Lucy Azazel dvar - full version, v3

THESIS: We're talking about the goat demon ritual which involves Azazel, and we're trying to figure out what Azazel is. Could be a demon or a place or something else?

The following live broadcast is a d'var Torah teleplay written and produced by Lucy B. Smolar. We welcome all of you as well as viewers from around the world. And as it is with all my productions, this teleplay is sponsored by Sue's Pantyhose Restaurant, where every dish is a home run.

This morning's service has already been very long and, for some, very tedious. We don't usually read two Torah portions. And these are each very, very long. They also have many, many laws that are not safe for children to hear, and maybe for some grownups, too.
So let me start my d'var by saying:

• We won't discuss nudity.
• We won't discuss throwing kids into fire pits.
• We won't even discuss dating your cousins.

But for a family-friendly d'var Torah, this morning, we will be discussing demonic goat ritual sacrifice. And, as expected from a Smolar production, we will be having helpers act out the ceremony live in person.
Can I please have our volunteers come up to the bimah?
By the way, if you start to smell schawarma and besamim, what you're really smelling...is talent.

This morning, I'll be speaking about the annual Yom Kippur scapegoat offering to Azazel. This is found in the very beginning of our Torah reading today, the part my Dad tried to chant.
Good try, Dad.
After studying all of this story, I still really don't know what Azazel is. So I'll be exploring what Azazel is, or what it symbolizes, and maybe you can decide.

In Leviticus chapter 16, we read instructions for Aaron as the Kohen Gadol and what he had to do to get rid of the Israelites' sins on Yom Kippur. He starts by stripping down, washing up, then putting on his holy clothes, including tunic, turban, and a belt of bells, all made of white linen.
He starts with a sacrifice of a bull for the sins of him and his family.
He also makes sacrifices on behalf of the sins of the Kohanim and the Temple.
But for the sins of the Israelite people, he then takes two goats...

He blindly picks which goat goes to Hashem and which goes to Azazel.
He ties a crimson thread around the neck of the goat that goes to Hashem.
Then he ties a crimson thread around the horns of the goat that's supposed to go to Azazel.

He sacrifices the goat for Hashem on the altar.
But with the goat for Azazel, he puts his hands on the head of the goat and confesses all the sins of the people.

He then hands the goat over to an appointed person to lead the goat away. But where is the goat going to go?

The Torah describes the destination of the goat using three different terms:

• The goat is going to an eretz g'zeirah - a land of sharp cliffs.
• The goat is going into the midbar - the wilderness.
• And as I said before, the goat is going to Azazel.

So...was Azazel a place? A person? Or maybe a really hungry demon goat monster?
[I bet Mason hopes it's a monster.]
For more information about Azazel, we go to the Machzor and look at the Avodah service. That's the part of the machzor that describes how they actually did the Yom Kippur service in the early ancient Temple.
Here, it says the appointed person takes the goat for Azazel and follows a specific path with people marking the way. He reaches the sharp cliff, ties the thread around the goat's horns and the other end around a heavy rock. He then points the goat away from the cliff, throws the rock over the side of the cliff, making the goat flip backwards to its timely demise.

The Talmud says a guy standing on a nearby platform watches this and confirms that the goat is dead. He waves a red flag so the previous person on the path sees the flag and waves their own flag. This process continues in a chain of red flags all the way back to the Temple.
When the Kohen Gadol sees the last flag, he tells everyone, they all cheer because they're all done [almost], the Kohen Gadol changes out of his clothes, washes, changes into regular clothes, does another 2 sacrifices, and then all the Kohanim go back to his place to eat and wind down.

Part 2.
Now I'll discuss some interpretations of what Azazel actually was...or is...or means.
In the Talmud tractate Yoma, there are arguments about the meaning and identity of Azazel.
One place, quoted by Rashi, says that Azazel is a compound word, combining the words Azaz with Eil. He says Azaz means "to be strong" and Eil means "mighty".
Another one, also repeated by Rashi, is eretz g'zeira. Rashi quotes the Talmud, saying 'eretz g'zeira' "was a steep and flinty rock — a towering peak, and that "gezer" means to cut, so it was full of sharp rocks.

So Rashi puts this together and simply says Azazel both describes the ceremony and location of the Azazel sacrifice: take the goat to a remote place and throw it over a cliff.

Another selection in Yoma quotes Rabbi Yishmael.

This opinion says that Azazel is a compound word but was named for 2 of the fallen angels. Before the story of Noah comes the story of the Nephilim, the angels who rebelled against Hashem and were thrown out of Heaven. Because of their sins, Hashem brought the flood and destroyed the world.
That's about the biggest sin there ever was.
And so, we help gain forgiveness for the sins of the fallen angels by offering this special goat sacrifice on their behalf. The names of the angels were Uzza and Aza'el - and when you put those names together, you get Azazel.

Finally, here's one more interpretation, this time from the RamBAN. He describes a story told in "Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer".
לפיכך היו נותנין לו לסמאל שוחד ביום הכפורים שלא לבטל את קרבנם
"Lefichach hayu notnim lo l'Sama'el [Satan] shochad bayom hakipurim, shelo livatel et korbonam."
“The reason why they would give Sammael (Satan) a conciliatory gift on the Day of Atonement, was so that he should not annul [the effect of] their sacrificial offerings."
In other words, the Azazel goat was a gift to Satan to get him off our backs.
[maybe cut this bit for time --> RamBAN then tells a story of how the Israelites in the desert worried that Satan himself [also a fallen angel] would trick Hashem into not forgiving them on Yom Kippur. So they would do lots of angelic things - The Jews don't eat, don't drink, don't wear leather, and stand all day - that would convince Satan that the people were just like angels on that day, which means because angels are free of sin, the people should also be considered to be free of sin.
And to encourage Satan to argue on their behalf, the people would offer him a goat sacrifice.
By the way, when Satan says angels can't sin? And we already said that angels can sin? So this might also just be Satan trying to save himself from punishment. <--]

All of these are interesting, but now I'd like to give my own interpretation of the Azazel story.
What they did back then with Azazel was easy to do.
During the ceremony, the High Priest magically removes all their sins, and the poeple just sit there? That would mean that none of the popele would think about their sins later. And this was all just one day of the year and done.
What we do today is very hard to do. And that is doing T'shuva. Asking forgiveness from other people is hard to do. Some people have social anxiety, meaning it's hard for them even to approach others. Maybe it's hard to examine and realize all the bad things they did to other people. It might also be hard not to repeat the things you did because you didn't even realize you'd done them in the first place.
So to do t'shuva, you need to actually talk to people, realize what you'd done, and come to your senses.

BUT - even if what they did back then was easy at first, it would've been hard in the long run. They still carried their sins all year. They didn't face their friends. They didn't ask forgiveness...and that means they would've lost their friends.
It's harder for us...but it's better for us doing t'shuva. It's more rewarding. And it helps us keep our friends, learn our lessons, and have better friends in the future.

Thanks for joining me this morning. Thanks so everyone for their inspiration. Thanks so my family and friends for their help in getting me here today along with the Rabbi and Cantor for training me for this day.
And after Shabbos, please remember to check our website for our sponsor, Sue's Pantyhose Restaurant. Come on down to Sue's, where shoes aren't a problem.
This has been a Smolarville production. Shabbat Shalom.