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FINDING OUT - Essential Questions 2-4
Questions:
Are they familiar with the term “scapegoat?”
What does it mean to them?
How would they use it? Have they heard it used?
Is it a good thing?
What happens when we make someone the scapegoat?
Have they ever been made into a scapegoat?
How does having a scapegoat “help?” How might it hurt?
TEACHING ON THE ORIGINS OF THE TERM SCAPEGOAT
What is the origin of the term scapegoat? It comes from Leviticus Ch. 16 and is related to the ceremony conducted
by the Kohen Gadol, the High Priest, to atone for the sins of all the Israelite People. Read the verses to the students.
You can print the excerpt out for them and read along.
Leviticus 16
The ritual of the Scapegoat is found in various verses from Ch. 16. I have put all the verses related to the goat for
Azazel together as they are interspersed with the rest of the Yom Kippur ceremony for the Kohen Gadol. You could
read all of Ch. 16 with the students or just this summary.
“And from the Israelite community he (Aaron) shall take two he-goats for a sin offering and a ram for a
burnt offering… Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the Lord at the entrance of
the Tent of Meeting; and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for the Lord and the other
marked for Azazel. Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for the Lord, which he is to offer
as a sin offering; while the goat designated for Azazel shall be left standing alive before the Lord, to make
expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel…HE shall then slaughter the people’s goat
of sin offering, bring its blood behind the curtain (of the Holy of Holies) and do with its blood as he has
done with the blood of the bull: he shall sprinkle it over the cover and in front of the cover…When he has
finished purging the Shrine, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, the live goat shall be brought forward.
Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and
transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be
sent off to the wilderness through a designated man. Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to
an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness. ..He who set the Azazel goat free
shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may reenter the camp…This shall be to
you a law for all time: to make atonement for the Israelites for all their sins once a year.”
(Jewish Publication Society translation 2000 edition)
Questions:
What are their questions about the reading?
