R’ Dovid Kaplan brings the following story in his book, “Real Impact!” (page 122). His comment follows.
A group of idlers in Iran were sitting around playing cards. In order to make things interesting, they decided that the loser would have to go into a cemetery at night and bang three nails into a tombstone. Farzhad ended up the unlucky one and had no choice but to live up to the agreement. He made his way to the lonely graveyard and, after a few minutes of frightened hesitation, walked in. The place really gave him the creeps. He quickly approached the nearest tombstone and, with knees shaking banged in the first nail. He smashed in the second one and then, with mounting fear, the third. He turned to bolt out the cemetery, took two steps … and then felt someone grab him from behind! He was so utterly terrified that he had a heart attack and died on the spot. When he didn’t return within a reasonable amount of time, his friends entered the cemetery to look for him. They found that in his panic he had carelessly driven one of the nails though the tail of his coat, pinning it to the tombstone. It was his own coat which held him back
COMMENT: There are people who would like to change but never do. They blame others and life’s circumstances, when, in fact it is really they who are holding themselves back.
This week we read about the Yom Kippur service in the Temple. Perhaps the most unique, almost ‘weird’ amongst all the sacrifices is that of ‘the scapegoat’. How does an innocent goat come to “bear upon itself all their iniquities” [Vayikro 15:22]? Furthermore chucking a goat off a rocky mountain so that it will splatter into several pieces before it reaches the bottom is surely not the conventional way of offering up a sacrifice. If the people have done something wrong let them sort it out – why pass the buck?
One of the strongest natural instincts implanted into the human psyche is the need to defend and justify oneself. We wish to shift the blame – and play the ‘blame game’. As President Eisenhower said, “The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions”. It absolves a person from taking responsibility for the situation. It’s much easier than admitting that I need to change or get up and do something. This is why ‘repentance’ is so difficult. We abhor change – especially personal change. One fridge magnet actually reads, “The secret to success is knowing who to blame”.
My good friend R’ Dovid Slade suggested that on this day of Yom Kippur, a day set aside for Teshuvah/repentance, with the rite of the “scapegoat”, the Torah is actually subtly informing us as to how to overcome the mental blockages that impede our Teshuvah.
Pushing the goat over the cliff to disappear completely, meant taking the “scapegoat” – the external things that we would like to blame for our shortcomings – and getting rid of such defence mechanisms. From now on we accept,` in the words of the Talmud, “the matter is entirely dependant on me”. Symbolically the goat represents a very integral part of the Teshuvah process. Without admitting that change needs to come FROM WITHIN Teshuvah cannot begin. The moment we got rid of the scapegoat was the moment of greatest Divine favour – the moment of forgiveness. Once we admit that we are open to change ourselves, infinite progress is possible.
This is perhaps why the person who deals with the goat becomes ritually impure. Any connection or association to the scapegoat ideology of blaming external factors is impure. He must throw away; sever the ties with such a way of thinking.
The palace of King Pharaoh was the cheder of Moshe! The Talmud that tells us that when we get ‘upstairs’ and face the Heavenly Tribunal there will be those who claim that they couldn’t set time aside to learn Torah, because they were too busy dealing with their strong physical urges to indulge in this world. Yosef will be summoned to court. He who had the strongest inclinations and temptations from his master’s wife and yet overcame them will indict them. Similarly the great sage Hillel will condemn the paupers who claim they couldn’t learn because they were so poor and had to spend all their time making ends meet. And the wealthy R’ Elazar Ben Charsam will condemn the prosperous. So too suggests the Rav Zalman Sorotzkin [1881-1966], Moshe will answer back all the people who claim that their education, parents, or environment was the cause of their shortcomings. Was your cheder education any worse than the palace of Pharaoh? Stop blaming and take personal responsibility for our own lives.
Good Shabbos,
Yaakov