yom Kippur is on the 10th? This date does not make sense! If you search through the Written Torah, you will see that nothing happened on this date. Wouldn't it make sense to have Yom Kippur on the 8th? All sin atonement and sin offerings take place on the 8th or on the 8th from some event. There is absolutely no connection to number 10.

For example, offering on Yom Kippur in Numbers 29:8 is the same as the offering of the 8th day of Sukkot in Numbers 29:36. I think this is the best textual argument for the 8th being the correct date of Yom Kippur.

Even the Moon is in phase on the 8th. On the 10th the Moon is between phases and therefore meaningless.

Any thoughts?

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    Well Moshe was up on the mountain for 120 days from the beginning of the third month, so it's quite reasonable he came down on the 10th of the 7th month.
    – Double AA ♦
    Feb 21, 2017 at 21:38
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    Note Pesach on 15 of 1st month is preceded by a command to take lambs five days earlier on 10 of 1st month (see exodus 12). so too for the holidays of the 7th month do we find an event on 10 and then again on 15.
    – Double AA ♦
    Feb 21, 2017 at 21:41
  • I think your premise is not completely correct. Succot is not in remembrance of any specific event that occurred on a specific day.
    – DanF
    Feb 21, 2017 at 22:00
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    I don't understand your question. Lev 16:29 explicitly says that it is on that date. Are you asking "Why God chose that date"?
    – rosends
    Feb 21, 2017 at 22:46
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    @danno Why the tenth when the eight seems to make more sense is a totally fine question to ask
    – Double AA ♦
    Feb 22, 2017 at 12:39

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If you search through the Written Torah, you will see that nothing happened on this date.

Well, the written Torah explicitly mandates Yom Kippur being on the 10th day of the month (Leviticus 16:29, Numbers 29:7), so I'm not sure what stronger a written source one could possibly need. After all, what makes you think that Yom Kippur is supposed to be in commemoration of an event? Shavuot is on the 6th day of the month, and that's not a big deal either until you consider that it's calculated as the fiftieth day from Pesach. Well, Yom Kippur is the tenth day from Rosh Hashanah.

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  • may be that nothing happened ... what with the 2th luchot?
    – kouty
    Feb 22, 2017 at 8:03
  • Great answer, just what I was thinking. +1 I wonder why this answer hasn't been accepted by the OP?
    – ezra
    Sep 27, 2017 at 14:46

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