A doctor may recommend that a patient suffering from a food sensitivity should eat very simple food for a period of time. Once the patient begins feeling better, they can slowly reintroduce the foods that they had stopped eating. Through this process, the doctor can determine which foods are harming the patient.

On Passover we stop eating any leavened bread. Not only are we not allowed to eat it, we are not allowed to own it, or benefit from it in any way. When bread rises, it fills with pockets of air. Similarly, the ego inflates a person, filling them with hot air that leads them to behave in thoughtless and hot-headed ways, heedless of the impact that their behavior has on those around them. Therefore, on Passover we take a week of cleansing ourselves off all ego, a week of eating Matzah, the unleavened bread of faith and healing.

Passover has ended and we are ready to reintroduce bread, to reencounter our character traits that needed cleansing. In this week’s Torah portion, we learn about two goats that the High Priest was commanded to designate on Yom Kippur. The goats were healthy and good-looking goats that were nearly identical to one another. Through a lottery, one goat was chosen as a sacrificial goat to G-d on the alter, and the other, the original scapegoat, was taken out of Jerusalem and thrown off a cliff.

These goats represent the different personality traits that we all possess. Some traits are meant to be nourished and treasured, brought into our holy Temples, our bodies. Other aspects are meant to be removed, tossed away like the unnecessary baggage that they are. When we are biased and conflicted, filled with an egotistical view of ourselves, it may be hard to distinguish between the two parts of our personalities. However, when we have reached a place of simple faith, our inner truth is clarified. We are then able to assess ourselves objectively, strengthening the good and weeding out the bad. Through this process of working on our personality traits, we cleanse and prepare ourselves to receive the Torah, which is the ultimate purpose and goal of our redemption from Egypt and our existence as a nation.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Zushe Cunin