Enoch, the seventh generation between Adam and Noah, is naturally the central figure of this book and is chosen to bring God’s message to the rebellious angels. The offspring of their unnatural union were the nefilim - giants of renown who filled the earth. The First Book of Enoch retells the story cited in Genesis (6, 1–4) of the angels who had relations with the daughters of men. Rather, Azazel is the rebellious angel at the head of a heavenly plot to take over the earth. Here there is no trace of a helpless animal forced to carry the sins of the collective through no fault of its own. This second interpretation comes from the Jewish apocrypha, or more specifically the First Book of Enoch, which details Azazel’s awful nature.
If God is the essence of good, Azazel is an evil demon or a lesser god that is fed by the sins of the people. There is also another way of understanding the word Azazel, and that is as the name of a supernatural being to whom the poor goat must be sacrificed. Then an emissary would accompany the goat that was selected to the location, some seven miles from Jerusalem, and there he would throw the poor goat off the cliff to its death.įrom the Lenkin Family Collection, the National Library of Israel. They explained that on Yom Kippur the high priest would cast lots and decide which goat would be sent to Azazel. According to the talmudic sages, the word Azazel, which is mentioned three times in the Bible, is the name of a particular cliff or especially treacherous mountain ( Az-el). How are we to understand the instruction to send this creature to Azazel? It all depends of course on the meaning of the word Azazel. The casting of the lot symbolized God’s choice of the se’ir la’azazel (the scapegoat to be sent to exile to Azazel). The first would be sacrificed to God on the spot, and the second would be sent into exile to Azazel, after all the sins of Israel had been transferred to it. After leaving the temple, he cast lots for the two goats. On that day, a day of atonement and fasting, the high priest was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple, and bring with him a sacrifice to the God of Israel.
It begins with an age-old tradition rooted in the Bible that took place once a year on Yom Kippur.
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