\n\n\n

The ish iti<\/em> \u2013 \u201cthe designated one\u201d \u2013 might have been an important person in the community, familiar with traveling and taking on great responsibility.\u00a0 Or, it might have been a young boy, someone accustomed to spending time with the flocks of goats and sheep. This might be his story:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got the goat!\u00a0 They chose me, I got the goat!\u00a0 I got the goat!\u00a0 I got the goat.\u201d\u00a0 Suddenly, the awesomeness of this responsibility, of having been chosen to take the sin-covered goat away from the community and into the wilderness, hits the boy like a ton of bricks \u2013 or perhaps, like a ton of sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A small grey-white goat with a rope tied around its neck like a leash, stands quietly waiting. I take the other end of the rope that\u2019s been handed to me, and begin to leave the sanctuary, pulling the goat along.\u00a0 \u201cWhere are you taking me?\u201d asks the goat.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m frightened\u201d, says the goat.\u00a0 \u201cSo many people, and their sins are heavy on my head.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t\u2019 be afraid\u201d, I tell the goat.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s you and I get out of this place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We begin to walk, and after a while I\u2019m no longer having to pull him, the rope is slack in my hand as we begin to climb the mountain together.\u00a0 The path is steep, and soon it is the goat who is leading, so much more comfortable on this rocky path than I am.\u00a0 When I stumble, he stops and waits patiently until I\u2019ve regained my balance. Finally we reach the top.\u00a0 The mountain top is so high that we are now surrounded in cloud.\u00a0 Even if there were anyone else here, no one would be able to see us.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to take the rope off of you now, I tell the goat.\u00a0 I untie the rope, and let it drop to the ground.\u00a0 The goat stands perfectly still, gazing at me in complete trust, ears twitching back and forth.\u00a0 I begin to chant a prayer, \u201cBaruch shem kevod malkhuto le\u2019olam vaed, Baruch shem kevod malkhuto le\u2019olam vaed<\/em>\u201d, and as I do, I wave my arms over the goat, lifting the sins off of his head and away from him, sending them into the cloud that surrounds us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It takes a long time, so many sins.\u00a0 My arms are getting tired, but I keep repeating the ritual, over and over \u2014 \u201cBaruch shem kevod malkhuto l\u2019olam va\u2019ed, Baruch shem kevod malkhuto l\u2019olam va\u2019ed<\/em>\u201d \u2014 \u00a0and sending the sins heavenward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally I\u2019m done. We are both exhausted, the goat and me.\u00a0 We lie down together and rest.\u00a0 After a while \u2013 has it been minutes? Hours? There is no sense of time up here on the lonely mountain \u2014 \u00a0I get up and I tell the goat, \u201cI have to leave you now.\u201d\u00a0 I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him gently, thanking him.\u00a0 The goat gazes into my eyes for a moment, and then turns around away from me, and runs off through the haze of cloud. \u00a0I quickly lose sight of him.\u00a0 Slowly, I begin my descent from the mountain, back towards the mishkan<\/em>, and my home.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div><\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of an appointed man\u00a0 (ish …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","anons"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cantorhorowitz.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cantorhorowitz.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cantorhorowitz.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cantorhorowitz.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cantorhorowitz.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=374"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.cantorhorowitz.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385,"href":"https:\/\/www.cantorhorowitz.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374\/revisions\/385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cantorhorowitz.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cantorhorowitz.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cantorhorowitz.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}