“Did the high priest have a rope tied to him when he entered the Holy of Holies?”……There is a tradition that the high priest of Israel would enter the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle / Temple with a rope tied to his foot and/or with bells around his waist. Tradition says that when the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies at Yom Kippur during the last couple of centuries of the Temple, a scarlet rope was tied to his foot. A priest in the Holy Place tended the other end of this rope, which had a purpose. If the High Priest’s sins were not atoned for properly, he would die in the presence of the shekinah-the glory of God-that filled the Holy of Holies. Since nobody else could enter that part of the Temple without also dying, the priests felt they needed a way to retrieve the body of the High Priest, if necessary. That was the purpose of the rope-to pull the body out. The bells jingling would be the sign that the priest had fallen to the ground dead.……If true, this would be a powerful reminder of God’s holiness and how we should praise Jesus for the direct access to God’s throne He provides! However, the Bible does not record such a practice. In fact, the Bible has specific instructions regarding what the high priest can and cannot wear (Exodus chapters 28-35). It seems highly unlikely that God would allow this practice.