What is Yom Kippur? What does a scapegoat and a goat mean to the Lord? The meaning of the phraseological unit "scapegoat"

It has long lost its original meaning. What did it originally mean? Why a goat and not some other animal? And who or what was he letting go? What metamorphoses and rethinkings did the idiom undergo subsequently? You will learn about this from this article. We will tell you in what cases it is appropriate to use this expression. Let's also consider which phraseological unit is closest in meaning to “scapegoat” and why this synonym is used.

Ritual of cleansing

The historical roots of the origin of the phraseological unit “scapegoat” should be sought in Judaism. The Old Testament book of Leviticus in chapter 16 gives clear instructions on behalf of God on what the high priest and the rest of the people of Israel should do in order to be cleansed of their sins and receive forgiveness from the Lord. On Yom Kippur, which is celebrated “on the seventh month, on the tenth day” of the Jewish calendar, four animals were brought to the temple. They were a young bull (Taurus), a ram (Aries) and two goats of the same color. The priest cast lots for these last two animals. Which of them the choice fell on was taken aside. The other three were slaughtered, the tabernacle was consecrated with their blood, and the carcasses were burned in front of the temple as a sacrifice to God. The surviving goat was brought to the high priest. He laid both hands on his head and confessed all the sins of the Jewish people. It was believed that as a result of such a ritual, all the guilt of people before God was transferred to the animal. After this, a special messenger took the goat to the waterless Judean desert, where it was left to die a cruel death of starvation. According to another version, the animal was thrown into the abyss from the Azazel rock, which was considered the abode of the Devil.

Gift to Satan?

This ritual, practiced during the time of the first tabernacle (10th century BC) and until its destruction (1st century AD), gave rise to the erroneous opinion among neighboring peoples that the Jews were making sacrifices to the Devil. Like the ritual of slaughtering and burning a bright red cow outside the city, sending small cattle into the desert did not mean a gift to anyone. Then who, or rather, what was the scapegoat? The meaning of this ritual is this: all the bad deeds of the people were assigned to the animal. Thus, it turned into a receptacle for sins. The goat was sent to the desert, where demons lived, and the people of God, cleansed of filth, could communicate with the Lord. In early rites, absolution was accompanied by a piece of red cloth being tied to the animal's horns. Before leaving the camp, the ribbon was cut in two. Half of the rag was tied to the gate, while the rest remained on the animal. If the repentance of the Jews before the face of God was sincere, then at the moment of the death of the goat in the desert, the rag should have turned white. And the red cow was considered a symbol of the love of money, the beginning of all sins.

Rethinking the Scapegoating Ritual in Islam and Christianity

In the world religions that are revered, an inevitable interpretation of this ritual has occurred. In Islam there is a special ritual of stoning Satan. True, no animal is “loaded with sins” anymore. People simply go to the valley where the Devil is believed to live and throw stones there. In Christian theology, the scapegoat is sometimes interpreted as a symbolic image of the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. All the Gospels and other books of the New Testament are replete with references to the fact that the Son of God took upon his shoulders the original sin of mankind, which arose from the disobedience of Adam and Eve, and atoned for it with his death. True, our Lord Jesus is not called a “goat”, but “the Lamb of God” (for example, this is what the Forerunner calls him in 1:29). But the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ differs from the scapegoat ritual in one very important detail. This is voluntary. The animal did not choose its own death; it was designated to be the “scapegoat.”

Vitality of the image

The Jews were not the only people who practiced such a ritual of transferring sins and subsequently killing the “receptacle of evil.” J. Fraser, a researcher of ancient beliefs, notes that everywhere, from Iceland to Australia, people sought to get rid of the evil, unfavorable forces of nature in a similar way. In ancient Greece, in case of natural disasters or pestilence, criminals or prisoners were always ready and sacrificed. Beliefs that sins can be the cause of universal disasters are also observed among the Slavic peoples. Thus, the ritual of burning an effigy of Winter is based on ancient rituals of human sacrifice. Among agricultural peoples, a kind of “scapegoat” was practiced on the holiday of the first furrow, haymaking, and the last sheaf.

Becoming a metaphor

People tend to shift blame from themselves to others. This is very convenient and drowns out reproaches of conscience. Many of us have learned the hard way what a “scapegoat” means. But even more often we blame others for the bad things we have done. “I didn’t do the work because I was interrupted”, “I lost my temper because I was pushed” - we hear these kinds of excuses every day and we pronounce them ourselves. Perhaps some of the guilt of these “others” is present. But does this make us any less guilty? Due to the fact that the practice of “shifting from a diseased head to a healthy one” is found everywhere and at all times, a single ritual of the Jewish people has become a household word.

