Acherei Mot 2022 – A Calf & Two Goats

Click here to listen to the Midrash.

DOWNLOAD | OTHER TORAH PORTIONS

Yom Kippur has become a perverted Feast in the hands of religion. Judaism changed it, Christianity ignores it and Islam doesn’t even know about it. Kingdom citizens are required to know and do what YHVH said about it and to stick with only that. We cannot now perform the ritual sacrifices but we must have a heart that wants to do as much as we can to obey rather than one that seeks to interpret the Law to find out what we can get away with not doing.

Let’s look at Yom Kippur.

Leviticus 16:1  And YHVH spoke to Moses after the two sons of Aaron died in bringing strange fire before YHVH, so they died.

Leviticus 16 is said by the Rabbis to be out of chronological order. They say this because they do not see what YHVH wants them to see.

After the Nadav and Abihu incident, YHVH’s next most immediate concern had been the people – how to keep them from being afraid to approach Him. Immediately, YHVH gave the laws of clean and unclean to show the Israelites He had a plan for how they could approach and not die. That’s why He gave the laws of clean and unclean in chapters 11 through 15 on the same day as Nadav and Abihu’s deaths.

So, chapter 16 is not out of order. It appears, though, that YHVH did not give further instructions to Aaron about the Day of Atonement on the same day. That is why the account says YHVH spoke to Moses and the 2 remaining sons AFTER the Nadav and Abihu incident.

Now, YHVH is returning to instruct Aaron on what will get him and his sons killed if they approach Him the wrong way. And it is no accident that the instructions on Yom Kippur are given right after the deaths of Nadav and Abihu who were trying to overthrow YHVH entirely in order to re-institute Egypt’s religions on the day that YHVH was trying to atone for the golden calf! Yom Kippur was added as a temporary atonement that had to be renewed annually until the permanent atonement, Yeshua, would come.

YOM KIPPUR IN THE TORAH

Leviticus 16:3  Aaron shall enter into the holy place – stop.

ThusH2063 shall AaronH175 comeH935 intoH413 the holyH6944…

This is not saying that Aaron is to bring his calf inside the “holy”, ha kodesh. The English word “place” is italicized in the KJV which means it is added to make a distinction to the 2 areas inside the sanctuary. Inside the sanctuary are the holy, ha kodesh, and the most holy in English. These are “ha kodesh” and “kodesh kodeshim” in Hebrew.

The reason the word “into” appears in the KJV in verse 3 is because that is the word “el”. “El” is sometimes rendered as “God” (H410). However, “el” (H413) is directional with the meaning of “toward”.

I looked at the WEB, ISV, ESV and NET versions. They all say the same as the KJV – Aaron is to enter the Holy Place or holy sanctuary with the calf. The Septuagint Greek also says Aaron is to bring the calf into the holy place. This is absurd. No animals ever were permitted inside the interior of the miqdash, the separated area that contained the “ha kodesh” and “kodesh kodeshim”.

Here is the Interlinear from the Masoretic scroll.

Lev 16:3   בזאתH2063 Thus  יבאH935 come  אהרןH175 shall Aaron  אלH413 into  הקדשׁH6944 the holy  בפרH6499 bullock  בןH1121 with a young  בקרH1241 : with a young  לחטאתH2403 for a sin offering,  ואילH352 and a ram  לעלה׃H5930 for a burnt offering. 

Here is the scroll word by word in both Hebrew and English:

b’zoth         bo      Aharon  el          ha kodesh  par  ben     baqar  la chatah  ayil    la olah

Therefore   come Aaron    toward  the holy      calf young  beeve for sin       ram   for burnt

That makes no sense in English. Often, there are no prepositions or conjunctions in Hebrew so these have to be added when translating into English. Let me add the directional from ‘el’, the preposition “with” and the conjunction “and”.

Therefore come Aaron toward the holy with calf young beeve for sin ram and for burnt.

Therefore, Aaron shall come toward the holy with the young beef animal for sin and the ram for the burnt offering.

So many English words must be added for the sentence to make sense but we can finally get there.

