Happy Birthday Dad
A dvar Torah for dad's birthday:
On Yom Kippur, we traditionally kill one goat and send it to hashem on the mizbayach and kill another goat and send it to azazel in the desert. The reason why we do this is one of the great mysteries of the Jewish people.
I would like to suggest a reason (a חידוש).
When we kill a goat and send it to Hashem, we are filled with a great sense of purpose, we have taken an animal and used it to serve God. We are thus actualizing some of the purpose of creation. However, when we take a goat and throw it down a rocky cliff, we might look at this as a big waste. We don't get to eat the meat, God doesn't get it as a korban (in the traditional sense of korban) and it reeks of paganism.
I think that there is a very clear message that we can learn from here. The path to hell is paved with good intentions. A sacrifice, if not done in the proper way is not a good sacrifice. I would call it a waste. For example, if you decided that you were going to give up eating watermelon to try and get closer to God, you have basically done a ridiculous sacrifice. You are sacrificing your ability to eat watermelon and it doesn't bring you closer to God.
On Yom Kippur, the day when we make resolutions on how to be a better person, God is telling us that if the sacrifices we make are not worthy sacrifices, then it may as well not be made. It is like throwing a goat to azazel. With the 2 goats we learn that there are different types of sacrifices. One is a proper sacrifice and it goes to Hashem. The other is an irrelevant sacrifice and it gets thrown down a rocky cliff, where nobody gets any benefit from it.
God wants us to think before we make resolutions. If it is in fact a resolution that will bring us closer to God, then we should make the sacrifice and change our lives in some minor way. If it will not bring us closer to God, it is better not making it.
On Yom Kippur, we traditionally kill one goat and send it to hashem on the mizbayach and kill another goat and send it to azazel in the desert. The reason why we do this is one of the great mysteries of the Jewish people.
I would like to suggest a reason (a חידוש).
When we kill a goat and send it to Hashem, we are filled with a great sense of purpose, we have taken an animal and used it to serve God. We are thus actualizing some of the purpose of creation. However, when we take a goat and throw it down a rocky cliff, we might look at this as a big waste. We don't get to eat the meat, God doesn't get it as a korban (in the traditional sense of korban) and it reeks of paganism.
I think that there is a very clear message that we can learn from here. The path to hell is paved with good intentions. A sacrifice, if not done in the proper way is not a good sacrifice. I would call it a waste. For example, if you decided that you were going to give up eating watermelon to try and get closer to God, you have basically done a ridiculous sacrifice. You are sacrificing your ability to eat watermelon and it doesn't bring you closer to God.
On Yom Kippur, the day when we make resolutions on how to be a better person, God is telling us that if the sacrifices we make are not worthy sacrifices, then it may as well not be made. It is like throwing a goat to azazel. With the 2 goats we learn that there are different types of sacrifices. One is a proper sacrifice and it goes to Hashem. The other is an irrelevant sacrifice and it gets thrown down a rocky cliff, where nobody gets any benefit from it.
God wants us to think before we make resolutions. If it is in fact a resolution that will bring us closer to God, then we should make the sacrifice and change our lives in some minor way. If it will not bring us closer to God, it is better not making it.
posted by rockofgalilee at
3:18 AM
1 Comments:
yashur ko'ach- very good in-sight- Ive heard that the azazal is actually a sacrifice to the Yatzer hara which is a tricky thing to understand
Have a great day
DAD
By
dad, at 8:08 AM
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