“Scapegoat”: the meaning of phraseology

Nowadays this idiom is used solely as a metaphor. A “scapegoat” refers to a person who is unfairly held responsible for the failures of other people, made to blame for failures in order to whitewash the real criminals. As a rule, such a “ritual animal” is the lowest employee in the hierarchy. In the conditions of a corrupt system of investigation and courts, prisons are overcrowded with such “scapegoats” who received prison sentences for the actions of rich people who “excused” responsibility for bribes.

Propaganda tool

History knows many examples of politicians hiding the reasons for their own failures, blaming various saboteurs and saboteurs, and sometimes entire nations, for the disasters and misadventures that befell people. Even during the Great Plague (mid-14th century), Jews were blamed for the cause of the epidemic. This became the cause of anti-Semitic pogroms that swept across Europe. Jews have often been scapegoated throughout history. The expression about why there is no water in the tap also exists in Russian. During Hitler's era, the authorities also blamed the economic crisis on communists, Roma and other categories of the population. In modern Russia, such scapegoats are traditionally the West and the United States. So politicians always choose the “extreme”.

Goats and switchmen

Since poor people who were unable to stand up for themselves were often made to blame, the expression “scapegoat” became synonymous with “switchman.” Why did this particular railroad worker become a household name? Because at the dawn of the train era, train wrecks were common. In forensic investigations into the causes of the disaster, responsibility for what happened was often passed down the hierarchical ladder until they settled on simple switchmen. They say that the entire composition went downhill because of his negligence. Therefore, the expression “translate the arrows” is also common, meaning “to assign blame to someone who has nothing to do with the case.” No less popular is the saying “put the hurt on your head.” It means that the guilty person wants to shift responsibility onto the shoulders of another person.

What is Yom Kippur? What does a scapegoat and a goat mean to the Lord?

In Levitam chapter 16 it is described Yom Kippur- Day of Judgment or Day of Atonement. As part of this holiday, the people had to humble themselves for 24 hours from the evening of the ninth day until the evening of the tenth day of the seventh month, repent of their mistakes, and on the 10th the sacrifices that you mentioned in the question were made - a goat as a sin offering and taken into the desert scapegoat. The fact is that during the year people could forget some sins, mistakes and simply not pay attention to the fact that someone could be offended. That is, for some mistakes, people might not make a sacrifice during the year. And during the day of humility this was remembered. The last goat was sacrificed for all the sins of the people, for which, for various reasons, sacrifices had not previously been offered. It was the same with priests. A calf was sacrificed for them on Yom Kippur, because they, too, could make mistakes throughout the year without making sacrifices for it. Below I will describe Yom Kippur in more detail.

Sin Offering – Hatat

From the text of the Bible it follows that blood is a symbolic carrier of sin

"The soul of the body is in the blood, and I assigned it to you for the altar to PURIFY YOUR SOULS, for This blood cleanses the soul" (Lev.17:11)

It turns out that all sacrificial animals killed on the altar were “bearers” of people’s sins, being prototypes of Christ. Before sacrificing an animal, a person confessed his sin over it and laid his hands on a living creature, as if transferring his sin onto it.

The last goat of the year, killed on Yom Kippur, was called “for the Lord.”

"And Aaron will bring(High Priest) the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and will bring it to sin offering» (Lev.16:9)

This goat "for the Lord" was a sin offering (in the original Hatat), like many other animals sacrificed for sin during the year in the temple. In Leviticus chapter 16 it is specifically called Hatat - a sacrifice for sin. The law of God clearly spells out the ritual of bringing Hatat (sacrifice for sin). This is described in chapter 4 of the book of Leviticus. Sin was transferred to the victim by the laying on of hands, she was killed,

“If any of the people of the land sin by mistake and do something against the commandments of the Lord, which should not have been done, and he is guilty, then when the sin that he has committed is known to him, he is to sacrifice a goat(goat, taurus, aries, turtledove depending on the person’s material condition) without blemish for the sin which he has committed, and shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and shall slaughter it for the sin offering...”(Lev. 4:27-29)

The fat (fat) of the sin offering was burned on the altar, and the meat, skin and entrails were taken outside the tabernacle and burned there.

