Sympathy for the Devil
Yom Kippur and Free Will
Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for the Lord and the other marked for Azazel. (Leviticus 16:6-8)
“The reason why they would give Sammael [i.e., Satan] a conciliatory gift on the Day of Atonement, was so that he should not annul [the effect of] their offerings, as it is said, one lot for the Eternal, and the other lot for Azazel...When Sammael saw that he could find no sin on the Day of Atonement amongst them [the children of Israel], he said to the Holy One, blessed by He: ‘Master of all worlds! You have one people on earth who are comparable to the ministering angels in the heavens. Just as the ministering angels are barefooted, so are the Israelites barefooted [i.e., do not wear leather shoes] on the Day of Atonement. Just as the ministering angels do not eat or drink, so is there no eating or drinking in Israel on the Day of Atonement. Just as the ministering angels have no joints [in their feet, and therefore cannot sit or lie down], so do the Israelites stand on their feet on the Day of Atonement. Just as there is peace in the midst of the ministering angels, so do the Israelites bring peace among themselves on the Day of Atonement. Just as the ministering angels are free from all sin, so are the Israelites free from all sin on the Day of Atonement.’ And the Holy One, blessed be He, hears the testimony concerning Israel from their prosecutor, and He atones for the altar and for the Sanctuary, and for the priests and for all the people of the assembly, as it is said, And he shall make atonement for the most holy place etc.” Thus far is the language of this Agadah in which the Rabbis have informed us of his name [i.e., Sammael] and the nature of his deeds. Now this is the secret of the matter. [The people] used to worship “other gods,” namely, the angels, bringing offerings of a sweet savor to them...Now the Torah has absolutely forbidden to accept them as deities, or to worship them in any manner. However, the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded us that on the Day of Atonement we should let loose a goat in the wilderness, to that “prince” which rules over wastelands, and this [goat] is fitting for it because he is its master, and destruction and waste emanate from that power, which in turn is the cause of the stars of the sword, wars, quarrels, wounds, plagues, division and destruction. In short, it is the spirit of the sphere of Mars, and its portion among the nations is Esau [Rome], the people that inherited the sword and the wars, and among animals [its portion consists of] the se’irim (demons) and the goats. Also in its portion are the devils called “destroyers” in the language of our Rabbis, and in the language of Scripture: se’irim (satyrs, demons), for thus he [i.e., Esau] and his nation were called sa’ir. Now the intention in our sending away the goat to the desert was not that it should be an offering from us to it — Heaven forbid! Rather, our intention should be to fulfill the wish of our Creator, Who commanded us to do so. This may be compared to the case of someone who makes a feast for his master, and the master commands the person making the feast, “Give one portion to that servant of mine”… (Ramban)
Who or what is Azazel? Azazel is the place or entity to which the high priest was commanded to send one of two atonement sacrifices—the counterpoint or foil to the Lord. But saying this only raises more questions. Rashi claims Azazel is a stony place, but Ibn Ezra and Ramban follow the Midrashic tradition which associates Azazel with the demonic. Why, in the heart of Yom Kippur, are we engaging in what appears to be a Satanic ritual? Who is this Satan who goes by various names and guises? The Midrashic tradition connects the two goats to two, twinned Biblical brothers, Jacob and Esau. Esau settles in a region called Seir; seir is also the word for a he-goat. We might go back even further and note a parallel with Cain and Abel, the most iconic pair of sibling-rivals. Abel is killed, just like one goat is sacrificed; Cain is made to wander, just like the other goat who is sent to Azazel.
Ramban hypothesizes several reason one might engage in what appears to be Azazel worship. First, the accuser needs to be bribed. Once we have Azazel in our corner, he switches his game from enemy to friend. This is a funny demonological picture: the devil just wants to be recognized. Validate him, butter him up, and he’ll switch teams. He’s a mercenary, not a missionary. Evil is essentially spineless. Malice is born of fragility. The good news is the devil is a narcissist, not an ideologue. But Ramban rejects this interpretation because enabling the devil still smacks of idolatry and, indeed, led actual idolaters to hit the Israelites with tu quoque (“you also”) arguments. He suggests that there were times in Jewish history when these tu quoque arguments were warranted.
The alternative reason for bringing a gift to Azazel is that God commands it. It is not that we seek to bribe the devil, but that God seeks to show gratitude to it. “Thank you, Satan, I’ll take it from here.” God’s ultimate flex is to demonstrate gratitude to the devil, thereby showing that evil is not a competing force, but part of God’s goodness and mystery.
Satan / Azazel is a mythic expression of the experiential reality of evil, but the goat given to Satan / Azazel is a ritual enactment of the fact that from a higher perspective there is no such thing as evil. Cain and Esau are also God’s Creation, and have a part to play in the cosmos. In the atonement process we do our best to reflect on why we have erred and how we can do better. But once concluded, we accept that our errors, too, are part of God’s plan. We seek to be like Jacob, not Esau, a priori; yet a fortiori, we accept that Esau isn’t merely a negative force. Rome—with which he is associated—isn’t simply the conquerer of Jerusalem, it is also its brother, its twin, its chevruta.
Yom Kippur is a time fit for both dualistic moralism and non-dual acceptance that our learning journey requires failure. Without the affirmation of free will and the belief that we can choose right, we would be unmotivated. We would, moreover, be renouncing the faculty that makes us in the divine image—distinguishing master from servant. But without a real Satanic element we would not be free. Azazel is the necessary condition for choosing to do good, rather than simply being good. Azazel is the necessary condition for a life of becoming. And Yom Kippur is a milestone not because it marks the finish line but because it marks a recommitment to becoming.
There are, according to the medievals, demiurgic forces in the world that are not divine, but that God allows. In modern times we don’t figure these forces as astrological but instead reach to the social sciences and natural sciences to justify soft determinism. Satan is no longer Mars, but rather, Big Data and Bell Curves. On Yom Kippur we acknowledge these forces—but as Ramban teaches we affirm that God is their master, and we can be their Masters, too. Give them a gift—but don’t sacrifice to them.
Shabbat Shalom,
Zohar Atkins