5783/2023

A notable piece of the Yom Kippur service was that there were two goats. One of them was offered to Hashem and the other was pushed off a cliff and was for Azazel. At first this seems like a strange ritual. Why do we have to push a goat off the cliff? One answer is offered by the Chizkuni. Chizkuni says that Azazel is another name for Samael which means Satan. Chizkuni quotes Rabi Eliezer who says that we are obligated to confuse the Satan on Yom Kippur. Therefore, we push a goat off a cliff to confuse the Satan. Often, people say we push a goat off a cliff so we can put all our sins on our goats and we will be forgiven instantly. However, Rambam disagrees. Rambam says that the idea of pushing a goat off a cliff is for show and it’s to convince us to do Teshuva. He says that we should still take responsibility for our actions and not put the blame on other people. We can learn a lot from both examples. We learn from Chizkuni how it is important to foil the efforts of the Satan. We learn from the Rambam how it is very important to always take responsibility for our mistakes and not blame them on others. May the coming of Mashiach happen speedily so we can once again perform the Yom Kippur service with its fascinating rituals.