Fast of the Firstborn tends to precipitate contrition in the one who fasts (see Joel, 2:12–18). This is why the Bible requires fasting (lit. self-affliction) on Yom Kippur (Jewish holiday of atonement) (see Leviticus, 23:27,29,32; Numbers, 29:7; Tractate "Yoma", 8:1; ibid. Babylonian Talmud, 81a). Because, according to the Hebrew Bible, hardship and calamitous circumstances can occur as a result of wrongdoing (see, for example, Leviticus 26:14–41), fasting is often undertaken by the community or by individuals to achieve atonement and avert catastrophe (see, for example, Esther 4:3,16; Jonah 3:7). Most of the Talmud's Tractate "Ta'anit" ("Fast[s]") is dedicated to the protocol involved in declaring
Substitutionary atonement lambs to pay for one's sins. The word "atonement" encompasses Christ’s work of redemption on behalf of his people. The center of Christ’s work, to which the whole New Testament expounded, was Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross. Christ’s death is the very heart of the Christian faith. A distinction is often made between substitutionary atonement (Christ suffers for us), and penal substitution (Christ punished instead of us), which is a subset or particular type of substitutionary atonement. Both affirm the substitutionary and vicarious nature of the atonement (that Christ did His work in place of something required of us),