An Ancient Ritual with Modern Meaning: the "Scapegoat"
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
This week's Parashah, Acharei Mot-Kedoshim, contains within it the ancient ritual of sending a "scapegoat" off into the wilderness to die (Vayikra/Leviticus 16:7-10).
וְלָקַ֖ח אֶת־שְׁנֵ֣י הַשְּׂעִירִ֑ם וְהֶעֱמִ֤יד אֹתָם֙ לִפְנֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה פֶּ֖תַח אֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵֽד
וְנָתַ֧ן אַהֲרֹ֛ן עַל־שְׁנֵ֥י הַשְּׂעִירִ֖ם גֹּרָל֑וֹת גּוֹרָ֤ל אֶחָד֙ לַיהֹוָ֔ה וְגוֹרָ֥ל אֶחָ֖ד לַעֲזָאזֵֽל
וְהִקְרִ֤יב אַהֲרֹן֙ אֶת־הַשָּׂעִ֔יר אֲשֶׁ֨ר עָלָ֥ה עָלָ֛יו הַגּוֹרָ֖ל לַיהֹוָ֑ה וְעָשָׂ֖הוּ חַטָּֽאת
וְהַשָּׂעִ֗יר אֲשֶׁר֩ עָלָ֨ה עָלָ֤יו הַגּוֹרָל֙ לַעֲזָאזֵ֔ל יׇֽעֳמַד־חַ֛י לִפְנֵ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה לְכַפֵּ֣ר עָלָ֑יו לְשַׁלַּ֥ח אֹת֛וֹ לַעֲזָאזֵ֖ל הַמִּדְבָּֽרָה
7 And he shall take the two goats, and set them before the LORD at the door of the tent of meeting.
8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for Azazel.
9 And Aaron shall present the goat upon which the lot fell for the LORD, and offer him for a sin-offering.
10 But the goat, on which the lot fell for Azazel, shall be set alive before the LORD, to make atonement over him, to send him away for Azazel into the wilderness.
The term "scapegoat" was apparently coined by William Tyndale, the first great English Bible translator, and has come to mean "someone whom people blame for their own misfortunes and even for their faults and sins-though the original notion of a scapegoat included the public acknowledgement by the community of its own transgressions."[i]
Even our renowned commentators and sages such as Maimonides and Abravanel regarded the scapegoat ceremony as an allegory or symbol.
In like manner, on Sunday I will return to Miami with our students from the Leo Martin March of the Living.
Throughout history, human beings have the tragic tendency to divide the world between "G!D" and "Azazel" or "the devil" (whatever that means to a particular person or culture).
Then add to that oversimplification, the psychological need to apportion blame and fault to something / someone other than self / culture / country, and we end up with a deadly mix.
Thinking like this is precisely what happened in Germany during the 1920's and 1930's.
As Peter Hayes explains in his masterful book, Why? Explaining the Holocaust, "Whatever the popular strength of antisemitism anywhere, it proved really dangerous to Jews only when powerful officials or elites set out to exploit it or harness it to their purposes."[ii]
He sums up his first chapter with these words:
"...Why the Jews? Because an ancient tradition of blaming them for disasters, both present and prospective, persisted into the modern world and even assumed new forms during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. That tradition and its adaptations remained available to wax and wane as the impulse to blame did..."[iii]
One of the most profound experiences of our young people on the March is their exposure for the very first time to Radical Evil.
Most of them (and frankly most of us adults as well) live in our Miami-Dade bubble where we enjoy good lives, mainly free from want and mostly free from any serious forms of antisemitism.
We read about evil in the news, if we follow the news at all, but it is generally at a remove from us.
For many of our teens, the Parkland shooting was a wake-up call that hit close to home, but still one step removed from them and their lives.
But stepping foot in the death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka and Majdanek, and hearing the testimonies of survivors in person or through their written evidence, participants on the March confront the inherent evil nature of humanity.
Please don't misunderstand- inherent evil nature for Jews does not mean "original sin."
It means that humanity has a side that is so selfish, so narcissistic and so good at rationalizing, that evil can result.
By studying the evil nature each human being possesses, through the March, we can learn to sensitize ourselves to, and draw upon the inherent nature of, goodness that we also all possess.
That is a key educational message of the March.
In today's America, it seems there is always someone or something to blame- other than ourselves, of course.
And that is a very, very troubling phenomenon.
Once again, Judaism and Jewish values can play a role in helping to reorient ourselves in a healthy way.
I used to be mystified why it was that the explanation for all the disasters that befell Jews throughout the centuries, at least the "official rabbinic interpretation," was we were being punished for our sins.
Yes, in Midrash, there is plenty of blame for the evil Babylonians, the evil Romans, the evil Crusaders, etc...
But the commentaries inevitably turn the message back to ourselves.
It was our own lack of social justice that caused the destruction of the First Temple and our own sinat hinam / baseless hatred for one another that caused the destruction of the Second Temple. And so forth...
As a modern, liberal thinker, taught to have a healthy self-esteem and believe in the basic goodness of humankind, this idea of Jews being punished for our sins seems like it is blaming the victim.
And of course, as long as the self-blame is cast upon us from the distance of history, self-blame is somewhat palatable.
(Doing the same regarding a more contemporary tragedy like the Shoah / Holocaust is far more shocking.)
And all of that is true, but...
It also meant that ultimately, after all the flinging of blame, even legitimate blame, onto others, after great catastrophe, Jews as a community turned inwards.
They tried to improve themselves and their behavior, committing themselves to more observance of mitzvot and/or more tikkun olam / deeds leading to a more whole and perfected world.
And that difference is what divides Jewish culture through the ages from German culture following WWII and from many other cultures throughout history (as Hayes points out above) that sought to lay blame beyond self to The Other.
We see it in contemporary American politics right now as well.
Remember that the original scapegoat was invested with the sins of the Israelites (some say the priests), not with the sins of Others, in contrast to the more modern meaning of the English word "scapegoat."
H/alevai-- Would that we all could take stock after our personal and communal challenges, tragedies and catastrophes, and rather than only seeking to point the finger of blame away from self, also be able to see the role we ourselves play, explicitly (being perpetrators or supporters) or implicitly (by being bystanders), in the events that transpire.
In this way, we give ourselves the gift of growth, of heshbon ha-nefesh / the accounting of our soul, and the possibility of self as well as communal improvement.
[i] Bernard J. Bamberger, The Torah: A Modern Commentary, p. 860.
[ii Peter Hayes, Why? Explaining the Holocaust, p. 32.
[iii] Ibid., p. 35.
Shabbat Shalom!
