the torah of moses: judaism in the bible 85
punishments come after death, when ‘many of those who sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to
shame and everlasting contempt,’ the annual ritual of the Day of Atone-
ment enshrined the notion that the Jewish people, even if inevitably
over the year they would fail to keep correctly the covenant that had
been agreed by Israel, could nonetheless be confident that, after due
confession of their iniquities and transgressions, they could hope to be
forgiven by a merciful God and enabled to look forward again to a
prosperous and peaceful year.^22
The biblical rite for the Day of Atonement is envisaged as communal,
crowned by the sacrifices and petitions of the High Priest in the Holy of
Holies (see Chapter 3). Similarly communal was the ritual atonement
prescribed in Deuteronomy for an unresolved murder: the elders of the
town closest to the body were commanded to take a heifer ‘that has
never been worked, one that has not pulled in the yoke’ and to break its
neck ‘in a wadi with running water, which is neither ploughed nor
sown’, reciting the formula ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor
were we witnesses to it. Absolve, O Lord, your people Israel, whom you
redeemed; do not let the guilt of innocent blood remain in the midst of
your people Israel.’ But many references in the Psalms assume that the
individual Israelite in contrite prayer can hope for forgiveness from a
merciful God: ‘If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could
stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.’
The repentance of ‘a broken and contrite heart’ will be treated by God
as a sacrifice, and not despised.^23
Judaism as expressed in the biblical texts takes for granted the role of
God in bringing salvation now both to the individual and to the com-
munity as a whole. Salvation is understood in concrete terms in both
cases. The individual is saved from trouble, enemies, suffering or death.
The people of Israel are saved from the hostility of other nations, fam-
ine or slavery (as in the exodus from Egypt). Occasionally a biblical text
reveals hope for the salvation also of other nations, as in the vision of
Isaiah that ‘Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob” ... Nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more.’ The covenant with Noah after the flood, indicated by the rain-
bow, encompassed not just his descendants, comprising all humankind,
but also ‘every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic
animals, and every animal of the earth’. Occasionally salvation is imag-
ined in the Bible as postponed to a future time in which the whole world