Radical Torah

“Aaron shall place lots upon the two he-goats: one lot ‘for YKVK’ and one lot ‘for Azazel.’…And the he-goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be stood alive before YKVK, to provide atonement through it, and to send it away to Azazel, into the desert.”

Most commentators translate Azazel as “a tall steep cliff.” How is it that a religion that so prescribes the specifics of how an animal may be slaughtered, and that codified laws regarding animal cruelty two thousand years ago, requires that we project all of our sins onto an innocent goat, which we then shove off a cliff? What meaning can possibly be derived from this ritual, and how can it relate to Yom Kippur?

Regarding the two identical he-goats, Rashi states:

And Aaron shall place lots upon the two he-goats. He would place one [he-goat] on his right and one on his left. Then, he would insert both his hands into an urn [which contained two lots, one bearing the inscription “to the Lord” and the other “to Azazel.” These lots were mixed up, and Aaron, with both hands inside the urn] took one lot in his right hand and the other in his left hand, and he would place them upon them [the he-goats]: [The one] upon which [he placed the lot] with the inscription “to the Lord,” would be for God, while the one upon which [he placed the lot] with the inscription “to Azazel,” would be sent off to Azazel. — [Yoma 39a] Azazel. This is a strong and hard mountain, [with] a high cliff, as the Scripture says [in describing Azazel] (verse 22 below),“a precipitous land (àÆøÆõ âÌÀæÅøÈä),” meaning a cut-off land [i.e., a sheer drop]. — [Torath Kohanim 16:28; Yoma 67b]
and designate it as a sin-offering. When he places the lot upon it, he designates it by calling it [a sin-offering], saying, “To the Lord-a sin-offering”. — [Yoma 39a]

In other words, Rashi says that Aaron would take two identical goats, and choose lots to randomly determine which goat would be sacrificed as a korban to YKVK, and which would be sent over a cliff, “l’Azazel.” Before being sent off to its death, Aaron would “lean both of his hands [forcefully] upon the live he goat’s head and confess upon it all the willful transgressions of the children of Israel, all their rebellions, and all their unintentional sins, and he shall place them on the he goat’s head.”

This is the traditional interpretation of the se’ir l’Azazel.

The Ibn Ezra offers up a different interpretation. We see that he says that the secret of the Azazel is after the word Azazel, and one can understand it when “one is at thirty-three.” This cryptic message can be understood by looking 33 verses after the word “Azazel” in Leviticus 16:10. Thirty-three verses later we see “…they will no longer offer sacrifices to the satyrs that lead them astray.” (17:7) According to Rashi, the word “l’seirim” means “l’shaydim,” unto the demons. What the Ibn Ezra is saying is that the practice of the scapegoat will lead the Israelites to stop sacrificing to the shaydim (which was the practice of the pagans). The practice of the se’ir l’Azazel, already being practiced, became a part of the legitimate Jewish ritual, and therefore ceased to be an act of avodah zarah. The Ibn Ezra is referencing the ancient demon Azazel, to whom many non-Hebrew Semitic tribes offered sacrifices. By projecting all of Bnei Yisrael’s sins onto the goat and sending if “off to Azazel,” this traditional practice became a second half to the more traditional Yom Kippur korban sacrifice.

In this, we see that the local pagan practice, which was already a part of Israelite life, was sublimated into legitimate Jewish practice. This explains why this ritual became a part of the Yom Kippur ritual, but is still a far cry from being a korban itself. It is still sacrificed in a brutal way, seemingly inconsistent with Jewish law regarding ever min hachai, loosely translated as animal cruelty. It is all well and good that we are incorporating this into Jewish ritual, but we are still condoning animal cruelty. Our first question remains unanswered.

To understand this, we must look to the source in Yoma, for why we believe that the goat was in fact pushed off the cliff. This understanding goes back to the interpretation of Azazel as “a strong and hard mountain, [with] a high cliff.” Thus we see that Azazel is a reference to the type of place or cliff which the goat is being pushed from.

