Further clues linking Yom Kippur and Azazel to the bitter water trial and Lilith can be seen in the history of the only two miracles that took place in the Temple on a regular basis. These miracles were the Sotah’s bitter water trial and the changing of the scapegoat’s scarlet woolen cloth to white on Yom Kippur. Tradition has it that the Sotah trial never failed to deliver its miraculous curses against the adulterous woman, and that the scarlet cloth never failed to turn white on Yom Kippur, at least until 30 CE. After that date, the same year of Christ’s crucifixion, the miracles suddenly ceased. For the 40 remaining years of the Temple’s existence, the bitter water and scarlet cloth miracles were replaced by three other ill foreboding miracles. The first was that the main lamp of the menorah could not be maintained lit by the priests. Despite their best efforts, every night for 40 years it went out. This main lamp was the mother lamp from which all the others were lit. Its fires were always to be kept burning. The second ill-boding miracle from the Talmud is that the Temple door to the Holy Sanctuary opened of their own accord each night. This exposed the Holy Place. Yohanan ben Zakkai, the leading Jewish authority leading up to the time of the Temple’s destruction, declared that this was a sign of impending doom. The third ill-boding miracle concerned the lots for the Scapegoat. For the last 40 years of the Temple’s existence, during every Yom Kippur ceremony the lot was always found in the priest’s right hand. It was considered a good omen if the lot for the Scapegoat was found in the priest’s left hand. The odds of this happening by chance are astronomical.
Why did the bitter water and scarlet cloth miracles stop? Edersheim explains that the scapegoat’s scarlet cloth miracle ceased because the ultimate atoning sacrifice, of which the Yom Kippur ceremony was just a prophetic foreshadowing, was completed. This was Christ’s crucifixion. Now we see that the bitter water trial stopped for much the same reason. The story of the trial’s supernatural promised seed and its atoning sacrifice was now completed.