If the first three chapters of Genesis set out the framework for the Torah project, Leviticus 16 forms its narrative heart. Positioned between the Purity Code and the Holiness Code, it ties together two parts of a central Torah concept in a dramatic Day of Atonement ritual of two goats, one for the Lord and one for Azazel.<\/p>\n
In this way, Leviticus is the center of the\u00a0narrative <\/em>structure\u00a0of the Torah. This narrative, beginning in the Garden account of Genesis, lays out a theology and an ontology and details the relationships between G-d, creation and human beings. It teaches\u00a0how human beings,\u00a0body and soul inextricably linked, can navigate through the real world and come close to G-d.<\/p>\n In the Garden story, the biblical text provides this theology and anthropology in the symbolism of the two trees. Leviticus actualizes the story in real life beyond the Garden through ritual (purity) and ethical (holiness) codes, the first governing the relationship between G-d and human beings, the second among human beings. In the Day of Atonement ritual, a carefully orchestrated series of events culminates in a two-goat rite.\u00a0The first is for the Lord, sacrificed on the altar, the second for Azazel, sent alive into “the solitary place.” The first goat removes ritual sins, sins against G-d, while the second removes ethical sins, sins against one’s fellow human being, sins that destroy community.<\/p>\n THE TWO TREES IN THE GARDEN<\/p>\n Leviticus actualizes the creation stories\u00a0of the first three chapters of Genesis. The Garden story tells us of two trees, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the center of the Garden, indeed in the center of the story, the other the Tree of Life. \u00a0These two trees describe a theology and an ontology, answering questions\u00a0about who God is, who the human being is, how they were intended to relate and how they do relate in an\u00a0exilic world: \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And the Lord G-d said, “Now that humanity\u00a0(ha-Adam) has become like one of us, knowing good and bad, what if he\u00a0should stretch out his\u00a0hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!” \u00a0So the Lord G-d banished\u00a0him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he was taken. \u00a0He drove the human\u00a0out, and stationed east of the garden of Eden the <\/span>cherubim<\/span><\/i> and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.”<\/span><\/p>\n The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil represents a\u00a0capacity for moral consciousness, which human beings share with G-d once they eat from that Tree. The Tree of Life represents a way in which the human being is radically different from G-d, namely s\/he dies. \u00a0When the first humans eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the center of the Garden, they, and all of creation through them, are barred from the Tree of Life:<\/span>\u00a0\u201c<\/span>What if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n LEVITICUS ACTUALIZES THE GARDEN NARRATIVE<\/p>\n From\u00a0the last Torah portion, Tazria-Metzora, “what happened in the Garden changed the entire structure of creation forever. On one side of the act of eating from the Tree is a harmonious system of differences, a world in which all creatures live in harmony and there is no bloodshed and no death. On the other side is exile into a blood-soaked world, a world in which the most basic act of nourishing oneself requires taking life. Like blood that both purifies and generates impurity, eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is an ambivalent image of love and unself-conscious obedience vs. full\u00a0consciousness and moral responsibility.<\/p>\n “Humanity made the choice for full responsibility, becoming G-d-like in that way. In the process of making that choice, however, they\u00a0generated consequences for all of creation, and they bear responsibility for every death. The reminders of the\u00a0human role in\u00a0altering the nature of creation with consequences for everything in it\u00a0are birth, death, menstruation, seminal emissions, and the strange organic decay, perhaps living death, associated with leprosy. Thus birth, death, disease, food and sexuality are the points at which\u00a0human beings confront\u00a0their responsibility\u00a0in this radically altered world.”