The Scapegoat...Additional Thoughts

This morning, in presenting the drash I shared on this blog yesterday, I had an extemporaneous flash of clarity that I'd like to share here.

Although I maintain that the ancient people Israel weren't really supposed to think that the goat for Azazel carried away their sins for the reasons I stated, it occurred to me that there might have been an additional purpose for the ritual.

Sometimes, our sins can weigh us down to the point that we are unable to face them.  If having the need to engage in repentance after dispatching their sins, as it were, on the back of the goat proved that the latter ritual didn't really dispatch their sins at all, maybe it accomplished something else.  It gave them breathing space with their sins, as it were, not breaking their backs as a necessary step toward facing them.

We often practice a distancing like this when we are in distress.  When some situation is weighing you down to the point where you can't cope, don't you sometimes lose yourself in something else in order to relieve the pressure.  When you return to the matter at hand, you find that it hasn't gone away.  But perhaps what you've down in putting it off for a while was a psychological necessity, if you were going to ultimately face it.

Perhaps placing their sins on the back of the goat to send to the wilderness, served this purpose for the ancient Israelites.  And perhaps it serves as a bit of wisdom of the ages for us.  When our sins and their consequences are weighing us down to he point of putting us into stasis, let's understand tht it's okay to push the matter aside for a time to give us a chance to regroup and  built up the energy we need to face it.