Ritual of Atonement

(Leviticus 16:1 - 16:34)

Jehovah spoke to Moses after the death of Aaron's two sons who were killed while improperly ministering at the altar.  "Warn your brother Aaron that he must not enter the Inner Sanctum beyond the veil and approach the Judgment Seat (that is, the lid of the Chest of Sacred Records) any time he wishes, or he is apt to be killed when I manifest myself in a cloud above the Judgment Seat.  Aaron should carefully follow this procedure whenever he enters the Inner Sanctum:  He must present a young bull as a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.  He must garb himself in the sacred vestments: he must don the linen tunic and the linen undergarments, fasten the linen sash round his waist, and put the linen turban on his head.  And he must bathe before putting them on.

"From the congregation of Israel he should receive two male goats as a sin offering and a ram as a burnt offering.  Aaron must offer in sacrifice his own bull as a sin offering to make atonement for himself and the other members of the priesthood.  Then he should take the two goats and bring them to the Sacrificial Altar that stands before the entrance to the Sanctum. 

“He is to cast sacred lots for the goats to determine which one will be sacrificed to Jehovah and which will banished as the scapegoat.  The goat chosen by lot for Jehovah is to be sacrificed as a sin offering.  The one chosen by lot to be the scapegoat should be presented live before the altar and then sent off into the desert to complete the ritual of atonement for the people.

"Aaron is take the bull as the sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household and slaughter it as a sacrifice.  After he has done so, he should take a censer full of burning embers (from the Sacrificial Altar that stands before the Sanctum) and two handfuls of powdered aromatic incense.   When he has passed through the veil into the Inner Sanctum, he should sprinkle the incense into the censer so that smoke from the burning incense will rise up and cover the Judgment Seat, that is, the lid of the Chest of Sacred Records.  --- If he does not follow these instructions, he will die.

"He should take some of the blood from the sacrificed bull and dab it upon the top of the Judgment Seat and with his finger he should sprinkle blood seven times in front of it.  He should sacrifice the goat that is the sin offering of the people and bring its blood into the Inner Sanctum so that he may sprinkle it upon and before the Judgment Seat, as was done with the bull's blood.  This will purify the Inner Sanctum, to make atonement for the impurity and rebelliousness, and all the sins of the Israelites.  But he must do the same for the entire Tabernacle which remains standing in the midst of their impurity.  No one should be allowed in the Tabernacle from the time Aaron enters the Inner Sanctum to purify it, and no one should be allowed to enter it until after he leaves, having made atonement for himself and the priests and atonement for the entire community of Israel. 

"Aaron should then go out to the Sacrificial Altar that stands before the entrance to the Sanctum and purify it.  He should do this by taking some of the blood from the sacrificed bull and goat and dabbing it on each horn of the altar.  With his finger he should sprinkle blood seven times over the altar in order to purify and consecrate it and make atonement for the impurities of the Israelites.

"When Aaron has finished purifying the Inner Sanctum, the Tabernacle, and the Sacrificial Altar, he should present the live goat.  He will hold the goat's head in both of his hands and confess to it all the sins and transgressions and iniquities of the Israelite people, the guilt of which is thus transferred to the head of the goat.  A designated person will then take it into the desert.  When a desolate, uninhabited country is reached, the person will set the goat free, so that it may carry away all the people's sins.

"Aaron should then return to the Sanctum and take off the linen vestments he donned before he entered the Inner Sanctum; he should leave them there. While in the Tabernacle he should bathe himself and change his clothes.  He should then come out of the Sanctum and present his burnt offering and the people’s burnt offering to make atonement both for himself and for the people.  The fat of the sin offering will be burnt on the altar.

"The person chosen to lead the scapegoat into the desert should wash his clothes and bathe and may afterward come back into camp.  The carcasses of the bull and the goat that were sacrificed as sin offerings and whose blood was used to purify the Inner Sanctum should be taken outside of camp, where their hides, flesh, and organs are to be burned.  He who burns them must bathe and wash his clothes before returning to camp.

"This shall be for you an established practice: every year on the tenth day of the seventh month you should do penitence and refrain from doing any work -- both citizens and resident aliens alike  -- for this will be the Day of Atonement when offerings are made to cleanse you of your sins in the eyes of Jehovah.  It will be a Sabbath-like day of rest and penitence; this will be a permanent observance.  Wearing the sacred linen vestments, Aaron's successor, anointed and consecrated as high priest, will purify the Inner Sanctum, the Tabernacle, the Sacrificial Altar, the priests, and the entire congregation.  Making this atonement for the sins of Israel’s people must be done every year."

Moses would do what Jehovah had instructed him.

Notes
1.  The Hebrew text makes no clear distinction between atonement and purification, whether they are two different things or the same.

2.  One is again reminded what a bloody business being a priest was -- rather like a butcher who gets to wear fancy clothes, but who, if he makes a misstep, may be struck down dead.  One wonders how the linen garments of the priest could have remained clean with all that blood being splattered about.  Did Israelite laundries possess advanced methods of stain removal?

