אחרי מות-קדושים

At the beginning of this double parsha, following the deaths of Ahron’s eldest sons Nadav and Avihu, Hashem commands Moshe that nobody is to enter the Kodesh-Hakodashim, except for the Kohen Gadol, and even he is only permitted to enter on Yom Kippur. The Torah then details the laws of the Yom Kippur service. It tells about the lottery between two goats in order to determine which one will be sacrificed to Hashem on the Mizbayach and which one will be thrown off a cliff in the desert. The Torah then lists many more mitzvot.

Upon further analysis, the beginning of Achrei Mot raises one obvious question. Why are we throwing a goat off a cliff? What does this achieve? Most importantly, why would Hashem want something so violent to be included in the rituals of the most sacred day of the year?

The parsha tells us that the Kohen would atone for the sins of the nation using this goat. The question is how? The mishna (Sanhedrin 6:2) tells us that he would say a viduy over the goat. The declaration asks Hashem to forgive the sins of the people. By doing so he would somehow transfer the sins of the nation onto the goat. The goat is then given to another individual, who is then rushed out of the Beit Hamikdash.(Sanhedrin 6:4) By sending the goat over the cliff, we are not only killing an innocent goat, but as an added bonus, we get rid of our sins.

In our times, we, unfortunately, no longer have a Beit Hamikdash. We can still get rid of our sins by doing Tashlech, however, we are not doing so in the Beit Hamikdash, and we do not have a Kohen Gadol to make sacred declarations, therefore, the annulment of our sins may not be as powerful. Therefore, especially in a time when there is so much evil in the world, we should be extra careful not to perform any sins.

Shabbat Shalom,

Moshe Y. Golubtchik