Dispatching the Scapegoat

Confessing For All of Israel

The High Priest now returns to the place where the scapegoat is waiting, opposite the gate through which it will be led off into the desert - the Eastern Gate.

Placing his two hands on the animal's head between its horns, the High Priest now offers his confession for the entire nation of Israel, as Scripture states (ibid. 20-21): "And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place, and the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the Children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat... "