Sermons and Divrei Torah
The Scapegoat
by Janice Fricker
(Dvar Torah - Yom Kippur 5764)
Having never written a devar torah before, I found myself, at first, quite daunted by the task of preparing a commentary on the scapegoat which is directly mentioned in only three verses of Leviticus 16, but I soon found myself fascinated by the complexity of the questions and the ideas raised by this traditional reading for Yom Kippur morning.
Before I address some of those questions and ideas, let me briefly summarize the events described in Leviticus. Aaron has received instructions from God through his brother Moshe as to how he is to proceed with the purification of the children of Israel on the Day of Atonement. First he must sacrifice a bull for himself and his household (It is assumed this means for all priests.) Then he must draw lots to establish which of two male goats will be sacrificed to the Lord on behalf of all Israel and which one will be sent away into the wilderness for Azazel. There are, naturally, important and specific instructions as to how these activities are to be performed. The blood of his sacrifice and the blood of the goat atoning for the sins of Israel are used to purify the sanctuary. The goat for Azazel is to receive the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of the people of Israel from the Cohen Gadol and then be driven into the wilderness by an attendant who must wash his clothes and bath before returning to the community.
There are many questions inspired by these verses. Some reflect simply curiousity about details, others are more thoughtful in nature: Why a bull for the Cohen Gadol and goats for Israel. Why are there two goats? Why are lots drawn? What is Azazel? Why is Azazel in the wilderness? Most important, for me, are the questions about our relationship today, in 5764, to this ritual which began in Mosaic times. Before attempting to answer the questions most important to me, I will share some of the answers to be found in our traditional writings to a few of the other questions.
It is generally accepted that the bull sacrifice of the Cohen Gadol, the high priest, had to be purchased with his own money. It was expected that the spiritual leader had to make a significant sacrifice and had to show in a real way that, far from being without sin, he must confess, sacrifice, and atone for himself and his household before he has the God-given authority to purify the sanctuary and assist in the atonement of the people. How wise and right it is that a leader, who is to help his people in cleansing themselves of their sins, should set the example and first ensure that he has acknowledged his transgressions against God, his on-going, inescapable humanity. How good it would be if more leaders today would follow this example of "do as I do". How refreshing and encouraging it is when a teacher, an employer, or a politician honestly and openly admits, "I was wrong. I made an error" or, even more courageously, " I lied" instead of blaming others or engaging in cover-ups. How rare it is for a leader to make a sincere and significant sacrifice of time, effort, or money, before asking requiring others to do so.
Having "put his own house in order", so to speak, with his God, the Cohen Gadol then began to engage in the purification of the children of Israel. The 1st section of the 6th Chapter of the Mishnah tells us that the two goats used to atone for and cleanse the people of Israel had to be alike in colour, height, weight, and had to be purchased together. In other words, nothing could be said to distinguish one goat from another. Nothing except the drawing of the lots. Rashi tells us that on one lot was written "For the Lord" and on the other was written "For Azazel". The goat for the Lord was sacrificed and its blood was used to purify the sanctuary. The second goat is the one that has fascinated generations and become the theme of thousands of reflections and creative works. This second, translated into English as "the scapegoat" has captured the imagination of rabbis, poets, novelists, psychologists, and all those who think deeply about human nature.
Picture the scene. The goat has been selected as the goat for Azazel. It stands before the high priest. The priest raises his hands over the head of the goat and transfers all the iniquities, transgressions, and sins of the people of Israel into the goat. The Mishnah tells us the confession over the goat was:
"O God, Thy people , the House of Israel, have sinned, they have committed iniquities and they have transgressed again thee."
The goat now carries the burden of all that wickedness, and it is driven away from the encampment, driven out into the wilderness by an attendant. It is driven away from God and his people and must be with Azazel.
I confess that as a child, I paid virtually no attention to the deaths of the other animals used to cleanse the relationship between the children of Israel and God. I felt only for the scapegoat. As a child, my heart swelled with sorrow for the animal carrying the burden of the sins that had been transferred to him. How unjust, how unfair, how mean. I had no idea then who or what Azazel was; but, if it was away from God, I knew it couldn't be good.