Perhaps there is another way to interpret the word “Azazel.” In addition to understanding it as a specific physical place, or as a demon, we see that according to Mishnah Yoma, and to a certain extent the Ibn Ezra, “Azazel” means “a goat that goes.” ]

Another interpretation reads “Azazel” as “Azaz-El,” meaning “the strong/powerful god.” This does not fit the spelling of ayin, zayin, aleph, zayin, lamed, however it is more than possible that the text originally read ayin, zayin, zayin, aleph, lamed, which is exactly what we find in texts from Qumran and the Samaritan Pentateuch. This interpretation, however, essentially accuses Bnei Yisrael of practicing avodah zarah, as the shift in the spelling in the Masoretic text was most likely done to obscure the reference to a pagan deity, which the bible would certainly prefer not refer to as El. In fact, the Ohr HaChaim quotes the Zohar, saying “the [sacrifice to] Azazel is in the mode of evil, and is almost, God-forbid, avodah zarah.”

This seems to leave us with more questions than answers. We now have a new understanding of the word “Azazel,” referring to a specific foreign deity, however, with the Zohar referencing the practice as being borderline avodah zarah. The Ibn Ezra, quoting Rav Shmuel is able to offer some clarification:

“Although it is [only] with reference to the sin offering that it is written [explicitly] that it was for the Eternal, the goat which was sent away [to Azazel] was also for the Eternal.”

R’ Shmuel is saying that the se’ir l’Azazel was in fact not a sacrifice to a foreign deity, but a second sacrifice to HaShem! If the El in Azazel is not a foreign deity, then it must be another aspect of God! The se’ir l’Azazel is sacrificed to El, who is Elokim, representing the midah of din, or judgement, while the se’ir l’HaShem is sacrificed to YKVK, representing the midah of rachamim, or mercy.

Why would we confess and dump all of our sins onto the goat that will go before the harsh midah of din? It would certainly make more sense to place the sins before the midah of rachamim, hoping for forgiveness! After dumping all of our sins onto this goat, according to Or HaChaim, it is actually spiritually dead. This is the reason that the goat is referred to specifically as alive in verses 16:10 and 16:21, but after Aaron projects the sins upon it, “it is no longer called alive.” This makes no sense! We should be putting our sins on the goat that will appear before rachamim, not din!

What we see here is the quintessential point of what happens on Yom Kippur. We are presenting ourselves to God on this day of judgement, contaminated nearly to the point of spiritual death, and expecting no redemption. We have placed our sins on the goat for the midah of din, and we wait for all mercy to be tossed to the side, but as we see from the posuk, in the end the midah of din itself stands before the midah of rachamim, and it is the midah of din that is sent away: “And the he-goat designated by lot for Azazel (the midah of din) shall be stood alive before YKVK (the midah of rachamim), to provide atonement throught it, to send it to Azazel to the Wilderness.” If Azazel is a reference to the midah of din, then it is not a reference to being pushed off of a cliff. We see that it actually represents the sending away of those aspects of ourselves that are governed by ego and our yetzer harah, with no reason to believe that the goat is pushed off of a cliff.

In order for Bnei Yisrael to properly offer one of the twin he-goats as a korban, it must engage in a simultaneous purging of negativity, of all the things for which they must do teshuva. The se’ir l’Azazel, however, is never actually killed.

As we saw above, the midah of din itself stands before the midah of rachamim, and is sent away. Klal Yisrael can sublimate its judgment, it’s facing up to din, because of the essential nature of rachamim in deciding its fate. This entire narrative comes to illustrate the tension between YKVK and Azazel, between rachamim and din. Both are goats are ultimately “l’HaShem,” according to R’ Shmuel, representing different aspects of God, but in the end din stands before rachamim, and din is sent away.

God’s midah of rachamim is what allows Yom Kippur and Klal Yisrael to exist. Here it is played out in a physical, direct way that is inescapable, where Bnei Yisrael truly appreciate that sending this goat out to din could literally mean throwing it off a cliff. “If I (Bnei Yisrael) were going out today, I would be thrown off the cliff,” but this entire midah is surrendered to the ultimate midah of rachamim, where the goat (along with the sins) is merely sent away instead.

Rachamim pervades.