Sermons and Divrei Torah
The Scapegoat
by Adrienne Rosen
(Dvar Torah - Yom Kippur 5763)
Parashat Achare Mot begins with its own built in Shofar blast. It basically
tells us to listen up. It’s a sort of vignette by G-d. The first line bears a
warning: “this is what G-d said to Moses after Aaron’s two sons had died
when they drew near to the presence of G-d.”The author definitely has our
attention. Two young men came into G-d’s presence – not just any two
young men but Aaron’s boys, and they died.
The parasha goes on to say: “Tell your brother Aaron that he should not enter
the holy place inside the parochet before the kaporet (the ark cover) at any time
he chooses or else – the same thing is going to happen to him.”
It is put this way so that the experience of past errant behaviour is less likely
to be repeated. It had been specified in prior Parshiyot in chapter and verse how
the Kohanim, other priests and the laity should behave. They were told in painstaking
detail what to wear, how to perform rituals and at what time.
Aaron’s boys were named Nadav and Avihu. The Shem MiShmuel suggested that the
sin of Nadav and Avihu resulted from their lust-like passion and the love of G-d.
This passion was generated by the events of the eight-day inauguration of the
Tabernacle. The Talmud tells us this day was especially beloved for G-d. Says
Talmud Megillah – It was taught on that day there was as much joy in front
of G-d as the day of the creation of heaven and earth. The boys in their joy
elevated themselves to the same level of joy that G-d experienced at creation
and the Rabbis tell us that G-d didn’t intend for us to worship without
a defined and clear paradigm to frame prayer.
Like many of us in our youth, and some not in youth, we have experienced the
joy and the carelessness of short brief and intense relationships that were
perhaps not built on principles of care, concern, justice, right conduct, and
derech eretz. In other words, but in not so many words, many of us have been
carried away by passion alone.
G-d is very clear. If we want to live in ethical relationship to an other we
require the ability to see the other in a context of care and respect and to
conduct ourselves through principled behaviour. I don’t think G-d wants
us not to feel passion but to frame it within a context of care and respect.
This seems to be prima facie a contradiction. The nature of passion is total
freedom in the realm of feelings to put it into context takes it from world
of inclinations to the world of the pre-determined. But as we mature we come
to know that to live in the place of joyful satiation for our needs alone,
is to live in the land of the ‘I” – the subjective, isolated
place of loneliness that is unable to see a “thou.” The relationship
is reduced to an “I” – “it” relationship.
The parasha is rich in its explication of interior experience and exterior
experience. It deals with our public persona and our private agendas. This is
made even clearer when the parasha presents the scapegoat.
G-d instructs Aaron to find two goats. Says tractate Yoma – the two
goats shall be identical in appearance, size and value and the two shall be
chosen together. In other words – they should be twins. In Torah twins
are frequently opposites – such as Jacob and Esav – one good and
one not so good.
I like Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner’s explanation best: when things look alike
from the exterior – it is a sign that we must look within - at the essence
in order to discern the difference.
The high priest was ordered to cast lots. One goat would stay at the temple
and be sacrificed for G-d as a sin offering. The other should be stood in
the presence of G-d and the sins of all the people put on its head. The
Torah says the goat should be sent away to Azazel. Azazel. Where’s
Azazel? It doesn’t sound like a March break destination to me. There is
no airline code such as AZL. The goat is going to wander around Azazel with
our sins and we can’t locate this place. And as Jews, we generally
like to locate everything. Location brings safety and security. Everything
in its place and a place for everything. Location is empiric – the
senses are satisfied with certainty. There is no need to speculate or reflect.
Rabbi Menachem Azarya DeFano, (not of Kolel) in his work “Sefer Emet”
explains that the name Azazel is an acronym for ze le’umat ze asa Elokim ---
G-d has made one as well as the other” as it says in Ecclesiastes – “In
the day of prosperity be joyful, in the day of adversity consider: G-d has made the
one as well as the other.
The parasha in relaying that lots were drawn for the goats to determine who was the
so called good goat or bad goat paves the way for a randomness that is not apparent
in most other Parshot. And since G-d made both animals identical we are left to
conclude that not only is Azazel not a fixed place but that the entire concept of
evil and good is random as opposed to predetermined by the deity.
And this is why the notion of “free will” enters into the picture and
relates directly back to the sons of Aaron. They were told very clearly how to
behave and they didn’t listen. They acted on their own accord – they
disregarded the warnings and they paid with their lives.
There are many people that are frightened of choice. They want things spelled out
for them. Free will is just too frightening. And for them they can fall back on
the Mishnah when it says in Yoma that the scapegoat was not set free to roam in
Azazel but that it was thrown off a cliff to die for its sins. Not only that, it
was accompanied to the cliff by the whole community so that they would be witness
to the death of their sins. That way they could entrench the idea of the scapegoat.
It was a lynching. The Mishnah goes on to say that there was a red thread tied to
the goat’s forehead that was identical to one in the temple. When the goat
perished the thread in the temple turned white.
There are those who believe that the goat became Azazel – that it was named
Azazel -the embodiment of evil. In Islam Azazel became Iblis, which means ‘despair.’
Perhaps this is the most fitting name for a scapegoat. And anyone that has been a scapegoat
knows what I am talking about.
We all know scapegoats – or we’ve been scapegoats – we know how wretched
it feels to be blamed for the cause of dysfunction, insecurity or communal dissent. Whether
is has happened to us as individuals or members of groups – as Jews, women, gays and
lesbians, people of colour – we know the soul of the scapegoat.
I do not believe absolution comes in the death of anything extraneously tangible to us,
whether the goat or anything else. I don’t think our spiritual freedom comes from the
vilification of things that are separate to our lives. I believe the goat roams as we roam
today in thought and reflection - as we ponder our relationship to ourselves and others.
I believe that if we have sinned we are wholly responsible for addressing our wrong to the
person or places where we have transgressed. We know the source of Tshuvah – which is
turning – turning away from ways of being, seeing and doing that are destructive –
that are changeable. We know tshuvah is intrinsically tied to justice.
The wandering of the goat in Azazel represents our hope and our possibilities. As we wander
we reflect back on our lives and our moral agency. We are wanderers. Wandering is the place
of process.
If G-d not only allows evil and good but also has created both spheres as possibilities, then
we are left no alternative but to look inside, study, grow, act ethically, learn and attempt
to create communities based on Justice and Chesed.
Sermons and Divrei Torah
Additional Resources
Elul: Period of Preparation
Yamim Noraim: Days of Awe
Rosh Hashanah: Introduction
Shofar Symbolism
The Custom of Tashlich
Yom Kippur: Introduction
G'mar Chatima Tova...
