The scapegoat. The strangest and most traumatic element of the service on Yom Kippur set out in Ahreimot

was the ritual of the Shneese-Irim, the two goats. One offered as a sacrifice, the other, sent away in the desert La Azazel, to Azazel.

They were, the two goats, to all intents and purposes, indistinguishable. They were chosen

to be as similar as possible in size and appearance. They were brought before the Coen Godol,

and lots were drawn, one bearing the words to the Lord, the other to Azazel. The one on which

the lot to the Lord fell was offered as a sacrifice,

and over the other one, the high priest confessed the sins of the nation, and it was then taken

away into the desert hills outside Jerusalem, where it plunged to its death. Tradition tells us

that a red thread would be attached to its horns, half of which would be

removed before the animal was sent away. If the right had been successful, the red would turn to white.

Much is puzzling about this ritual. First, what's the meaning of to Azazel, to which the second goat was sent?

It appears nowhere else in Scripture.

Three major theories emerged as to what it meant.

According to the sages and Rashi, it meant a steep, rocky or hard place.

In other words, it was a description of its destination. According to the

Tower of the goat was sent to a desert desolate place, El Eretzgzerra. And according to the

sages, it was taken to a steep ravine where it fell to its death. That is the first explanation.

Azazel is this steep rocky place from which it fell.

The second suggested cryptically by Ibn Ezra and explicitly by Nakhmanides is that Azazel was the name of a

spirit or demon, one of the fallen angels referred to in Genesis 6, similar to the goat spirit called Pan,

in Greek mythology or faunus in Latin. This, of course, is a difficult idea, which is why

Ibn Ezra only alluded to it, as he did in similar cases by way of a riddle, a puzzle, that only

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