Azazel\u2019s role in the Yom Kippur ceremony begins to make sense when we realize that Yom Kippur is just another incarnation of the most prominent judgment mystery in the Bible \u2013 the bitter water trial.\u00a0 As we have seen, the first bitter water trial formulation in the Bible was the infamous judgment between the Serpent and Eve.\u00a0 Of course, the most straightforward formulation was the Sotah\u2019s bitter water trial in Numbers 5 for the wayward woman suspected of adultery by her husband.\u00a0 Another critical formulation of the trial was Israel\u2019s golden calf judgment at the foot of Mount Sinai. Yom Kippur is just another formulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Midrash teaches that Israel\u2019s golden calf episode gave rise to a fully enacted bitter water trial.\u00a0 In the golden calf episode, Israel was tested for idolatry against Jehovah, just as the Sotah was tested for adultery against her husband.\u00a0 God\u2019s judging Israel as a Sotah was appropriate because in accepting the Torah at mount Sinai, Israel had entered into a covenant with Jehovah.\u00a0 This covenant was equivalent to a marriage contract, and Israel\u2019s subsequent breach of this contract with the golden calf was the justification for their subjection to a bitter water trial.\u00a0 Israel was the spiritual bride of Jehovah, and idolatry with other gods was equivalent to adultery against Jehovah.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the golden calf episode, Moses went alone atop Mount Sinai after God had given the Torah covenant to Israel.\u00a0 Moses lingered there 40 days, and the people began to fear he had died.\u00a0 They pressed upon Aaron to fashion an idol for them.\u00a0 Aaron acquiesced and fashioned a golden calf with fire.\u00a0 The Midrash holds that Aaron did this so that calf would be derision and curse amongst the people, and that indeed, the calf supernaturally emerged from the fire, alive and bleating.\u00a0 Jehovah became angry with Israel and sent Moses down the mountain to judge them.\u00a0 Upon arriving, Moses gathered the Levites, and they committed a great slaughter in the camp.\u00a0 The Midrash explains that those slain were those against whom were at least two witnesses that confirmed they had worshipped the calf.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rashi and Ki Sisa of the Midrash explain that Moses then prepared bitter waters to determine who else in the camp was guilty, but against whom were no witness.\u00a0 Moses burnt the calf and ground it to dust.\u00a0 He strew this dust into water and forced the people to drink it (Ex 32:20, De 9:21).\u00a0 Moses then ascended the mountain to pray for the people.\u00a0 He declared to Jehovah that if the people\u2019s names were to be blotted from God\u2019s Book of Life, then his own name should be also.\u00a0 In response, Jehovah agreed to save those who had not committed idolatry against him, but commanded that those who had sinned would die.\u00a0 They would be blotted out of His book (Ex 32:33).\u00a0 At that time a great plague struck the people because of the calf they made (Ex 32:35).\u00a0 The Midrash holds that this plague was caused by the waters Moses made the people drink and that it only killed those whom had secretly committed idolatry with the calf.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The three formulations of the bitter water trial — the golden calf episode, Yom Kippur, and the trial itself \u2013 all shared common features summarized in Table 6\u20114.\u00a0 There is always the \u201cWayward Woman\u201d element of the judgment.\u00a0 She is the adulterous \/ idolatrous woman who shall be judged and destroyed.\u00a0 In the garden episode, she is the Serpent.\u00a0 In the golden calf episode, she is the Israelites who worshipped the calf.\u00a0 In the Sotah trial, she is the defiled adulterous wife, and in Yom Kippur she is Azazel and all his host and unrepentant Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is always the \u201cInnocent Woman\u201d element of a bitter water judgment.\u00a0 She is the woman granted relieve from the curses.\u00a0 In the garden, she is Eve.\u00a0 At Mount Sinai, she is the Loyal Israelites who followed Moses.\u00a0 In the Sotah trial, she is the innocent wife, and in Yom Kippur she is repentant Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All the formulations share a \u201cSeed of Idolatry\u201d element.\u00a0 This is the seed of sin, which bears the curses of the judgment.