Much has been written about the meaning of Azazel and the actual fate of the scapegoat. Rather than dwell on that, I would like to turn our attention to what, for me, are the most important questions. Why do we still care about the scapegoat? Why is it central to our worship on the holiest day of the year
In 5764, we Jews no longer conduct animal sacrifices and sympathetic magic is, for most people, a thing of the past or merely a pleasant ritual; however, the human need to unburdened, to feel clean spiritually remains. In that basic need we are no different than those who pooled their resources to buy two goats, one for Azazel.
The scapegoat's purpose, we are told, was to release the people from their iniquities, their transgressions, and their sins. It seems we human beings need something to help us feel clean after committing acts against God. Carl Jung said that the human being has an absolute need for "spiritum" (a feeling of connectedness with the divine) and where spiritum is lacking, the human being will replace it with spiritus (the various material substitutes and behaviours that often become addictions.)
If we harm others, we can make amends and experience their forgiveness, but how do we cleanse ourselves when we have willfully acted against God, against our own soul, against goodness and life itself? It seems to me that, most often, we do one of three things: We attempt to hide our transgressions from ourselves and the world. We blame God. We project our sins onto other people.
If we try to hide from our transgressions, we will need something to hide us, and it is not surprising that addictions are the major threat to the health of North America. The pain of not being "good enough" is great, and so we turn to nicotine, alcohol, sexual promiscuity, greed and power-driven practices, prescription and non-prescription drugs of all kinds in order to numb fear, insecurity and pain. We have all seen children, pull blankets over their heads and declare, "You can't see me." They feel safely hidden for awhile, but they soon realize that it is boring and dark under the blanket. When we use something to hide from ourselves and others, the world does become boring and dark. Hiding feels weak. Scapegoating God or other people, however, feels powerful and hence its perpetual popularity.
Mark Twain said "God is the most popular scapegoat for our sins". Indeed, it is tempting to blame God for the inequities, inhumanities, and sins of the world; but, if we scapegoat God, we are then forced to send God away and we become separated from the divine in our daily lives. If we blame God for our human wars, poverty, disease, greed, indifference, and cruelty, we risk sending God into the wilderness, and we are the ones who lose our sense of direction.
The third choice, making a scapegoat of another person or group of people feels both stronger than hiding and safer than blaming God. These combined illusions of strength and safety make scapegoating others a continuing and popular human pastime.
We know that throughout the course of history, blaming one person or an entire people in order to shift blame and purge the feelings of sin and guilt has caused calamities within families, societies, and nations. Century after century, Jews have felt the pain of the scapegoat as we have been insulted, hurt, terrorized, expelled, and murdered in the millions by those who refused to address the real causes of their fear, failings, and suffering.
Even today, in our relatively calm and prosperous country, we can see that many would rather blame the poor for their poverty and the street folk for their homelessness than face the inequities in society. Workers are blamed for wanting cost of living raises, and tenants are blamed for asking that their rent increases not erode their standard of living. We are willing to blame governments for not protecting our environment, but we don't give up the products that support the pollution of our world. Around the world and here in Canada, anti-semitism grows again as Jews are blamed for the actions of anti-western terrorists and for the actions of United States of America. Sometimes it seems that everyone has an answer to the question, " Whose to blame?" and that answer is "Not us, them."
Yes, Scapegoating is alive and well in the year 5764. And we have the story of a real goat driven into the wilderness outlined for us every year on Yom Kippur. Why?
I believe our tradition is challenging us to find healthy ways of releasing ourselves from the burdens of our unloving acts and our harmful ways. We no longer have the High Priest; animal sacrifices no longer serve us. Perhaps, instead of drawing lots, and casting about for something or someone else to blame, this story challenges each of us to find and acknowledge that from which we would be free.
Having found that, perhaps we can then sacrifice those attitudes and sacrifice those behaviours that take us away from that which we call God.
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...