“And he will take it out of the calf for sin(or other animal) all his fat... and he will burn... on the altar of burnt offering; and the skin of the bull, and all his flesh, with his head and with his feet, and his entrails, and his uncleanness, ... he shall carry it outside the camp ... and burn it with fire on the wood.”(Lev. 4:8-12)

If you look carefully at chapter 16 of the book of Leviticus, then there we will see the same actions in relation to the goat "for the Lord", which, as we saw, is named "sin offering". This means that, of course, according to God’s law, hands had to be laid on this goat, as well as a sacrifice for sin, transferring sin onto it.

Moreover, the same actions (as with Hatat - a sacrifice for sin) were carried out in relation to the calf on the day of Yom Kippur. In the text of Leviticus 16, he is also called Hatat - a sacrifice for sin.

"And Aaron will bring(High Priest) bullock for sin for yourself, and cleanse yourself and your home and he will kill the bullock for a sin offering."(Lev.16:9)

Attention: blood corpuscles And goat for the Lord The sanctuary and the people were cleansed, and not only with the blood of a goat. I note that theologians do not often focus on this. To understand what happened in the temple on Yom Kippur, you need to trace the entire path of sin.

The chain of movement of sin throughout the year looked like this: first, the person who sinned transferred the sin to the animal through the laying on of hands. A living creature, called by theologians a substitutionary sacrifice, as if accepting the human punishment for this sin, was killed.

Then it was 2 options what is described in the law of God.

1. If the sacrifice was for the whole people or the priest, then its blood was brought into the holy place of the temple and sprinkled on the veil of the Holy of Holies and on the altar of incense

“The anointed priest will take the blood of the bull and bring it into tabernacle of meeting And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary; and the priest shall offer the blood before the Lord upon the horns of the altar of incense, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation» (see Lev. 4:5-7, see also message passage Lev. 4:1-21)

2. If the sacrifice was for an individual, then the meat of the sin offering was eaten by the priest, symbolically taking on this sin and carrying it until the Day of Yom Kippur. The blood of this sacrifice was not brought into the sanctuary after the sacrifice.

"Why you(priests) Not ate sin offerings in a holy place? for it is great and holy, and it has been given to you, to remove sins from society and make them atonement before the Lord."(Lev. 10:17, see also Lev. 6:25-30)

It is written specifically about a person who made a sacrifice that he was immediately cleansed of sin and was forgiven:

"So CLEANSE his priest from the sin he had committed, and FORGIVEN it will be for him"(Lev. 4:35)

What happened in the temple (tabernacle) on Yom Kippur

And on the Day of Atonement, which is Yom Kippur, several sacrifices were made. Therefore, this special day in the original is called not Yom Kippur, but Yom Akkipurim (with the plural ending), which literally translates roughly as the Day of Transferring Guilt, or more precisely, the Day of Transferring Responsibility for Sins. The high priest had to offer the blood last two sacrificial animals ( bull and goat "for the Lord") directly into the presence of God - the Holy of Holies of the temple and sprinkle it on the ark in which the law of God was kept. This was the only time in the year that the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies of the sanctuary.

Thus, through this ritual, the sin of the entire people came before the face of God on Yom Kippur: calf blood symbolized the sin that was removed from all the priests (their personal sin, for which they for some reason did not make a sacrifice, and the sin of the people, which they took upon themselves by eating the meat of the sin offerings throughout the year) and goat blood for the sins of the entire people (sins for which people did not have time or were unable to make sacrifices during the year). Thus at the end of the year on Yom Kippur there is blood bull and goat for the Lord she came to God in the Holy of Holies of the temple and came into contact with His law, which was in the Ark of the Covenant on stone tablets and in a scroll. It turned out that ALL THE SINS OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE FOR THE WHOLE YEAR “fell” on the law!

When priests, society and individual Jews sinned during the year, they were obliged to make sacrifices. Thus, sin was removed from them, but did not come into contact with the law itself! And on Yom Kippur ALL sins were “collected” - some on the head of the calf (the sins of the priests and the sins of the people, sacrifices for which had already been made and were carried on the priests who ate the meat), others (all other sins) on the head of the goat "for the Lord".

According to the 16th chapter of the book of Leviticus of the Bible, it was at that moment when the just demand of God's law was satisfied - the blood shed for sin fell on the symbol of God's law - the ark, the people were finally cleansed of the sins committed over the past year.

“And he shall kill a goat as a SIN OFFERING FOR THE PEOPLE, and shall bring his blood within the veil, and shall do with his blood as he did with the blood of the calf, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat, and he shall cleanse the sanctuary from the uncleanness of the sons of Israel and from their crimes, IN ALL THEIR SINS» (Lev. 16:15,16)

Then the High Priest, with the same blood, cleansed the outer courtyard of the temple, where the altar for sacrifices stood.

