בס "ד
Why Didn’t the Red Ribbon on the Head of the Scapegoat Turn White in 30 C.E.?
Question: A “Hebrew-Christian” told someone that a scarlet cloth used to turn white every year when the high priest atoned for the sins of the people. Around 30 C.E., when Jsus died, the cloth stopped turning white, because Jesus was the final atonement. What does Rabbi Tovia Singer say about this?
Answer: Rabbi Singer explains that this claim has become popular in the evangelical world in the last ten years. He calls it one of the strangest arguments of Christian apologists, because it uses the Talmud to prove that Jesus is the messiah. Missionaries often attack the Oral Law as the work of men. Yet when the Talmud seems to help them, they suddenly trust it. According to Rabbi Singer, the same Talmud never says that Jsus was virtuous or the messiah.
The quote
Tractate Yoma 39b[1] tells us about miracles in the Temple on Yom Kippur. A strip of scarlet wool was tied to the head of the scapegoat.[2] At times it turned white, and the people saw this as a sign that their sins were forgiven. The Talmud says:
“The Rabbis taught that forty years prior to the destruction of the Temple the lot did not come up in the [high priest’s] right hand nor did the tongue of scarlet wool become white.”
The Second Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E., so forty years earlier is about 30 C.E., the time of Jsus’ crucifixion. Missionaries say that G-d no longer accepted animal sacrifices, and that Jews now had to turn to Jsus.
Two problems for this argument
Primero, Rabbi Singer points out that the missionaries add their own theology to the Talmud. With the same logic, one could say the ribbon stayed red because many Jews followed a false messiah. Rabbi Singer says clearly that this is not the right explanation either. He only uses it to show how self-serving the missionary argument is.
Segundo, if Jsus ended the need for animal sacrifices, why will they return in the End of Days? In the last nine chapters of Ezekiel, the prophet describes the sacrifices in the third and final Temple. Ezekiel 43-44 says they will be restored in full. The messiah, called “the prince” seventeen times at the end of Ezekiel, will bring a sin offering himself (Ezekiel 45:22). So, Rabbi Singer says, G-d has not done away with animal sacrifices.
The full Talmudic discussion
The discussion starts on the page before, Yoma 39a. A Baraisa[3] describes the spiritual decline of Israel during the Second Temple period. It uses the absence of miracles as its measure. There are three stages: the first is the best, the second is a slow decline, and the third is the worst.
The first stage is the 40 years that Shimon HaTzaddik[4] served as high priest. During those years:
- The lot marked “LaHashem” always came up in the right hand of the high priest.[5]
- The scarlet wool always turned white.
- The western-most lamp of the menorah stayed lit.
- The fire on the altar needed no extra wood.
- A blessing rested on the Omer, the two loaves of Shevuoth, and the showbread, so each priest was satisfied with a piece the size of an olive.
Shimon HaTzaddik was known for his kindness and care for others. His best-known saying is: “The world exists on three things: the Torah, divine worship, and acts of kindness” (Pirkay Avot 1:2). His people followed his example, and the miracles showed it.
After his death, the people could not keep this level. The miracles became rare: some years they happened, many years they did not. In the last 40 years of the Second Temple, none of them happened.
Rabbi Singer stresses that the miracles did not end suddenly in 30 C.E. They started to fade right after the death of Shimon HaTzaddik, many centuries before the destruction of the Temple. The cause was a slow spiritual decay, not one event.
What was the sin?
Many sins were common, but Rabbi Singer says the worst was baseless hatred between Jews. The Talmud says it reached its height exactly 40 years before the Temple was destroyed. Murder became so common that the Sanhedrin[6] stopped judging capital cases.[7] Even in normal times, a Sanhedrin that executed more than one person in 70 years was called a “Killer Bais Din.”[8] The court system was not made for a society where murder was everywhere. Because of this, the glory of the Temple faded, the miracles stopped, and the Sanhedrin stopped judging capital cases. This has nothing to do with Christian theology.
Why scarlet and white?
Missionaries say the ribbon stopped because of the end of blood sacrifice. Rabbi Singer asks: how can we know that this is wrong? Why was the wool scarlet, and why did it turn white? And why did the ribbon show that sins were forgiven? Leviticus 16 does not mention a scarlet thread on the goat at all. It is a rabbinic tradition.
According to Rabbi Singer, the answer is in Isaiah 1. The prophet does not criticize the people for breaking the Sabbath or eating non-kosher food. He criticizes them for a lack of social justice. They had abandoned the widow, the orphan and the poor. He compares them to Sodom and Gomorrah and says that God rejects their Sabbaths and New Moons:
“When you beseech Me with your many prayers, I will not hear them for your hands are stained with blood.” There was a time,” Isaiah laments, “that the city was filled with righteousness, but now it has become a harlot, filled with murderers!”
(Isaiah 1:15; 1:21)
Then, at this low point, Isaiah gives hope. Rabbi Singer notes that Isaiah does not say we must believe in a crucified messiah, and he does not ask for a blood sacrifice. He says:
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, let us reason together,” says the L-rd, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.”
(Isaiah 1:16-19)
So, the scarlet ribbon turning white is linked to atonement through social justice and kindness, not blood. If your sins are red like scarlet and you want them white as snow, do acts of kindness and end murder and baseless hatred. In the last forty years of the Second Temple, people did not listen. Rabbi Singer says the scarlet thread that turns white is a living reminder of Isaiah’s message of atonement without blood, and that this is a serious blow to the core teaching of the Church.
Missionaries say Isaiah only condemned insincere sacrifices. Rabbi Singer says this does not hold. Isaiah says again and again that the blood sacrifices cannot cleanse deliberate sins. He repeats this in his last chapter:
“Whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns frankincense, like one who worships an idol..”
(Isaiah 66:3)
While Shimon HaTzaddik was high priest, the people followed his kindness, so the atonement of Isaiah worked and the ribbon turned white. After his death, the people slowly drifted away from his golden rule, and the ribbon turned white in some years but not in others. In the last forty years, Isaiah’s words of condemnation came true.
A closing thought
The last forty years of the Second Temple show us what baseless hatred can do. Rabbi Singer asks us to think about this period and to free ourselves of this spiritual sickness. Instead, he asks us to turn to each other with Godly affection. May this repentance bring the messiah, quickly in our time.
Notas al pie
- 1. The Aramaic word Yoma means “The Day” and refers to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
- 2. See Leviticus 16:7-10.
- 3. A Baraisa is a statement of a Tanna that Rabbi Yehudah Ha’nasi (about 200 C.E.) did not include in the Mishnah.
- 4. Shimon HaTzaddik (Simon the Just) followed Ezra in the early Second Temple period and was high priest for forty years. He was called “HaTzaddik” because of his faithfulness and kindness to his countrymen (Josephus, Antiquities 12:157). See also Talmud, Yoma 9b.
- 5. The high priest drew two lots from a box. One said “LaHashem” and the other “LaAzazel” (Leviticus 16:8-10). It was a good sign if the “LaHashem” lot came up in his right hand.
- 6. The Sanhedrin is the Jewish court system.
- 7. Talmud, Sanhedrin 41a; Avodah Zara 8b.
- 8. Talmud, Makkos 7a. “Bais Din” means “House of Law,” a Jewish court.
Attribution: This text is an abridged version, published with permission, of Rabino Tovia Singer, Let’s Get Biblical! Why Doesn’t Judaism Accept the Christian Messiah?, Volume 2, pp. 91–101. All credit for the content goes to Rabbi Singer. You can get the book here: outreachjudaism.org
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