In the yoga tradition, "tapas" (तपस्) refers to austerity, discipline, or spiritual practice involving self-purification through heat or effort, often metaphorically linked to a "burning" of impurities. Tapas is offering oneself through intense dedication or sacrifice to a higher power, including God.
"yajna" (यज्ञ), which broadly means sacrifice or offering, sometimes involving fire, and can include self-offering in a spiritual sense.
The Hebrew noun olah (עֹלָה) occurs 289 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible. It means "that which goes up [in smoke]".[5] It is formed from the active participle of the verb alah (עָלָה), "to cause to ascend." It was sometimes also called kalil, an associated word found in Leviticus, meaning "entire".[5][6]
Its traditional name in English is "holocaust",[5] and the word olah has traditionally been translated as "burnt offering."[6][7][8] The term was translated as holocauston in the Septuagint. Today, some English Bible translations render the word as holocaust, and others translate it as "burnt offering". For example, Exodus 18:12a is translated in the New American Bible as Then Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, brought a holocaust and other sacrifices to God, while it is translated in the New International Version as Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God.[9]