In this way, the people themselves and the temple, which consisted of the premises (the Holy Office and the Holy of Holies) and the temple courtyard (where there was an altar for sacrificial animals), were finally cleansed of sins.

And only after all these actions, symbolizing the complete cleansing of the people and the temple, was the second goat, called the “scapegoat,” brought.

A scapegoat, or rather a goat for Azazel "AND having accomplished cleansing the sanctuary, the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, he will bring a live goat.”

(Lev. 16:20) According to the text, this goat in the Synodal translation is called"scapegoat"

. The translators meant that this goat, unlike the first one, had to be released. But in the original Bible, this goat is not called a scapegoat, but a goat for Azazel. Azazel is the name of a desert demon in whom some people believed. Why was this goat called for Azazel? The fact is that after the cleansing of the people and the sanctuary, this goat was given RESPONSIBILITY for all sins.“And Aaron (the High Priest) shall lay both his hands on the head of the living goat, and shall confess upon him ALL THE INDICATORIES of the children of Israel, and ALL their CRIMES, and ALL their SINS, and shall PUT THEM upon the head of the goat, and shall send them away with a special man into the wilderness.”

(Lev. 16:21).

Attention! The scapegoat (for Azazel) was NOT called a sin offering (Khatat) in the original! That is, the second goat symbolically took upon himself NOT sin, but RESPONSIBILITY for all sins. He died painfully in the desert from dehydration, and his corpse was then carried away by birds of prey. Many theologians believe that this goat was a symbol of how, at the end of time, responsibility for the sins of the world will be placed on the true culprit of sin - Satan. This is described in the last chapters of the book of Revelation in the Bible.

In the earthly temple, after Yom Kippur, the new year began. And at the end of time, our planet awaits the real Yom Kippur, when the Earth will be cleansed of sin forever. I wrote about the symbolism of Jewish holidays in the book “Meet the God of the Bible” in the chapter “
Valery Tatarkin Email:

[email protected]

Scapegoat A person who is blamed on another, forced to answer for someone else's mistakes or actions. With noun with meaning persons: worker, engineer, person, duty officer... scapegoat; to be, become, be... a scapegoat; look for, find... a scapegoat.

But at the same time, the consciousness flashed through him that he was a scapegoat not only for his sins. (D. Mamin-Sibiryak.)

(?) From old glory. language Goes back to the biblical description of the ancient Hebrew transfer of the sins of the people (community) to a goat. The priest laid his hands on the goat as a sign that all the sins of the community were transferred to him. After this, the goat was driven out into the desert.

Educational phraseological dictionary. - M.: AST. E. A. Bystrova, A. P. Okuneva, N. M. Shansky. 1997 .

Synonyms:

See what a “scapegoat” is in other dictionaries:

Scapegoat- "Scapegoat." Painting by William Holman Hunt, 1854 ... Wikipedia

Scapegoat- GOAT, evil, m. Ozhegov’s Explanatory Dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

SCAPEGOAT- who is responsible for someone else’s guilt, for the mistakes of others. The implication is that the true culprit cannot be found or that whoever is l. wants to avoid responsibility for his misdeeds. This means that a person or group united by common interests and... ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language

Scapegoat- (in ancient Jewish ritual practice, a goat is an animal onto which, on the Day of Atonement, people transferred their accumulated sins and then, cleansed, satisfied with themselves and ready to continue to sin in the future, they sent it into the forest to die) - 1. random, ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy

Scapegoat- Iron. A person who is forced to answer for the guilt of others, on whom someone else’s guilt is blamed. The whole thing was completely ruined by Menshikov, he, Gorchakov, is nothing more than a scapegoat and asks to be relieved of responsibility to Russia for... ... Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Literary Language

Scapegoat- 1. Unlock often unapproved About a person who is blamed on someone else, responsible for other people's mistakes. BMS 1998, 273; ZS 1996, 106, 306; FSRY, 200; Yanin 2003, 143; Mokienko 1989, 117 118. 2. Jarg. school Diary. (Recorded 2003) ... Large dictionary of Russian sayings

scapegoat- About a person on whom someone else’s guilt is constantly being blamed, responsibility for someone else’s offense (among the ancient Jews, the sins of the entire people were assigned to this animal in a special ritual) ... Dictionary of many expressions

Scapegoat (painting)- ... Wikipedia

GOAT- GOAT, evil, husband. 1. Ruminant artiodactyl animal of the family. bovids with long hair. Wild k. Mountain k. Vintorogy k. 2. Male domestic goat. It’s like milk from a goat (no use, no use; colloquial ind.). Let the goat into the garden (last: ... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