<\/p>\n PURITY & HOLINESS CODES OF LEVITICUS<\/p>\n Chapter 16 of Leviticus is a\u00a0bridge:<\/p>\n If we consider that all death is brutal, that no healthy creature\u00a0seeks or wants death, the Purity Code reminds us that we are part of a world at once both beautiful and brutal. The Garden story tells us that as conscious, decision-making beings, we are responsible and enmeshed in guilt: “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked…” (Gen. 3:7). \u00a0From last week’s portion, “Tazria-Metzora\u00a0<\/em>forces us to stop and consider an inescapable brutality at the core of life…”<\/p>\n The Purity Code requires the Holiness Code that follows chapter 16, which “reminds us of\u00a0the moral demand that we do what we can to make life\u00a0a little less brutal.” Through our moral choices, a decision-making capacity we have as humans that is represented in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, we have a G-d-like ability, and we must exercise it.<\/p>\n Failing to follow the commandments of the Holiness Code, whose driving purpose is to reduce the brutality of our existence and give it meaning, neglects\u00a0our G-d-like nature for which we paid so dearly. We are then wholly driven by\u00a0nature and instinct. Even moments of love and compassion or our vaunted human intelligence do not distinguish us from animals who also feel love and compassion and are also intelligent.<\/p>\n The purity regulations and the holiness regulations are clearly different in kind but, like body and soul, inextricably linked.<\/p>\n LEVITICUS CHAP. 16<\/p>\n This week’s Torah portion, again a double portion, begins with\u00a0Chapter 16 of Leviticus. This chapter contains the very strange episode of the goat for Azazel. Volumes have been written attempting to understand the meaning of these passages and who or what, exactly Azazel is. I’m going to bypass all of that and just try to focus on what the words in front of me seem to convey.<\/p>\n The\u00a0portion begins with a reference to a story told in Lev. 10. In that story, Nadav and Abihu, the two sons of Aaron, die\u00a0when they offer “strange fire” at the altar in what was otherwise a\u00a0supreme moment for the Aaronides in the newly built Tabernacle. \u00a0The reference accompanies a reminder of the\u00a0danger in “coming close”\u00a0to G-d, offering sacrifices (korbanot<\/em>, sacrifices, means coming close): “Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the ark-cover which is upon the ark; that he die not; for I appear in the cloud upon the ark-cover.” (Lev. 16:2)<\/p>\n Forewarned how important it is to follow the purification rituals, an elaborate series of preparations involving bathing in water and changing clothes leads into the first round of sacrifices. A second series of preparations follows those sacrifices, leading into the second round. Between the sin offerings and the burnt offerings, the goat for Azazel is sent into the wilderness, to “a land that is cut off” (I think a closer translation is “solitary” or “separated”).<\/p>\n THE SEQUENCE OF SACRIFICES<\/p>\n 16:3: Aaron is to\u00a0bring a young bullock for a sin-offering and a ram for a burnt-offering. He kills the bullock of the sin-offering to make atonement for himself and his house\u00a0and\u00a0purifies the ark cover with its blood.<\/p>\n 16:5: Aaron is to\u00a0take two he-goats for a sin-offering and a ram for a burnt-offering on behalf of the Israelites. He takes\u00a0the Israelites’ 2 he-goats and sets them before the Lord at the Tent of Meeting. Lots are cast on the 2 goats, “one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for Azazel.” The goat for the Lord is a sin-offering, which Aaron kills “for the people,” bringing\u00a0its blood to sprinkle on and before the ark cover as he did with the blood of the bullock.