When we do this together, whole societies can be redeemed. And it can only happen when the entire community as a community collectively shares in the process of confession, repentance, atonement, and purification. And so goes the scapegoat carrying away our defilement that is the mark of shame. God can forgive us of our guilt, those ways we have wronged God, but forgiveness alone cannot remove our sense of shame. Forgiveness can always be granted by the one we have wronged. It is not sacrificed as an atoning act of expiation it is distantly removed as an act of purification. The goat, the scapegoat, receives our collective sin and goes far away never to be heard from again. The curious thing about Yom Kippur is that it is the goat that is not sacrificed that receives the people’s sins. When the first English Bibles were translated William Tyndale rendered it as the “scapegoat” (i.e., the goat that escapes). Or maybe, it is simply the compound noun combining the word for goat (ez) and “go away” (azal). Maybe it means a fallen angel or demon as mentioned in Genesis 6:2 (Ibn Ezra). Maybe it means a steep cliff or an abandoned wilderness place (Rashi). No one really knows who or what Azazel really was or is.
#Thirteen bled promises the black legend zip free#
The other set free to wander the hills, perhaps to an untimely end, perhaps not. Lots are drawn, one bearing the words “to the Lord,” the other “To Azazel.” The one selected to the Lord was offered as a sacrifice.
The oddest part of this practice (still remembered on Yom Kippur, which falls this coming Monday) is the ritual of the two identical goats, chosen to be as similar as possible. So, God provides a way, a ritual, a habit of repentance, a ritual method for forgiveness. Not every generation has a Moses and life would be unbearable if we never knew what we needed to do in order to be forgiven. They provided the ongoing means by which the people’s relationship to God could be maintained. Aaron and the priests who followed him were not. But what happens when you no longer have Moses around?
Time and again, Moses steps forward on behalf of the people. The story of the Exodus recounted across the books of the Torah is filled with the Hebrews protests, complaints, repudiations, and abandonments of God.
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