I have 2 points here. The first is that while translators say they look at the scrolls for their source, they really are usually just following the KJV with its mistakes. Second, most Christian leaders do not understand the “what and why” of the Torah. They have no interest in it because they teach that the Torah just doesn’t apply to them and when they do teach it, they do so in the Judaism context which says this is for the Jews only.

However, this is important because no animal ever entered “INTO” the holy kodesh or the most holy kodesh kodeshim. All kinds of misunderstandings and perversions of the Torah come from Christianity and Judaism has its own perversions for Yom Kippur which I will tell you about later on.

Another point is that the entire Tabernacle including the outer court is holy. So the English rendering in most translations is problematic.

Continuing on: Aaron shall enter the Tabernacle compound with a young bullock, a calf, for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. The calf is our clue about why YHVH added Yom Kippur to the Law. Can anyone say “golden calf”?

In verse 4, he dons his High Priestly linen garments and then he goes to get 2 goats for a sin offering and one ram from the congregation as instructed in verse 5. So now, Aaron 2 rams to offer for a burnt offering – one for himself and one for the congregation, his own calf, 2 goats. There will now be 2 sin offering ceremonies, one for the line of Aaron and one for the congregation.

He makes his atonement in verses 6 and 11 which both say the calf is for Aaron and his house.

Leviticus 16:6  And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house. 

Leviticus 16:11  And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself: 

In verses 7-10 is the ceremony of the 2 goats.

Here is what the scroll says about them.

Leviticus 16:8  And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for YHVH, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
Leviticus 16:9  And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the YHVH’s lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.

Verse 8 does not say “for the LORD” or “For YHVH”. The scroll literally says: One lot YHVH; one lot scapegoat. The “lot YHVH” is the one that was killed for the sins of the people and to cleanse the Tabernacle/Temple. This is YHVH telling His people every year for 3500 years that HE Himself will be offered as a sacrifice for their golden calf sin!

Leviticus 16:10  But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before YHVH, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. 

So now we have two goats. In this ceremony, each one receives a name. One goat is named YHVH, the other is named Azazel, “scapegoat” or, rather, “escaping goat”. The word “azazel” is not a reference to a fallen angel. It is a compound Hebrew word that only appears 4 times in the Tanach and all in Leviticus 16. The escaping goat remains alive while the goat named YHVH dies to atone for the scapegoat.

“Azazel” is a compound Hebrew word from “az” (H5795) and azal (H235). “Az” is a she goat. “Azal” means to disappear, fail, gad about, go to and fro. “Azal” represents YHVH’s people’s character. The congregation has disappeared from righteousness and is a failure who continues to gad about, going to and fro to see what kind of trouble it can get into, as goats are wont to do. Or perhaps YHVH was prophesying that the congregation WOULD disappear and gad about and go to and fro.

The compound word, “Azazel”, is no longer feminine. It is masculine, but let’s not completely dismiss its feminineness which is a clue to the kind of “woman” YHVH married. It has been said the two goats represent the numerous pairs of twins in scripture which always depict trouble between the twins. Some reference this as a prophecy of another set of twins coming, namely the two Houses of Judah and Israel.

Aaron’s calf sacrifice is a forced annual admission of guilt on his part for leading the congregation into national rebellion against their King. His successor High Priests take that guilt on themselves from generation to generation.

Now, Aaron will take coals from the brazen altar into his censer. Remember this phrase “before YHVH” from now on. This phrase always means the brazen altar, altar of incense.

The High Priest put the handle of his censer under his armpit, according to the Talmud, and then he got his hands full of incense. He carried the censer and incense behind the veil to the Holy of Holies. The Talmud says in the days of the First Temple, he maneuvered the shovel between the poles of the Ark of the Covenant. In the days of the Second Temple, he put the shovel where the Ark would have been. Then the incense was put on the coals in the censer. The room then filled with smoke.

It is not clear from Leviticus 16:12-14 if Aaron also had the bull’s blood with him or if, according to the Talmud, he left the room to go get the bull’s blood. Either way, he then sprinkled the bull’s blood 7 times on the mercy seat in verse 14.

He must now come out of there to go kill the goat marked “YHVH” in verse 15. He then brings its blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkles its blood 7 times on the mercy seat while the room is still filled with incense smoke.

