Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur Sermons
Azazel by Roel Wyman
So, the goat was not impressed. Neither was his brother. Given no choice in the matter, one was sacrificed to the Lord in the Beit Hamikdash, and the other, as identical as possible, pushed over a cliff. Fortunately goat's don't think, we think, and a swift death, either as sacrifice or under the shochet's knife was probably inevitable anyway. The goat wasn't bred to be a pet and die at a good old age.
In Hebrew we say lekh la-Azazel ("go to Azazel") when telling someone to go to hell. But where is that is it a place, an emotional destination, or a consignment to some hideous hell?
Azazel was the loneliest, the most desolate spot in the wilderness. It was also the name of the chief of the fallen angels known as grigori, who taught men war and women deception, and created such iniquity that the result had to be the Flood. Was the goat a sacrifice to Satan or an attempt to expunge the sins of the Jewish people to whitewash them with a pretty red ribbon?
The scapegoat carried the sins of the people, who were then declared to be free of sin at least for the moment. As the year went on sins gradually mounted up again, some known, some not; some deliberate, some not. We list in the al chait some of the many ways in which that bumpy cup starts to fill until it is totally, unbearably overflowing by the end of the following year. When we need another scapegoat.
To be scapegoat is to be a patsy, a mark, a social outcast or underdog whose sole reason for existence seems to be to relieve someone else of responsibility for some condition, or misdemeanor. Look who some recent scapegoats have been:
The poor, who suck the goodness from the national productivity of the hard-working rich
The homeless, who are blamed for their lack of initiative, self-respect and of course, cleanliness
The blacks, who are the authors of their own misfortunes for not raising themselves above their early misfortunes
The Jews, who greedily bled the righteous Gentiles of all they labored for
The Falun Gong, who, quote, engaged in illegal activities, advocating superstition and spreading fallacies, hoodwinking people, inciting and creating disturbances, and jeopardizing social stability.
Now isn't that a useful catch-all that we could conveniently apply to any group that we find mildly irritating, or socially uppity.
We could even Blame Canada, as in the satirical South Park Movie song with the line,
We must blame them and make a fuss
before someone thinks of blaming us!
But unlike the ruminant variety, some two-legged scapegoats resent and even refuse their assigned roles. Sometimes they reject their roles by striving to overcome the stereotypes they're labeled with. Not a bad idea. But sometimes they simply say To hell Azazel with you and your stereotypes. We're not here to satisfy your moralizing or your needs. We'll go on being who we are and what we are whether it suits you or not.
It's too bad, because a scapegoat is such a useful creation. When you've got one you don't really need to evaluate your own responsibility or your deeds. The devil made you do it and punishing the scapegoat is only right and proper in fact, he more than deserves it, he's actually asking for it!
In 1944, goes a story, a poor Jew in Poland was accosted by a group of SS officers who were tired of yanking beards and were looking for a different kind of sport.
Who is responsible for all the evil in the world? they demanded of him, pushing him down on his knees into the mud.
The bicycle riders and the Jews, he immediately responded.
Why the bicycle riders? the senior officer asked, mystified.
Why the Jews? he replied
The story doesn't tell how they laughed at his wit, let him go and even treated him to a fine dinner for his spunk. Probably that's not exactly what happened.
Once you become a scapegoat, whether it's by a person or a society, your life will never be the same. But you don't have to accept a status just because it's assigned to you.
Falun Gong, Jews, blacks, poor people, abandoned single parents, Gypsies, Turks and Litvaks yes, even Litvaks! reject their common persecution. The reasons for their various situations are as different as the groups who put them there, but they share one thing a rejection of the principle that says If I'm in trouble, it must be your fault.
Maybe it's someone's fault maybe it's no one's. Maybe Azazel the grigori, not the place - is still trying to sow discord amongst us, something that, unfortunately, is tragically easy to do. Maybe we and our objects of blame need another set of labels: perhaps we should be called the Scapor and the Scapee! From a moral basis we Jews have our Scapee and we're lucky that, institutionally, at least, it's just a goat. Or today, not even a living being. Except, the other day, it was not so good to be a chicken in Williamsburg, Mea She'arim or Thornhill. So we can pray for the expiation of our sins, and really mean it. Really! And try to do what we can to keep from committing them again next year or at least, the same ones. And to avoid becoming the Scapors.
We're also given far too much attention today as Scapees, in large areas of the world. Unfortunately we're all too familiar , if hardly comfortable, with this role.
But we also need to put ourselves in the place of some of the other Scapees and remember that all of us are made of many parts some we have chosen and some we would never choose. There, but for the grace of G-d, go I, said John Bradford, around 1553. Watch who you blame, and how. It's a pretty view over the edge of Azazel, but it's a mighty steep drop.
