D'var Torah - April 24, 2010
D'var Torah –
The Strange Tale of Azazel - Acharei Mot – After the death of Aaron’s 2 sons" Leviticus 16:1 - 18:30 4/24/10
Rabbi Mark S. Kram , Temple Beth Or, Miami, FL
After the death of Aaron’s two sons who perished at God’s “hand” because of the strange offering of fire they brought, Aaron offers expiation for that sin on behalf of the nation.
“ 7 Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; 8 and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for the Lord and the other marked for Azazel. 9 Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for the Lord, which he is to offer as a sin offering; 10 while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before the Lord, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel.”
This Yom Kippur ritual is strange. I understand symbolically placing the sins of the people on to a goat, or a chicken, or casting them into a body of water (river, stream, lake or ocean) in order to physically participate in an action ridding us of sin. I get it. But to then chase the other goat over a cliff (sure the first was slaughtered), well, that seems extreme.
However, one explanation as to why this was done rang true for me. That the nation of Israel wandering through the wilderness and preparing to leave it needed to also separate themselves from the customs and beliefs and practices of the local people and their deities they passed by during their travels toward Canaan. The superstitions associated with the local deities – Azazel being the chief one! – it was necessary to completely relinquish that hold as they advanced toward their goal. As the Jewish Encyclopedia describes,
“The point of the whole ceremony seems to have been that as the scapegoat was set free in the desert, so Israel was to be set free from the offenses contracted in its desert life within the domain of the god of the desert.”
The pure brute physicality of the ceremony is striking – probably just as it is important for us to invoke physical actions into our lives such as lighting Shabbat candles, saying Kiddush and eating a delicious Shabbat challah. Placing our hands on our children’s heads for a blessing or making a long distant call. It takes an exercise of the mind and makes the thought concrete.
Of course I’m not interested in pushing a goat off of a cliff. But perhaps we need more practices rather than fewer to help us live full Jewish lives!
Shabbat Shalom!