Sermons and Divrei Torah
Azazel
Mitch Rose
AZAZEL
The traditional Torah reading for Yom Kippur is found in Leviticus, chapter 16, which includes the laws pertaining to the Holy Day. Yom Kippur is described as a "Sabbath of rest" during which we are to afflict our souls.
Included in the reading are instructions to Aaron, and hence his priestly successors, to make a sin offering for himself and his house. In this regard, the passage goes into gory detail: for example, we are told that Aaron shall kill a bull, take the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger and then sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times. Aaron is to then kill a goat as well, meant as a sin offering for all of the Israelites, and do with its blood what he did with the blood of the bull.
Frankly, all of this is enough to make you lose your appetite. Which perhaps is the point, given the day.
Far more controversial, however, although less bloody, are the instructions reserved for Aaron concerning another goat, one that is sacrificed in a different manner altogether.
Aaron is to take two kinds of goats and cast lots upon them, one for the Eternal and one for something called "Azazel". I have already described the fate of the first goat, given up as a sin offering.
As for the goat meant for Azazel, Aaron is to lay his hands upon its head and confess over it all of the sins and iniquities of the people and transfer those sins to the goat. The goat is then to be sent away into the wilderness to a place where it could not find its way back to the camp.
In Temple days the goat was actually driven off a cliff to its death.
In what appears to be a modern variation, a chicken is waived over the heads of one's family. The chicken is then slaughtered and the meat donated to charity. Others waive money for tzadakah in a handkerchief.
The word "Azazel" is mysterious and we can only speculate about its origin. There are many different translations and uses. This is likely the reason that many English language editions of the Torah, such as the one found in your supplement, leave the word Azazel untranslated.
As an aside, in modern Hebrew, Azazel is an expletive, as in telling someone to "Go to Azazel !".
Traditionally, Azazel has been translated into English as "Scapegoat". The Oxford Dictionary defines scapegoat as a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings or mistakes of others. Not surprisingly, it is a combination of the words Escape and Goat.
Many of us likely find the Torah's apparent promotion of the practice of scapegoating perplexing, if not disturbing, since we have been popular scapegoats throughout history.
But I would suggest that to conceive of Aaron's goat as a scapegoat misses the point of the Torah reading.
I do not think that we should take from Leviticus 16 that we are somehow literally cleansed of our shortcomings, or that we can escape from them, simply by transferring them onto a goat, or worse, onto other people.
I say this because it is vital not to confuse a ritual or a symbol with the thing for which it stands. We should always look deeper.
The ritual of the goat is a gesture, like the practice of Tashlich, and I would suggest it is not meant to be taken literally. After all how could the High Priest actually know all of the sins of his people in order to transfer them onto the goat?
According to Rabbi Charles Sherman, "the authors of Leviticus were neither so primitive nor so naïve as to hold this goat responsible for the sins that it carried." Instead, he is persuaded by Moredecai Kaplan, as am I, who said that "the meaning of [the] ritual was that you had to get rid of evil before you tried to do good"
In fact, Kaplan's view fits squarely with various other translations of Azazel: These translations include "dismissal", "sent away", and "to entirely remove". I suggest that these are superior translations that better convey the deeper meaning of this ancient ritual.
Instead of looking at the ritual, and its modern variations, as simply an attempt to pass our failings off onto others who are undeserving of blame, the goat that is sent off into the wilderness represents the need to first look within ourselves, individually and collectively, to remove those qualities which prevent us from turning our lives around for the better.
Before we can ever hope to be redeemed we need to confess our shortcomings and, in this way, banish them like the Azazel goat.
While confession of sins should only be a first step in the process of Teshuvah, it is, nevertheless, a necessary step.
SHANA TOVA
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...
