Double-Edged Stubbornness

Obstinacy in a bad cause is but constancy in a good. -Sir Thomas Browne

One of the highlights of the service of the High Priest in the Temple on Yom Kippur was the unusual sacrifice procedure of the two goats. Two identical, or as close to two identical goats were selected. They needed to be of the same appearance, size and value. A lottery was performed to determine the fate of these indistinguishable creatures. In a completely random process, almost like the flipping of a coin, the short but distinct future of each of these goats was sealed.

One goat, the “Goat to God,” was sacrificed in the conventional fashion: in the Temple, in front of God, its blood placed on the Altar in holy submission. The second goat, the “Goat to Azazel,” suffered a rare and torturous demise.

The second goat, which thereafter would be popularized as The Scapegoat, was walked out of the Temple grounds, out of the city, passed human habitation and into the desolate desert.  At the top of a cliff, overlooking a ravine, the attending priest would push the goat over the cliff. The Talmud describes that the unfortunate goat didn’t make it halfway down the cliff before it was torn to pieces by the violence of the fall. Somehow, this bloody ritual served as atonement for the people of Israel.

Rabbi Hirsch on Leviticus 16:10 explains that the goats represent human choice. Our free will gives us equal access and equal inclination for either good, holy choices or bad, mundane choices. We can choose to be the positive “Goat for God,” or the negative “Goat for Azazel.”

What these choices have in common and their connection to the “Goats” is that either choice relies on stubbornness. To be a “Goat for God” requires an adherence to God’s laws and a repudiation of the enticements of the age that cannot be achieved without extreme stubbornness. Conversely, to be a “Goat for Azazel” demands a consistently stubborn refusal to follow the dictates, the inspiration, the clarity and the illumination of the Torah. The path of Azazel leads to oblivion. The path of God leads to eternal life.

May we use our innate stubbornness to choose goodness, holiness and eternal life.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ben-Tzion

Dedication

To the Parts Authority on their incredibly impressive Trade Show at Citi Field. I remember well its very humble beginnings.