First, a brief explanation of what Azazel is/was. There was a second part of the sin offering given on Yom Kippur. After the blood sacrafice took place a single goat was set aside which was inscribed as "For Azazel". This is what is referred to as the "scapegoat". The High Priest would then lay his hands upon the scapegoat and speak out a confession (I can post this if anyone is interested) which would transfer the guilt of the people upon the goat. The Priest would then turn towards the people and shout out, "You shall be clean."
A seperate priest (not the high priest) would then come out of the Temple and lead this scape goat to a high cliff in the wilderness. There was quite a processional (which I can describe again if anyone is interested) that led into the wilderness, transferring the goat from preson to person until it reached it's destination.
Taken from page 104-105 of "The Fall Feasts" by Mitch and Zhava Glaser:
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"When the goat finally arrived at the precipice, the attending priest removed the red sash from its head and divided it, returning half to the animal's horns and tying the other half to a protrusion on the cliff. He then pushed the animal backwards over the cliff, sending it, bearing Israel's sins, to its death.
In connection with this ceremony, an interesting addition arose, which is mentioned in the Mishna. A portion of the crimson sash was attached to the door of the Temple before the goat was sent into the wilderness. The sash would turn form red to white as the goat was sent into the wilderness. The sash would turn from read to white as the goat met its end, signaling to the people that G-d had accepted their sacrifice and their sins were forgiven. This was based on the verse in Isaiah where the prophet declared: "Come now, and les us reason together," says the L-rd, "though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow' though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool." (Isaiah 1:18) The Mishnah tell sus that forty years before the destuction of the Temple, the sash stopped turning white. That, of course, was approxiametely the year Yeshua died.
According to the Talmud, the destruction of the Temple did not come as a total surprise to the Jewish peole. In fact, the Talmud records that four ominous events occured approximately forty years before the destruction of the Temple. Those four events were to warn the rabbis of the Temple's impending doom. According to the Jewish tradition, all four of these 'signs' came to pass. The four signs were (Yoma 39a, b):
1. The lot for the L-rd's goat did not come up on the right hand of the high priest (I will describe this in detail later - yafet -).
2. The scarlet cord tied to the door of the Temple on the Day of Atonement stopped turning white after the scapegoat had been cast over the precipice.
3. The westernmost light on the Temple candelabra would not burn. It is believed that this light was used to light the other lights of the candelabra.
4. The Temple doors would open by themselves. The Rabbis saw this as an ominous fulfillment of Zechariah 11:1, "Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that fire may devour thy cedars." The opening of the doors to let in consuming fire foretold the destruction of the Temple itself by fire.
The sages drew two conclusions from these warnings. First, they realized that the destruction of the Temple was G-d's judgement upon the Jewish people for the ungodliness. Second, they perceived the warnings as G-ds way of giving them time to prepare for the restructuring of Judiasm around the synagouge.
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More later...
shalom,
Yafet.
According to the Talmud, the desctruction of the
