How interesting is it that just days before we leave Egypt, we read about how the cohen gadol (high priest) atones for everybody’s sins, ie. we read about the yom kippur service.

Why?

Well, if I tell you now, you might not read the rest of this email, and then you might miss out on one or two other juicy tidbits. 🙂  So, let’s get to it, shall we?

The parsha (weekly Torah portion) from last week is called Acharai which means,  “After,” as in the first verse:   HaShem (god) spoke to Moshe (Moses) after the death of Aharon’s two sons who approached before god and died.

A few weeks ago, we had the mishcan (tabernacle) built and dedicated and at that time, two of Aharon’s sons brought a strange fire and died.

Between then and this parsha, we had a discussion concerning Tzaraat (which is commonly poorly translated as leprosy).  Now, the Torah is now jumping back from its discussion of tzaraat, to the period right after the death of Aharon’s sons.

Why does it do this?  Perhaps it is to teach us that time is not quite as linear as we think it is.  Sure the physical world works in a linear fashion, but is that how we experience the world?  Does a minute always feel the same to you?  Can we not jump around and experience something in the past, or daydream about the future, and then come back to the present?  Could this not be the way time works for the soul?  Might this be what the Torah is trying to tell us by jumping around like this?

And what did god say to Moshe?  Moshe was told to speak to Aharon and tell him that he cannot enter into the place of the ark while the cloud of god is there because he will die.  A strange thing for god to want Aharon to know right after his sons die in a strange fire, don’t you think?

Maybe the strangeness was not the incense offering that they brought, but the TIME that they brought it.

If you remember, they brought it while the fire before god was there, consuming the sacrifices on the altar.  Now, the Torah makes a point of saying that, right after his son’s died, Aharon is not to come close when god itself is present.

It is a shame that god did not reveal this issue of timing first, but maybe it would not have made any difference.  How many times have we been told not to do something, only to do it anyway?  Sometimes we pay more attention to a rule after we get hurt, than before.  Sometimes we need the experience.

Enough of my moralizing.  It is enough to realize that in a few short sentences, the Torah has talked a lot about time and timing.  Let’s see what else it says.

We now get into the Yom Kippur ceremony.  Aharon is told to come to the holy place with a bull for a sin offering and a ram for an olah offering.  He is to wash himself and put on holy linen clothing.  He then takes two goats from the community:  one is a sin offering and the other an olah offering.  Aharon then atones for himself and his family with the bull.  He then takes the two goats and picks lots for them:  one goat is for haShem and the other for Azazel.  The goat for haShem becomes the sin offering, the other stands alive before god, to atone on it.  It is sent to Azazel in the bmidbar (wilderness).

Aharon then takes incense and smokes it into a cloud inside the place where the ark is so he should not die.  He then sprinkles the blood of the bull on and before the ark cover.  He then slaughters the goat-sin-offering and sprinkles its blood on and before the ark cover.  He also sprinkles their blood on the curtain that separates the ark from the rest of the mishcan.  Aharon makes atonement for all the people and the mishcan itself.

After he finishes this, he takes the living goat and lays his hands on it and confesses over it all the iniquities of the children of Yisrael, placing them on the head of the goat.  He then gives the goat to somebody who takes it to the bmidbar.  The goat is taking away all the iniquities of the people to a cut-off land where it is released.  Aharon then washes himself and dons new holy garments and make the olah offerings.  We read that this ritual is to be done forever on the 10th day of the seventh month and that the people should, “Afflict to their souls,” and not do any work because on this day the people become purified and atoned for their sins before haShem.

After all this, god tells Moshe to tell the people that when they sacrifice an animal, they must do it at the entrance to the tent of meeting in the ritually prescribed way, or their soul will be cut off from the people.  The people are told that they can no longer sacrifice to the spirits after which they stray.  We also read that anyone who eats blood, god will face that soul and that soul will be cut off from its people because the soul of the flesh is the blood and it is used to atone for the people’s souls, therefore do not eat blood.  If one kills an animal to eat it, its blood is poured on the ground.

We now are told not to follow in the practices of the Egyptians or of the people who live in the land of Canaan, where god is bringing them.  Rather follow gods ways, because, “I am haShem, your god/powers”.

