The Two Goats: Leviticus 16

We find the holiness of liturgy established in the desert--along with the fearsomeness of the Holy, which must be approached verrry carefully. Along with the special garments the High Priest and the people make certain prescribed offerings for sin, which survive in their essense and spirit to this time, in the holiest of Jewish holy days, Yom Kippur.

Three and more millenia ago, the Day of Atonement began in blood, with the sacrifice of a bull.
Then two goats were brought forward to have hands laid on by the priest. One offered to the Lord was sacrificed and the blood also used.
The other goat, by casting of lots,* was dedicated "to Azazel." In Leviticus 16:20-34, and"The goat shall bear their iniquities upon him to solitary land"--i.e., it bears the people's sins into the wilderness.

Who is Azazel?  The basic meaning is "sent away." The scapegoat is called the "goat of departure." In the days of the Second Temple, the goat was actually pushed over a cliff so as to prevent its wandering back into the herd. (Was a red thread tied to its horns a way to identify it in earlier times in case it did?) Because of the cliff thing, post-biblical teachers wanted to say Azazel meant "strong mountain" from which the goat was cast. And of course even later than that, closer to medieval times, hints appeared of some kind of jinn or devil and maybe even the leader of a pack of fallen angels. But the original meaning shows that this scapegoat was the one that was "sent away."

Cyril of Alexandria sees the scapegoat as a foretype of Christ. I do recall an occasion where people wanted to throw him over a cliff. After his baptism Jesus had been driven into the wilderness by the Spirit.

The thing I love the most about this passage is that it prescribes the keeping of this feast each year on the tenth day of the seventh month; and so it will be celebrated this coming fall on September 26th.
          
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*urim and thummin, the holy dice in the priest's bib--and to be found on the Yale seal of all places.