3.  And it seems a shame that the spectacularly beautiful gold Judgment Seat and the stunning bronze horns of the Sacrificial Altar should be sullied by blood.  Was it later wiped off?  There is no reference to cleaning up after sacrifices, only instructions on the disposal of the carcasses of sacrificed animals.  How long, might one ask, would it take for the dried blood encrusted on the altar horns to become gross and unsightly?  And one wonders whether that incense was strong enough to banish the inevitable stench of the slaughterhouse that must have regularly pervaded the Tabernacle.

4.  The Inner Sanctum is Jehovah's special place, and he demands special rituals to be performed before the priest may enter it.  Jehovah manifests himself there as a cloud above the Judgment Seat.  There is a great deal of ambiguity in the Torah concerning the physical appearance of Jehovah.  In Genesis he is as a man who walks and talks and eats cottage cheese.  In Exodus he is a burning bush, whatever that might have been.  He appears in an airship during the Exodus.  He communes with Moses on the mountain more or less man-to-man.  It can be assumed he had the form of a man, though even Moses is not allowed to glimpse his face.  His appearance, nevertheless, is awe-inspiring, fearsome even.  But, more and more, Jehovah becomes less and less material.  He is now a cloud.  Does this cloud suddenly materialize in the Inner Sanctum or does it travel from elsewhere and enter the Inner Sanctum?  Is his being contained in the cloud, or does the cloud obscure a physical, even humanoid form?  And then there is the matter of the incense Aaron must burn in the Inner Sanctum.  The burning incense is intended to create a cloud of smoke obscuring the Judgment Seat.  Jehovah arrives there in a cloud and now he needs another cloud in which to hide himself?  This may have a practical purpose of obscuring the form of Jehovah so that no one may see him as he really is, or it may merely a means of creating a mystique, an aura of mystery surrounding religious worship -- the Wizard of Oz effect.

5.  Many translations refer to burning coal being placed in the censor, or incense burner.  Coal, as we define it today, a mined mineral, was scarcely known, let alone used in ancient times.  Charcoal, almost pure carbon obtained by slowly burning wood, is probably meant -- more likely than dried animal dung, which was a common fuel at that time.

6.  The ritual of the scapegoat is interesting but not unique.  (I use the traditional term “scapegoat,” since it is so familiar.  The meaning of the Hebrew word Azazel is conjectural -- a desert demon?)  Man has always had a strong desire to free himself from the burden of guilt his sins impose upon him. Primitive and ancient man found an easy out by transferring guilt into an inanimate object, or, in this case, an animal and then destroying or banishing the receptacle of that guilt.  Most peoples seem to have folk or religious traditions of this sort.  Often effigies are burned.  Sometimes a human sacrifice is made.  Communal guilt and communal expiation exist in societies where the group, the collective, has primacy over the individual, who is significant only as a part of the whole.  The transfer of guilt, though, is tenuous philosophically.  It is contrary to the concept, held by most people today, that individuals are only responsible for their own acts and not for the acts of others, and that others should not pay for what we have done.  Generally we believe that guilt can be expunged only by remorse, repentance, compensatory good deeds, and sometimes a period of ostracism -- or the Catholic method of expiation consisting of confession, prayer, and attendance of mass.

7.  Lots are cast to see which goat is to be sacrificed and which is to be the scapegoat and sent into the desert.  Perhaps this was a use for the mysterious Urim and Thimmim (small tablets, stones?) that the high priest carried inside the chest piece of his vestments and were used in divination.

8.  Aaron is supposed to bathe after he has performed the purification ceremony and leave his priestly vestments in the Sanctum.  One assumes he undressed in the curtained Sanctum and not in the more open Tabernacle courtyard, considering Hebrew prohibitions against viewing the naked body.  It is not clear, though, what bathing facilities would have existed in the Sanctum: he would not have had access to, nor would he have found sufficient, the bronze wash basin that stood outside the Sanctum.  (It was meant for hand washing.)  Would there be a portable bath tub or maybe a handy bucket of water, sponge, and towel? 

9.  Jehovah's harping on the sins and impurities of the Israelites gives the impression, perhaps not a false one, that they were a pretty rum lot.  Jehovah expresses obvious contempt for his Chosen People.  Why, one might ask, did he choose them?  Wouldn't the Hittites or the Nubians or the Minoans, or even the Scythians have been more worthy of his patronage?    
    
10.  The Day of Atonement occurs in early autumn (in the northern hemisphere) in the month of Tishrei of the Hebrew lunar calendar. Traditionally, it is believed to be the date that Moses received the second set of Ten Commandment tablets and the Israelites made atonement for their sin of the Golden Calf.  The Day of Atonement is observed by Jews today as Yom Kippur (literally, “day to atone”), the holiest day in the religious calendar and one celebrated even by those who are non-practicing Jews. Depending upon the moon, it may occur from mid September to mid October.