Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, a day both designated for seeking atonement, but also, a day that inherently provides atonement as well. In the era of animal sacrifice, it was the day of the calendar year that had the most intricate rituals and profound, the crescendo of the High Holiday seasons.
Among these, one stands out for its complexity and mystery: the selection by lottery of two identical goats:
וְנָתַן אַהֲרֹן עַל־שְׁנֵי הַשְּׂעִירִם גֹּרָלוֹת גּוֹרָל אֶחָד לַה’ וְגוֹרָל אֶחָד לַעֲזָאזֵל – Ahron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel (16:8).
The goat designated for the Lord was slaughtered and offered much like any other sacrifice.
The complexity arises with the second goat, the one designated for Azazel. The Kohen Gadol, acting as the Jewish People’s representative in conducting the rituals and routines of his office, leaned his weight on the goat for Azazel before sending it away, symbolically transferring their misdeeds, :
וְסָמַךְ אַהֲרֹן אֶת־שְׁתֵּי יָדָו עַל רֹאשׁ הַשָּׂעִיר הַחַי וְהִתְוַדָּה עָלָיו אֶת־כּל־עֲונֹת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאֶת־כּל־פִּשְׁעֵיהֶם לְכל־חַטֹּאתָם וְנָתַן אֹתָם עַל־רֹאשׁ הַשָּׂעִיר וְשִׁלַּח בְּיַד־אִישׁ עִתִּי הַמִּדְבָּרָה׃וְנָשָׂא הַשָּׂעִיר עָלָיו אֶת־כּל־עֲונֹתָם אֶל־אֶרֶץ גְּזֵרָה וְשִׁלַּח אֶת־הַשָּׂעִיר בַּמִּדְבָּר – Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness through a designated agent. Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness. (16:21,22)
The goat was led into the wilderness and pushed off a cliff to its grim and chaotic death. The word “Azazel” and the ritual itself have no direct parallels elsewhere in the Torah, making it one of the most puzzling elements of Jewish practice.
The Torah is unambiguous that one goat is for the Lord and one is not, it’s for something else.
But that something else is deeply problematic; one of Judaism’s signature and core beliefs is monotheism, that the Creator is one – ה’ אֶחָד. The notion that something could be “other” or correspond to God in any way is inherently dualistic, and it is therefore incompatible with mainstream Jewish belief to entertain the notion that Azazel represents an angel, demon, or deity.
So, what is the goat for Azazel?
A legendary story about the Holy Jew of Peshischa offers a profound insight. One day, the rabbi was distributing fruit to his followers, and one visitor found that the apple he received was wormy and rotten. Confused, he approached the rabbi, wondering why he had been given such a fruit. The rabbi responded that just as fresh fruits serve the Creator with their sweetness, wormy fruits serve the Creator too, even though they’re not for eating.
We live in a world that includes fresh fruit we like to eat, but that also has wormy ones we don’t. Light and shadow are part of the same Creation, two sides of the same coin, the dualism of all things is part of our universe, part of a greater Unity and serving a higher purpose.
R’ Samson Raphael Hirsch teaches that sacrifical offerings are not mere gifts meant to appease and bribe the Creator to favor us, but rededications of our actions. When we bring a sacrifice, we are not bribing God to ignore our wrongdoings; we are marking a moment of transformation, a commitment to realign our behavior with our intentions. The act of presenting an offering is how a person dedicates their actions and behaviours; the goat for the Lord represents the people renewed commitments to be better, “for the Lord” – עֲשֵׂה טוֹב.
So perhaps the Azazel goat is not a counterpart to God, but an inverse counterpart to the act we want to dedicate to God, acknowledging the darker and shadowy aspects of the year gone by, the mistakes that, while not easily erased, must be confronted and released so that we can move forward – סוּר מֵרָע.
On the Day of Atonement, the Kohen Gadol would lean on the Azazel goat, symbolically transferring the people’s missteps and wrongdoings, an essential component of the atonement process, symbolizing the need to confront and release the burdens that inhibit spiritual renewal.
The goats for the Lord and Azazel are not opposing forces but two components of a unified ritual that reflect the dual nature of repentance. It is an acknowledgment that true atonement requires both commitment to positive change and the release of past wrongs.
It’s no good pretending our mistakes never happened; rather, it was about acknowledging them openly. The Arizal teaches that even as we seek to be overwhelmed with blessing and goodness, we must sometimes first confront the consequences of our negative actions, behaviors, or thoughts.
So perhaps that’s the function of the Azazel ritual, a symbolic acknowledgment of the darker aspects that exist within our spiritual and psychological landscapes. These elements may have no place in our future, but they cannot be ignored or forgotten. With the goat for Azazel, we recognize and gather the shadows we have cast and send them to a liminal space—the wilderness—a place for things that don’t belong in our lives or our society. It’s a dissociation from negativity, an act of sending it back to the chaos and formlessness from which it came, so we can move forward and start the year with a truly clean slate.
As Ramban explains, the Azazel ritual is not an offering to another power but a divinely commanded act of purging and distancing from sin. It symbolizes the rejection of destructive forces, reinforcing the belief in one God who commands us to confront and release our darker impulses. This act vividly acknowledges the elements that must be sent away, aligning with Yom Kippur’s overarching theme of cleansing and renewal.
Even as we climb the spiritual ladder, we still make mistakes, and those mistakes can accumulate, each leaving a mark that can inhibit us from moving forward. Our sages remind us that the greater the person, the greater the evil inclination, highlighting that spiritual growth often brings more significant challenges.
The power of the Azazel ritual is that it teaches us that spiritual progress does not mandate perfection; rather, it is the courage to own, confront, and release what holds us back. It is the symbol of acknowledging and discarding the baggage we’ve picked up along the way and reflects part of the fundamental steps of repentance of acknowledging and regretting our mistakes – וִדּוּי וחֲרָטָה.
Things can only hold you back or weigh you down when you are still attached. There comes a time when we must let go.
Today, we don’t select goats for the Lord or for Azazel, but the power of the ritual is real. It was only ever an external symbol; the real thing is internalized in our spiritual life, and we read it together not just to remember something we lost, but because a crucial part of a healthy spiritual life involves taking stock of our impact on the lives we touch, not just focusing on the good but acknowledging the bad as well.
The path to atonement isn’t about discarding or erasing our flaws but about courageously acknowledging them and using that awareness as a catalyst for change. In fact, the highest level of repentance repurposes our mistakes and uses them as a springboard to climb higher and further.
They sent the goat to the wilderness and left all of it there; we can only move forward with renewed purpose and commitment by letting go of the past, allowing it to dissolve completely.
Yesterday shouldn’t dictate how we behave tomorrow, which is why part of a healthy spiritual accounting includes looking back.
The Day of Atonement isn’t just about discarding the negative; it’s about transforming our relationship with our past. We send our mistakes to the wilderness, allowing them to dissolve so that we can renew ourselves. True atonement uses the awareness of our flaws as a springboard for change, reminding us that while our past shapes us, it doesn’t dictate our future.
Don’t focus on the rearview mirror too much; you’re not going that way.