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Ralph the Sacred River: October 2005 |
 | | The earliest use I can find of the later, short expression is in the Tosafists (glossators) to the Babylonian Talmud, which would place its origin in the early medieval period. |
| | Kippurim is a tantum plurale ("only plural") in Biblical Hebrew, a word occurring only in the plural. |
| | Pluralia tantum are often used in Hebrew to denote abstract notions, like "atonement," alumim, "youth," tanhumim, "consolation." etc. They are less frequent in later forms of the language, which might account for the eventual changeover to the singular in yom kippur. |
| ralphriver.blogspot.com /2005_10_01_ralphriver_archive.html (2612 words) |
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