Let’s Choose Our Own Adventure
Yael Eckstein | October 8, 2024
Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat.
— Leviticus 16:7-8
This month, Jews around the world will observe the High Holy Days—a time of great reflection and introspection—which began with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and conclude ten days later on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
When I was a kid, there used to be a series I loved called Choose Your Own Adventure books. They were storybooks that had alternate endings depending on choices you could make as a reader at critical moments in the plot. For example, “If Chris chooses not to go to the party, turn to page 64. If he goes, turn to page 72.” Part of the fun was that I could read them over and over, making different choices leading to different endings.
On a more serious note, if you think about it, isn’t life like a Choose Your Own Adventure story? For every choice that we make, there are other roads not taken that would have led us to destinations that are different from how our lives have turned out. We’ve all had those thoughts, “What if I had chosen the other option?”
Choosing Your Own Adventure
I think about this whenever I consider a unique ritual that took place at the doorway of the Temple on Yom Kippur.Two goats were chosen of the exact same age, size, and appearance. They were placed side by side at the entrance to the Temple. The high priest would draw lots. Based on the lots, one goat would be brought into the Temple and offered to God on the altar. The other goat would be sent to its death in the wilderness.
Before sending the second goat to the wilderness, the High Priest would place his hands on the head of the goat and make a confession on behalf of all the sins of the people of Israel. As the Bible puts it, the goat would “carry the sins of Israel” into the wilderness.
The fact that the two goats were identical teaches a deep message for all people of faith. It’s as though the goats are acting out a Choose Your Own Adventure story, as if they really are one goat with two possible paths. Like those goats, at every point in our lives we can choose to enter the house of God and devote our lives to Him, or we can carry our sins into the wilderness, the desert where nothing grows.
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, gives us a chance to pause and think about our choices. With the gift of atonement and forgiveness, God gives us a chance to start over and choose our own adventure for the year ahead.
Your Turn:
Consider how fortunate we are that God forgives sin and gives us second chances. What change can you make to draw closer to God this year?