Let’s stop here and talk about the goat named YHVH and the Son of God named YHVH, and let’s ask ourselves who arranged for both to be killed? The High Priest (Matthew 26:57-68)! Now that I’ve made that point, I will move on.

The goat named YHVH was sacrificed for the purpose of:

Leviticus 16:16  [making] an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness. 

Yeshua’s sacrifice washes Israel’s sins away (Revelation 1:5) and atoned for the uncleanness of the Tabernacle/Temple which was perpetually unclean throughout the year (Hebrews 9:19-28).

Heb 10:12  But this man [Yeshua], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; 

Leviticus 16:17 tells us that no one was to go inside with him to do this part of the ceremony. After the blood was sprinkled 7 times with the bull’s blood and 7 times with the goat’s blood, Aaron needed to make atonement for the altar of incense and the brazen altar.

Lev 16:18  And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD – stop

Putting blood on the altar of incense was done for sins of ignorance in Leviticus 4:7 in which the priest had sinned.

Lev 4:7  And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and make an atonement for it; 

Aaron certainly did sin! His sin defiled both the incense and brazen altars that he was in charge of. So these must be cleansed.

Continue with Leviticus 16:18 … and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. 

Back to Leviticus 4:7 …and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 

So Leviticus 16:18 and 4:7 describe the same kind of ritual – blood on the altar of incense and the brazen altar.

Originally, YHVH did not give a Yom Kippur Feast in the instructions to Moses before the golden calf incident. He had only said there would be a special ceremony to atone for the incense altar.

Exodus 30:10  And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto YHVH. 

But the change in the Law added more rituals for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement for the altar of incense.

Aaron must now go to the brazen altar:

Leviticus 16:19  And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it [the brazen altar] with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. 

When he has finished that, he brings the living goat, puts his hands on its head and confesses the sins of the congregation into it and sends it with a “fit man” into the wilderness (verses 20-22) to escape death.

Now in verse 23, he changes his garments and prepares to do another sin offering with the ram which he brought and the ram which the congregation brought (verses 24-25).

The man who touched the goat to release it into the wilderness is now unclean and needs to mikvah (verse 26).

The skin, guts and dung that were removed from the calf are now waiting to be taken outside the camp and burned (verse 27). In verse 28, the man who does this procedure also is unclean and must mikvah.

Verses 29 to 32 explain that Yom Kippur is not optional for YHVH’s people. YHVH repeats its purpose in verse 33.

Leviticus 16:33  And he shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation. 

Verse 34 says:

Leviticus 16:34  And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as YHVH commanded Moses. 

SECOND TEMPLE SERVICE

Now let talk about how Judaism did Yom Kippur in the 1^st and 2^nd Temple periods because what the Jews did and what the Torah said are different in some ways. I want to teach this for those who think converting to Judaism is the way to go, the right religion and that it is more correct than YHVH’s express Torah instructions. As a reminder, I will also say that religion and YHVH’s Kingdom are two different things. They don’t mix – ever.

In Judaism, the High Priest wore golden garments for the daily morning and afternoon lamb ceremony on Yom Kippur. The golden garments were implemented in Judaism for the daily lambs throughout the year. This continued on Yom Kippur. Nowhere in scripture do we find any mention of golden garments for the High Priest. 

The number of times the bull’s blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat and the brazen altar and altar of incense was 8 times instead of 7 but the goat’s blood was sprinkled 7 times.

The Jews have not understood that sprinkling the blood of the bull 8 times is a hidden reference to the 8^th day ceremony on which Nadav and Abihu approached YHVH in the wrong manner. Or perhaps they do understand but it’s OK because the Rabbis say they make decrees and God obeys. Thus, it’s ok that they have changed His ceremony.

Judaism changed what happened to the Azazel, the escaping goat. Rather than simply letting it go in the wilderness, they began to push it off a cliff! When this ritual changed is not easy to find out. I don’t know when this began. It was probably sometime in the late second Temple period. I say this because do you remember earlier that I pointed out the Septuagint said Aaron was supposed the calf into, meaning inside, the “ha kodesh”, the Holy Place? The Septuagint began to be translated by the Rabbis in the 3^rd century BC. This tells us that over 200 years before Yeshua came, the Jews had already reinterpreted what YHVH said 1300 years earlier to Moses while the first Israelites were still in the wilderness.