<\/p>\n 16:16: Having made atonement for himself and his house and for the people of Israel, Aaron then makes atonement for the holy place (the Tabernacle) because of their (the people of Israel) impurity and\u00a0transgressions: “and so shall he do for the tent of meeting, that dwelleth with them in the midst of their impurities” (\u05d4\u05b7\u05e9\u05b9\u05bc\u05c1\u05db\u05b5\u05df \u05d0\u05b4\u05ea\u05b8\u05bc\u05dd). A curious statement, that the Tabernacle “lives” with the people of Israel in this sea of impurities.<\/p>\n 16:20: When Aaron finishes atoning for the “holy place” and the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he deals with the other goat, the goat for Azazel:<\/p>\n “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of an appointed man into the wilderness.” (\u05d5\u05b0\u05e1\u05b8\u05de\u05b7\u05da\u05b0 \u05d0\u05b7\u05d4\u05b2\u05e8\u05b9\u05df \u05d0\u05b6\u05ea-\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05ea\u05b5\u05bc\u05d9 \u05d9\u05b8\u05d3\u05b8\u05d5, \u05e2\u05b7\u05dc \u05e8\u05b9\u05d0\u05e9\u05c1 \u05d4\u05b7\u05e9\u05b8\u05bc\u05c2\u05e2\u05b4\u05d9\u05e8 \u05d4\u05b7\u05d7\u05b7\u05d9, \u05d5\u05b0\u05d4\u05b4\u05ea\u05b0\u05d5\u05b7\u05d3\u05b8\u05bc\u05d4 \u05e2\u05b8\u05dc\u05b8\u05d9\u05d5 \u05d0\u05b6\u05ea-\u05db\u05b8\u05bc\u05dc-\u05e2\u05b2\u05d5\u200d\u05b9\u05e0\u05b9\u05ea \u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05e0\u05b5\u05d9 \u05d9\u05b4\u05e9\u05b0\u05c2\u05e8\u05b8\u05d0\u05b5\u05dc, \u05d5\u05b0\u05d0\u05b6\u05ea-\u05db\u05b8\u05bc\u05dc-\u05e4\u05b4\u05bc\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05e2\u05b5\u05d9\u05d4\u05b6\u05dd \u05dc\u05b0\u05db\u05b8\u05dc-\u05d7\u05b7\u05d8\u05b9\u05bc\u05d0\u05ea\u05b8\u05dd; \u05d5\u05b0\u05e0\u05b8\u05ea\u05b7\u05df \u05d0\u05b9\u05ea\u05b8\u05dd \u05e2\u05b7\u05dc-\u05e8\u05b9\u05d0\u05e9\u05c1 \u05d4\u05b7\u05e9\u05b8\u05bc\u05c2\u05e2\u05b4\u05d9\u05e8, \u05d5\u05b0\u05e9\u05b4\u05c1\u05dc\u05b7\u05bc\u05d7 \u05d1\u05b0\u05bc\u05d9\u05b7\u05d3-\u05d0\u05b4\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1 \u05e2\u05b4\u05ea\u05b4\u05bc\u05d9 \u05d4\u05b7\u05de\u05b4\u05bc\u05d3\u05b0\u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05e8\u05b8\u05d4).<\/p>\n “And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land which is cut off; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.” (\u05d5\u05b0\u05e0\u05b8\u05e9\u05b8\u05c2\u05d0 \u05d4\u05b7\u05e9\u05b8\u05bc\u05c2\u05e2\u05b4\u05d9\u05e8 \u05e2\u05b8\u05dc\u05b8\u05d9\u05d5 \u05d0\u05b6\u05ea-\u05db\u05b8\u05bc\u05dc-\u05e2\u05b2\u05d5\u200d\u05b9\u05e0\u05b9\u05ea\u05b8\u05dd, \u05d0\u05b6\u05dc-\u05d0\u05b6\u05e8\u05b6\u05e5 \u05d2\u05b0\u05bc\u05d6\u05b5\u05e8\u05b8\u05d4; \u05d5\u05b0\u05e9\u05b4\u05c1\u05dc\u05b7\u05bc\u05d7 \u05d0\u05b6\u05ea-\u05d4\u05b7\u05e9\u05b8\u05bc\u05c2\u05e2\u05b4\u05d9\u05e8, \u05d1\u05b7\u05bc\u05de\u05b4\u05bc\u05d3\u05b0\u05d1\u05b8\u05bc\u05e8).<\/p>\n 16:23-24: The burnt offerings require another change of clothing and more bathing, after which Aaron sacrifices the two rams and makes the fat of the sin-offering smoke on the altar. The burnt offerings “make atonement for himself (Aaron) and for the people.”<\/p>\n Just to recount: Aaron bathes and changes his garments, then kills the bullock of the sin-offering to make atonement for himself and his house. He kills the goat for the Lord, a sin-offering on behalf of the people of Israel. He atones for and purifies the ark cover, the Holy of Holies, the altar and the Tent of Meeting. He places the sins of the community on the head of the goat for Azazel and dispatches him to the “solitary” place, then changes his garments and bathes again. He sacrifices the burnt offering and makes\u00a0“atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel” and makes smoke on the altar from the fat of the sin-offering. Finally, we have wrap-up activities, removing the remains of the sin-offerings outside the camp. Those who let the goat for Azazel go and who burn the remains of the offerings wash their clothes, bathe and return to the camp.<\/p>\n THE GOAT FOR AZAZEL<\/p>\n What is going on here? Multiple purifications, multiple atonements, multiple sin-offerings. Shouldn’t one be enough? Why the goat for Azazel? And for what do the burnt offerings atone after all the sin-offerings and purifications and sending away the goat with all the sins of the community on its head?