Yom Kippur - Shacharit 5764/2003
EJD
Special holiday reading for Yom Kippur on 10 Tisrei, 5764 - October 6, 2003 Yom Kippur Shacharit: Holiday Torah reading Leviticus 16:1-34; Haftarah: Isaiah 57:14 to 58:14; Brit Chadashah: John 17:1-26; 18:1-14
 The Bagel: Whatever happened to Azazel? Azazel should be considered for Yom Kippur and for the morning or Shacharit, because it was the beginning of the ancient Yom Kippur process. The Torah reading spells it out: two goats were offered to Adonay. One was sacrificed and its blood sanctified Aaron for entrance into the D'vir or Holy of Holies. The other one received the sins of the whole nation by the laying on of hands by the Cohen Ha Gadol or High Priest (Aaron was the first). That second goat was called Azazel. It was taken east into the desert by an able runner. It disappeared into the wilderness presumably never to be found. It was an unmistakable picture of the removal of sins. Once removed they could not be found. When the Israelites entered the land the ceremony followed the Mishkhan or Tabernacle. Eventually, when the Beit Ha Mikdash or the Temple in Jerusalem was completed the Azazel program was intended to remain there.
Enter the Babylonian captivity or Galut and the destruction of the First Temple. There was neither Temple or people in the land to conduct the proper ritual. Azazel disappeared into a different wilderness and, it seems, could not be found again. This statement about the disappearance of the ritual became especially true with the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. by the Romans. The long Hatafutsot (diaspora or scattering) of the people away from Temple and land effectively ended the Azazel ceremony once and for all.
What remains is the memory and the fast. The Haftarah reading emphasizes the power of the fast to affect change in society and in the personal life. The Messianic quality of future redemption described in the Isaiah text is not just because of the fast. The fast by the people in Moses' day was only a part of Yom Kippur. It was the Azazel ritual and the blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat (Kaporet) that were the real justifying components for the divine forgiveness of sin. It was the blood on the Ark and the carrying away of the sins that made the fasting effectual. The fasting was the individual's way to sign on to the national redemption program.
Enter the Greater Azazel. The reading from the Brit Chadashah includes what became known as the High Priestly Prayer of Yeshua. The Brit Chadashah is clear about the fact that Yeshua is not in the lineage of Aaron, but in the line of David. Only the Cohanim from the tribe of Levi had access into the holy chambers of the Temple. But the Brit Chadashah is equally clear that Yeshua is a High Priest (or The High Priest), but after the order of Malki-Zedek:
"....if the priesthood of Levi could have achieved God's purposes-- and it was that priesthood on which the law was based-- why did God need to send a different priest from the line of Melchizedek, instead of from the line of Levi and Aaron? And when the priesthood is changed, the law must also be changed to permit it. For the one we are talking about belongs to a different tribe, whose members do not serve at the altar. What I mean is, our Lord came from the tribe of Judah, and Moses never mentioned Judah in connection with the priesthood. The change in God's law is even more evident from the fact that a different priest, who is like Melchizedek, has now come. He became a priest, not by meeting the old requirement of belonging to the tribe of Levi, but by the power of a life that cannot be destroyed. And the psalmist pointed this out when he said of Christ, 'You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek.' Yes, the old requirement about the priesthood was set aside because it was weak and useless. For the law made nothing perfect, and now a better hope has taken its place. And that is how we draw near to God" (Hebrews 7:11-19 NLT). This role of Yeshua as a spiritual High Priest was the driving force for the tradition that associated the prayer found in John chapter with a High Priestly function.
Though the event takes place on Passover, there are characteristics of the prayer that are reminiscent of Yom Kippur. For one thing national redemption and individual redemption are packaged in the events surrounding Yeshua's death. The prayer took place somewhere in Jerusalem, it is unspecified in John.
Perhaps, the association could be transposed by a typology of the Azazel ceremony. Yeshua's prayer of sanctification was like the placing of the sins by the laying on the hands by the High Priest on the Azazel. The Azazel went to the east. In chapter eighteen Yeshua went east across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives. There He engaged in another prayer, where He sweat great drops of blood: "For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: 'He was counted among those who were rebels.' Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.' 'Lord,' they replied, 'we have two swords among us.' 'That's enough,' he said. Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. There he told them, 'Pray that you will not be overcome by temptation.' He walked away, about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, 'Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.' Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief" (Luke 22:37-45 NLT). It was here, in that second prayer setting, that Yeshua determined to go to the cross. The struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane (at the Mount of Olives where the second prayer took place) and the agony on the cross pictures the two-fold aspect of the Azazel ceremony. One goat died and made atonement in the Holy of Holies that corresponds to Yeshua's death on the cross. The Azazel goat went east carrying away the sins.
There was something incomplete about the original ceremony, it had to be repeated each year. There was no permanent force in the ritual. While the sins were removed in a symbolic way, the real power had to wait for a more perfect sacrifice. The ritual was picturing the day of completion when Yeshua would make the-once-and-for-all atonement. Yeshua's suffering in Gethsemane, as the typological Azazel, prepared the way for the finalized atonement on the cross.
The statement of the Seraph in Isaiah 6:7: "....your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for" brings out the two-fold affect of redemption. The Azazel removed the sins and the other goat atoned for them. Thus Yeshua's activity in Gethsemane and on the cross utilizes the main components of Yom Kippur. Yeshua as the Greater Azazel has ascended into glory and is seated at the right hand of G-d. Sins are gone and now the Holy of Holies in heaven is accessible to all believers. The believer in Yeshua has good ground for confidence: that our sins are removed and atoned for. On the authority of Yeshua, the prisoners can be liberated and the naked clothed and the hungry fed.
Cream Cheese: This Azazel will keep the trusting soul out of hell.
Special holiday reading for Yom Kippur on 10 Tisrei, 5764 - October 6, 2003 Yom Kippur Shacharit: Holiday Torah reading Leviticus 16:1-34; Haftarah: Isaiah 57:14 to 58:14; Brit Chadashah: John 17:1-26; 18:1-14
|