By the time Yeshua came, strange things had begun happening. These were amplified after Yeshua’s death, resurrection and ascension to Heaven. My friend Rick Edlridge reminded me recently of some of these things like the scarlet thread no longer turning white after Yeshua crucifixion. There is nothing in the Torah about hanging a scarlet thread in the Temple at Yom Kippur. The Temple gate refused to stay shut after Yom Kippur’s final Neilah ceremony, too, and then the escaping goat habitually began returning back to the Temple every year.

Legends have it that the Azazel goat kept returning to Jerusalem year by year so the Jews began to take the goat to a cliff and push it off to kill it. They do not understand the symbolism of this before YHVH. To YHVH, doing this represented that the House of Judah’s wickedness kept returning to them. And when they pushed the goat over a cliff to kill it, they were prophesying the death of the House of Judah, the remaining tribes of Israel. Indeed, the House of Judah was cut off from their inheritance when they killed their King who provided the covenants of citizenship and their inheritance.

Jeremiah 44 is written to the Jews that escaped to Egypt rather than take their punishment in Babylon. YHVH talks extensively about His punishment to them. Jeremiah 44:11, though, says YHVH will cut off ALL of Judah.

Jer_44:11  “Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.

YHVH’s punishment was not just to cut of the Jews in Egypt. He is here prophesying the cutting off of ALL Judah. This cutting off would come during a visitation by YHVH to the earth. As He came to see what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18, He had planned His excursion to the earth again in the form of a being who is 100% man and 100% God.

Isaiah speaks of the visitation to all Israel in chapter 10:3. Indeed, Assyria was YHVH’s army to cut off and remove the House of Israel from the citizenship covenants. But the Jews had a day of visitation from Assyria, as well. The Jews still did not learn their lesson so YHVH sent Babylon. They still did not learn their lesson so YHVH sent Yeshua!

Hosea also of the House of Israel’s visitation in chapter 9:7.

Jeremiah and Micah speak of the day of the Jews’ visitation when they will be destroyed. Jeremiah was already in Babylon when he wrote about a day of visitation for the Jews. So his prophecy was not about going into Babylonians captivity as was Micah’s prophecy.

What does the day of visitation entail? Being cut off from the covenants that comprise citizenship in Biblical Israel. Yeshua came for many reasons one of which was to restore all 12 tribes back to covenant citizenship. Another was to bring Judah’s prophesied visitation.

In Luke 19:41-44, Yeshua wept over Jerusalem because she still did not recognize the day of her visitation in which she will now come to her end. To this day, Judah does not recognize they are not in citizenship covenant with YHVH unless they come through His goat sacrifice as the goat named YHVH. They cannot see it!

The Jews also changed who Azazel pointed to. Rather than accept that the escaping goat was the symbolically the Israelites themselves, the Jews began to view Azazel as Satan.

The rabbis (fearing contamination from polytheism) interpreted “Azazel” as the rugged mountain cliff from which the scapegoat was cast down on Yom Kippur, but some (such as Nachmanides) argued that Azazel belongs to the class of “se’irim,” goat-like demons haunting the desert, to which the Israelites were wont to offer sacrifice. Both views have been variously endorsed and debated in Jewish tradition. Viewed as a demon of the desert, Azazel seems to have been closely interwoven with the Book of Enoch as the seducer of men and women, and leader of the rebellious hosts (Yoma 67b).

What “polytheism” did the rabbis of the 1^st century fear? The belief that arose that Yeshua is God, YHVH Elohim! To this day, the Jews accuse Christians of polytheism, worshiping an idol; Yeshua as the idol!

Azazel wanders to and fro which is an activity attributed to Satan in the Book of Job. Thus, YHVH’s congregation, wandering in the world and being in exile, becomes like Satan who also is in exile without the chance to return to the Kingdom through redemption. Humans are the only redeemable creatures on earth.