<\/p>\n Lev. 16:17 provides a clue. This verse tells us “there shall be no man in the tent of meeting when he (Aaron) goeth in to make atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel.” This suggests a total house-cleaning, but in this case, impurities and sin are swept out the door before any can re-enter. The priests’ job is to clean the house, preparing it as a place for G-d and Israel to meet.<\/p>\n Impurity is tangible, and sin, when it enters\u00a0the world, has body. Once atonement is offered and the meeting place for the divine-human encounter purified, the now lifeless impurities and sins must be removed like the skins and flesh and dung of the sin-offerings (the bullock and goat)\u00a0when they are taken outside the camp and burned (Lev. 16:26). The sins on the head of the goat\u00a0for Azazel parallel the lifeless remains of the sacrificial animals. The ritual parallels confirm this idea as both he who lets the goat for Azazel go and he who burns the impure remains of the sin-offering outside the camp wash their clothes and bathe before returning to the camp.<\/p>\n In another parallel, the goat for Azazel that carries away the moral sins of the community corresponds to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil while the goat for the Lord that purifies the Israelites and the Tabernacle corresponds to the Tree of Life.<\/p>\n Only when this lifeless refuse exits the camp\u00a0can Aaron “offer his burnt-offering and the burnt-offering of the people,”\u00a0completing the atonement process for himself and the people.<\/p>\n There is one more clue to what is happening, and this brings us full circle to the two trees and the associated holiness and purity themes. Lev. 16:16 describes the atonement in dual terms: “he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the impurities<\/em>\u00a0of the children of Israel, and because of their…sins<\/em>; and so shall he do for the tent of meeting, that dwelleth with them in the midst of their impurities.<\/em>” Lev. 16:19 refers solely to impurity: \u00a0“And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and purify<\/em>\u00a0it, and hallow it from the impurities<\/em>\u00a0of the children of Israel.”<\/p>\n Impurity is never used to describe the sins the goat carries out of the camp into the wilderness, only three words which do not typically refer to impurity but rather to moral misconduct: “And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities<\/em> of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions<\/em>, even all their sins.<\/em><\/p>\n We read the dual terminology only one more time, and this is in a wrap-up passage describing the meaning of the whole occasion: “For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to purify<\/em>\u00a0you; from all your sins<\/em> shall ye be pure<\/em>\u00a0before the LORD.” (Lev. 16:30)<\/p>\n This is what I read in Chapter 16 and why I place it at the center of the Torah: the first round of offerings, the bullock for Aaron and the goat for the Israelites, atone and serve to remove impurities from the environment and temporarily from Aaron and the Israelites so they may “draw near” to G-d. The remains of the sacrificial animals bearing impurities are removed from the camp and burned.<\/p>\n Similarly, the goat for Azazel carries\u00a0the lifeless bodies of moral infractions, sins, outside\u00a0the camp into a place that is “solitary” or “separated.” These are acts that destroy community and must be removed from it.<\/p>\n Lev. 16:30 in summing up indicates that at this most holy moment, a total house-cleaning is accomplished, the lifeless shells of impurities and moral infractions are gone, Israel is both pure and holy, and Israel and G-d meet.<\/p>\n A\u00a0question remains in my mind about the nature of impurity. I have said before that I think impurity is more an issue of definition than a moral category. Impurity describes the nature of the human being bound by nature. It is involuntary and is a function of having a body. It is a transitory state. Rituals separate a person from their\u00a0impurity for the purpose of coming close to G-d. Why, then, does chapter 16 link it so inextricably to holiness, our moral consciousness,\u00a0our soul?