If the people follow god’s ways, they will live thru them.  We are then told of all the forbidden relationships, and not to have one’s children passed over to molech and not to profane god’s name.  We then read that a man should not lie with a man as he lies with a woman, that sex with animals is out, these being abominations.

We end by being told not to become tamae (mixed) in these ways because these are the things that the nations did and is why they are being kicked off the land, for these kinds of ways make the land tamae, and the land will then vomit out those that make it tamae.  Any of the people that commit these acts will be cut off from the people, to insure that the people as a whole will not be vomited from the land.

Pretty heavy ending.  But then we had a pretty heavy beginning too.

And we read this right before we go into Pesach this year.  Why?

First, it important to remember two things:  one is that while the leaving of Egypt took place thousands of years ago, the energy of leaving Egypt is just as strong today, and therefore we can, and are required, to tap into it.

The second thing is that the energy of the parsha we read exists for us all during the week.  So, all during this week, the energy of Yom Kippur, and of being purified is helping us with our Pesach (Passover) cleaning, which in itself is a purification process.

Let’s look into this a little more closely, given that many people I talked to are having a really intense time cleaning.

What is the connection between Pesach and Yom Kippur?

Both are holidays of redemption.  Yom kippur is a spiritual redemption, and Pesach is the physical redemption.  Normally we need to free our physical bodies before we can start working on the spiritual.  That is why we leave Egypt and then count the omer (sheaf’s of grain waiting for them to ripen – a topic for another discussion) before we receive the Torah and not after.

However this year, with the parsha, we get spiritual redemption first.  How is that possible?

The trick to making this work is the goats.  Remember the two goats?  One is sacrificed and the other is called, “Live,” and is sent to Azazel.  Why call the goat chai or, “Live?”
Perhaps it is because the goat represents the physical.

You see, without a physical body, we are not alive.  Sure our souls might be, but that is not what we calling living and the meaning of chai.

So, we now have a physical body.  And what does Aharon (or the high priest in general) do?

He takes all our guilt and the spiritual aspects of our sins, and puts them onto this goat, thereby removing them from us and purifying us.  (note:  the physical parts of our sins, we have to atone for ourselves, by asking forgiveness and fixing the hurts, and working to not do these sins again.)

So what happens to these s-sins (the spiritual part of the sins, the feelings of guilt, inadequacy, etc. that we feel for doing them)?

The are sent to Azazel.  And who/what is Azazel?

Well, when I split the word into two, Az and Azel, I got these two meanings:  a female goat, and the verb sold-out.

Interesting, no?  We have a female goat that is sold out.

Given that the goat carrying the s-sins is male and has the s-sins of the nation, what can this female, sold-out goat represent?

In our mystical tradition, we call the female aspect of god the Shekinah, and she is the part that resides in the physical world, sold out or in exile.  And the nation of Yisrael and the Shekinah are bride and groom.   So, we seem to have a connection between the male goat and the Az or female goat.

Let’s work on the s-sin stuff.  There are two pieces to this.  First is that male energy is giving, and female energy is transforming.

Hold that thought as we look where the goat is sent:  to a cut-off wilderness.  A cut-off wilderness will use up all its resources and wither, become desolate, sold-out of all it can produce.

What does the land need in order grow?  It needs the waste products of animals.  The carbon dioxide we breathe out is what plants breathe in and transform into oxygen for animals to breathe.  Our food waste is fertilizer that plants need to grow strong and become food for the animals.

Perhaps this is why the land, in Hebrew, is a feminine word; it takes what we give it, and transforms it into something new.

Now, let us combine these ideas.

The male goat, containing our spiritual waste, is sent to a female, sold-out goat, in a cut-off wilderness.  Naturally the goats meet, and mate, and the female goat (the shekinah) takes our s-sins and uses them as food to transform herself (the land) into a powerful life giving thing.

So, going back to the question of how can the spiritual (Yom Kippur – our parsha) purification happen before the physical (Pesach – the holiday that starts after shabbat ends), we see that at the core of Yom Kippur is the goat, the physical.

And this is why so many of us had such a hard time preparing for Pesach this year:  with the parsha, we were doing a extra heavy spiritual cleaning while we were doing our physical cleaning.

The good new of all this is that we are now all squeaky clean for this week of chol hamo-ed (Pesach holiday week) and have a jump start on really, really getting the Torah in another seven weeks or so.

Enjoy everybody, Chag samayach/happy holiday.

If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.