Judaism teaches that the Jews are righteous and they were not in exile for themselves but for the sins of the nations. Thus they were not represented by Azazel. Therefore, Azazel must represent Satan. I have written about this in the past.

If we think about how the Jews changed Yom Kippur for a minute, we may conclude that one reason they changed the Yom Kippur ceremony by introducing golden garments for the now-elite-and-more-special-than-everyone-else High Priest, sprinkling of blood 8 times and pushing the goat over a cliff to its death, all which prophesied their own end, was to deliberately make sure the other tribes would not be included in the atonement! Little did they know that all 12 tribes would get a better atonement from Yeshua on the cross as taught in the Book of Hebrews!

These changes probably began to happen in the 1^st Temple period but became entrenched in the 2^nd Temple after they returned from Babylon.

Today’s Yom Kippur ceremonies are substituted by the Jews reciting the Kol Nidre, the prayer for God to forgive their past and future sins. This was not part of YHVH’s Yom Kippur, either.

SACRIFICING TO DEVILS

Leviticus 17 teaches us YHVH’s definition of sacrificing to devils which is when we do not bring our sacrifices to His door.

Lev 17:3  What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that kills an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that kills it out of the camp, 
Lev 17:4  And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people: 

Bring your sacrifice to HIS door. Yeshua IS the door.

Notice that “blood will be imputed” to one who does not bring the sacrifice to YHVH’s door. That means in addition to it be rendered a sacrifice to devils (Leviticus 17:7), it means the person has committed murder.

We think of murder as only having to do with a human killing another human. According to YHVH, killing an ox, lamb or goat for anything except eating or a sacrifice is murder. The penalty is death.

Leviticus 17:10-16 tells us that consuming blood is prohibited. Whoever consumes blood is to be put to death.

What about the wine we drink as a symbol of Yeshua’s blood? It is wine, not blood. YHVH gave us the symbol to keep us from violating this commandments but the symbolism connects us to the blood of Yeshua’s sacrifice.

SEXUAL RELATIONS

The only family relationship that is not prohibited in Leviticus 18 is avuncular marriage. This is between uncles and nieces. A reference to an incestuous relationship between a man and his brother’s daughter is not mentioned in chapter 18. Abraham and Sarah had an avuncular marriage.

Gen 11:28  And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. 
Gen 11:29  And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. 

Notice that Haran, who died, was the father of Milcah and Iscah. Iscah is Sarai.

Sarai was Abraham’s sister only by adoption. Terah would necessarily have had to adopt Milcah and Iscah after Haran’s death. So when Abraham later said Sarai was his sister, he was technically correct, but he was also permitted to marry her. In fact, Nahor married Haran’s other daughter, Milcah. Both Milcah and Sarai were adopted by Terah, Nahor and Abram’s father. These were not incestuous relationships between these men and their brother’s daughters.

Lev 18:9  The nakedness of thy sister, [either] the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother [making her a half biological sister], whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. 

Sarai was not a half sister to Abram.

Lev 18:11  The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy [step] sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 

Sarai was not the daughter of Terah’s wife.

Now let’s look at Lev 18:12 because there is a problem in two important characters of the Exodus account.

Lev 18:12  Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister [biological aunt]: she is thy father’s near kinswoman. 

This was done by Amram and Jochebed.

Exo 6:20  And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister [his near kinswoman] to wife…

Who are these people? They are the parents of Aaron, Miriam and Moses.

… and she [Jochebed] bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years. 

The sins of Egypt were in the Israelites.

Lev 18:3  After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. 

Well, the Israelites walked in the ordinances of both nations. They are still walking in those ordinances because their Jewish, Christian and Muslim doctrines have pieces and parts of Egypt and Canaan to this day. The Jewish Kabbalah is full of Egyptian mysteries. Christianity includes images in worship, even in the Protestant churches where they hang crucifixes and other art. Islam continues to sacrifice to devils because they have an Eid where they sacrifice a sheep because of Abraham binding Ishmael to kill him as a sacrifice. The twists and turns, the perversions, of religion never cease. This is why we need to get to what YHVH actually said and what He actually meant and what He actually instructed for His Kingdom citizens and stick with that.