\u00a0 It is rejected as an acceptable sacrifice to Jehovah, and it returns its curses unto the Wayward Woman for her destruction.\u00a0 In the garden this is the Serpent\u2019s seed.\u00a0 At Mount Sinai this seed is the Golden Calf.\u00a0 In the Sotah trial, this seed is the supernatural seed of adultery, and in Yom Kippur it is Azazel and the goat given to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All the formulations have a \u201cSlain Promised Seed\u201d element. This is the mystical seed of God, which is the incarnate manifestation of God himself, which is an acceptable sacrifice to God.\u00a0 This seed is able to carry away the curses of the judgment from the Innocent Woman, and when its sacrifice is accepted by God, the curses are not returned to her.\u00a0 This is Eve\u2019s bruised promise seed in Eden, Moses in Sinai, the mystical seed formed from the dust of the water in the Sotah trial, and the high priest and the goat given to Jehovah in Yom Kippur.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![View Pic<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\nFinally, all formulations have a \u201cRevived Promise Seed\u201d element.\u00a0 This is the slain promised seed restored to life.\u00a0 In the garden this is Eve\u2019s promised seed, which although bruised returns to slay the Serpent and her seed.\u00a0 In the golden calf episode, this is the return of Moses from his extended stay atop Mount Sinai.\u00a0 In the Sotah trial, this is the seed promised to the innocent woman, and in Yom Kippur this is the high priest who is cleansed by the blood of the goat to Jehovah.\u00a0 He walks into the Holy of Holies and achieves atonement for Israel on Yom Kippur.<\/p>\nIn Yom Kippur the goat to Jehovah, the high priest, and Jehovah are all manifestations of God.\u00a0 The goat to Jehovah is the slain promised seed, whose blood and sacrifice allow the high priest, the revived promise seed, to ascend to Jehovah in the Holy of Holies and make atonement for all of Israel.\u00a0 This is the Christian understanding of the ceremony, where Christ is the sacrifice, the high priest, and God.\u00a0 By parallelism who expect the same imagery on the other side.\u00a0 Then why is one goat \u201cto Jehovah\u201d while the other is \u201cto Azazel\u201d and not \u201cto Lucifer\u201d?\u00a0 The accepted sacrifice is \u201cto Jehovah\u201d because God accepts the sacrifice and takes on the curses of the judgment himself.\u00a0 However, the rejected sacrifice to returned \u201cto Azazel\u201d and the curses of the judgment return to him and his hosts.\u00a0 Indeed, in the Yom Kippur ceremony lots and cast, and the goat on whom the lot to Azazel falls is rejected as a sacrifice in the Temple.\u00a0 It is sent away back to Azazel with the sins and curses of Israel heaped upon it.\u00a0 This is the same sequence of events in the Sotah trial.\u00a0 The sacrifice of the defiled adulterous takes the curses away from her first drinking.\u00a0 However, because this sacrifice is rejected upon the altar, when the woman drinks a second time from the bitter waters, the curses return to her again.\u00a0 They do not depart again, but consume her in fiery curses.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Azazel\u2019s role in the Yom Kippur ceremony begins to make sense when we realize that Yom Kippur is just another incarnation of the most prominent judgment mystery in the Bible \u2013 the bitter water trial.\u00a0 As we have seen, the first bitter water trial formulation in the Bible was the infamous judgment between the Serpent … Continue reading “6.4.3 Azazel’s Role in Yom Kippur”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":354,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-379","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterwaters.com\/bw_12_21_2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterwaters.com\/bw_12_21_2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterwaters.com\/bw_12_21_2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterwaters.com\/bw_12_21_2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterwaters.com\/bw_12_21_2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterwaters.com\/bw_12_21_2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterwaters.com\/bw_12_21_2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/379\/revisions\/856"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterwaters.com\/bw_12_21_2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bitterwaters.com\/bw_12_21_2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/localhost\/images\/table11.png\"){kind=link}