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While tradition says that observance of the Day of Atonement was initiated by Moses, careful reading of the Bible indicates that the holiday was a much later contrivance
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Yom Kippur, according to tradition, was first observed in the Sinai Desert, during the Israelites' journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, which some sources date to about 1440 B.C.E. But a careful reading of the Bible shows that the Day of Atonement must have been established later, much later – quite possibly, around 400 B.C.E.