Goat- The request “Goat” is redirected here; see also other meanings. The request "Goats" redirects here; see also other meanings. Wiktionary has an article “... Wikipedia

Books

The Enchantress from the Back Desk, Tamara Shamilyevna Kryukova. Vasya is a would-be inventor, an eternal scapegoat. Julia is a would-be sorceress, a complete misunderstanding. He lives in an ordinary city and studies in the sixth grade of an ordinary school. She lives in... Buy for 403 RUR
The Enchantress from the Back Desk, Tamara Shamilyevna Kryukova. Vasya is a would-be inventor, an eternal scapegoat. Julya is a would-be sorceress, a complete misunderstanding. He lives in an ordinary city and studies in the sixth grade of an ordinary school. She lives in…

Many people must be wondering about the origin of the expression “scapegoat”. This term comes from the Book of Leviticus.

“And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the living goat, and shall confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins, and shall lay them on the head of the goat, and shall send them away with a special man into the wilderness. And the goat will bear all their iniquities into the impassable land, and he will let the goat go into the wilderness” (Lev. 16:21-22).

That is, literally “scapegoat” means a goat “released into the wilderness.”

The rite of sending away the goat was necessary because the people of Israel could not continue to communicate with the Most High until the sins and crimes that separated them from Him were “cast out.” Unlike sacrifices, which symbolized the atonement for the sins of individuals, the purpose of the expulsion of the goat was to symbolically transfer the sins of the entire people of Israel and “absolve” them from where they originated - in the desert, which in the Holy Scriptures was considered a refuge of demons.

This order, described in the Book of Leviticus for the people of Israel, is reflected in our daily life - I mean the use of scapegoats. When we act unrighteously, we cannot always bear the weight of guilt for our actions.

This is where we resort to scapegoating. By placing our sins on someone or something, shifting responsibility from ourselves, we hope to free ourselves from unbearable burdens.

How does this happen? Remember how we often ask for forgiveness: “Sorry for taking it out on you - I’ve been under such pressure lately” or “Sorry for being late - the children were barely crawling in the morning.”

It’s so rare to hear “I’m sorry for taking it out on you, I have no excuse,” or something like that. We “accept” the blame and immediately, “in one breath,” shift it. External circumstances (stress, stress) and other people (for example, children) become our scapegoats. We easily explain our bad actions by our own psychological state (depression, malaise, etc.), instead of admitting to ourselves that in fact these are only conditions that may predispose us to certain behavior.

For example, the constant pain I experience due to illness is not an excuse for my . My pain may make me angry, but nothing on its own can make me angry. There is a temptation to behave in a certain way due to certain external conditions, but I myself am responsible for my actions.

That's the problem. B O Most of the time we fail to bear the burden of this responsibility. We need a scapegoat, and one way or another we often find one, at least for a while. Over time, when we do injustice again and again, we need new scapegoats to again shift responsibility for our deeds.

Like other unrighteous tendencies in the human soul, scapegoating is a natural instinct that is used to achieve unnatural ends. The truth is that we find ourselves unable to bear the weight of our bad deeds, but without realizing this, we destroy ourselves. If there is no one to shift the blame to, it begins to poison us.

We need scapegoats, but these cannot be other people (friends, family, colleagues) or circumstances - they help only for a while, and this inevitably separates us from ourselves and the world around us, leading to alienation, isolation and spiritual death.

Who or what could be the scapegoat in this case? According to the Orthodox interpretation of the Old Testament, Leviticus' instructions are not merely a social, psychological, or even religious method of dealing with sin. Rather, they represent a type of the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Christ himself is the atoning lamb who " With His body He bore our sins on the cross"(1 Pet. 2:24) in the wilderness" outside the city walls"(Heb. 13:13).

As a man, Jesus can understand human weakness and accept the burdens we place on Him. As God, He forgives the sins we confess to Him. With Christ, we don't just "throw our trash into someone else's yard," but we send it into oblivion.

And in this understanding, the Lord is not just God to whom we entrust our life and will so that He satisfies our emotional, spiritual and material needs. We can transfer our sins to Him in the same way! And when we are faced with conditions that encourage us to act unrighteously, then we can say: “I don’t want to bear this burden, I want You to carry it, I shift it to You.” It is impossible to comprehend how our incredibly loving Lord gives us this opportunity, but it really is so. There is no need to try to understand this. All we need to do is accept it.