<\/p>\n I believe that the preceding portion, Tazria-Metzora, with its allusions to the creation story, provide us that answer. Impurity\u00a0has an overarching moral dimension in that it is associated with the first humans’ “meal in the Garden,” as they thoughtlessly eat\u00a0from the tree with no real consideration of consequences. In that moment,\u00a0in altering the structure of creation, they catapult themselves, all those who follow, indeed all of creation, into a world that is not only beautiful and nourishing but brutal and deadly.<\/p>\n The only antidote to this condition, the only possible balance for the consequences of their action, is to extend the realm of holiness, of moral consciousness. In this way, impurity\/our bodies and holiness\/our souls are inextricably and eternally linked as we struggle to fulfill our nature.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n Note: I have tried to stay away from homiletics and specific faith interpretations in these analyses\u00a0and use “evidence” from within the text to try to understand what it wants to say. I want to diverge from that for a moment to comment from a personal perspective\u00a0on these last two double portions, for me both fascinating and difficult.<\/p>\n I find myself understanding, for the first time in my life, something about the idea of “original sin” and how interpreters might derive such a concept from the text, that somehow, through our bodies, we are trapped in a cycle of sin. The allusions in Leviticus’\u00a0Purity Code to the Garden story of Genesis give me a glimpse of\u00a0a biblical awareness of human responsibility for our\u00a0condition, even guilt.<\/p>\n As I experiment with a vegan diet, I become aware\u00a0that no matter what I do, I cannot disentangle myself from responsibility for death and destruction. \u00a0Perhaps it is a human conceit to imagine we can extract ourselves from that cycle. \u00a0Even someone who eats plants kills. How many habitats do we unknowingly destroy when we till the soil? How many creatures do we knowingly kill because if we didn’t, we’d never harvest a bite? I seem to remember\u00a0Kafka wrote about this problem in Der Hunger K\u00fcnstler<\/em>.<\/p>\n Part of me thinks it’s a continuum. We each must\u00a0find our place on the continuum of taking and nurturing, contributing to death and brutality and to beauty and life. Each of us is required to make value judgments and difficult moral decisions. Part of me appreciates how some find meaning in a religion that says someone paid the giant debt humanity owes, removing our\u00a0“guilt.” And part of me appreciates my own religion that offers a path to navigate through the world as it is, keeping my sights set not on extracting myself but on being the best I can be and working to expand the realm\u00a0of holiness.<\/p>\n These are things I think about as I read these blood-soaked passages of Leviticus. When I visualize the scene in the Tabernacle, terrified animals, the bleating and bellowing, the slaughter, the blood, the stench, I’m horrified, and I wonder, how could this possibly have meaning? Somehow it did, and somehow the meaning is communicated in these texts if you look closely. The text\u00a0evidences an awareness of human responsibility, even guilt, an awareness of the profound paradox of life and the debt humanity owes for its privileged position. Somehow sacrifice in its\u00a0time paid a portion of that debt and allowed the Israelites to come near to G-d.<\/p>\n I also\u00a0think of\u00a09 billion land animals bred in the U.S. each year just to kill for\u00a0food\u00a0and trillions of aquatic animals. \u00a0I think of how that happens with most of us not even knowing about it and if we know about it not really experiencing responsibility for the commercialization of life and the suffering and carnage and brutality we cause with what’s on our plates. Then I see us right back at the tree in the middle of the Garden, poised to eat without consciously pondering the awesome consequences for ourselves and the rest of creation when we take that bite.<\/p>\n\n