Vol. 51:3 · July – September 2023

Letter to the Editor

Shubert Spero

Abstract

On Ilona Rashkow's article about the Azazel ritual in JBQ 51:2. Asks whether any neighbouring culture selected its scapegoat by lot as the Bible does, and takes up her reading of the high priest laying both hands on the goat — not only "this is mine" but "this is me" — against the writer's own earlier suggestion that the two goats stand for two components of human consciousness.

I wish to register my appreciation for the informative and stimulating article by Ilona Rashkow on the Azazel Ritual (scapegoat) and similar such rituals in the ancient Near East (JBQ 51:2).

I am curious as to whether any of these other cultures had a process of scapegoat selection by lot (goral) as in the Bible?

The author’s remark that the unusual requirement for the high priest to place both his hands (yadav) on the head of the scapegoat may signify not only that the animal “is mine” but that “it is me”, suggests a broader approach to the azazel ritual that takes into account the judgmental and penitential themes of Tishrei.

In an earlier work (God in All Seasons, 1967,) I theorize that the azazel ritual may symbolize the introspective search for the real abiding “self”, source for the sense of personhood that is prepared to stand before Divine judgement and take responsibility for its actions.

The two goats represent the two constitutive components of human consciousness at any given time. On the one hand, the continuous procession of desirers, emotions, perceptions and thoughts, some lingering, others passing through. On the other hand, there is the familiar self-evidential referent of the pronoun “I“ that is having the aforementioned transient experiences. It is this “self” that must be symbolically identified before the Yom Kippur process can proceed.

In the casting of lots, the high priest, standing before the two goats, one to his right and one to his left, simultaneously with each hand, chooses a lot from the container. The goat opposite the hand containing the lot marked le Hashem is so designated by placing the lot on the head of the goat. It is then hurried off to the altar. Interestingly, the remaining goat is never formally designated le azazel !

Since the lottery is binary, once the core self has been identified and separated out, the remaining one is necessarily le azazel. Since the azazel is bearing the sins” caused by the desires, emotions and evil thoughts of the person, we do not destroy but rather banish, as it were, disarm Satan for once in the year (Lev. 16:34). Franz Rosenzweig has said “Yom Kippur is a rehearsal for death”. Perhaps so. That is why when Yom Kippur ends there is great joy in the observant Jewish community. But not only to break the fast but for each person to get back his worn but familiar personality. Who knows, perhaps in the mysterious folds of time some of the these more frivolous sentiments may become engines to produce new layers to one’s core self.

Sincerely yours,

Irving Stone Chair Basic Jewish Studies Emeritus Bar Ilan University

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