The Two- Legged Goat

In a previous post we spoke of how Klal Yisrael became like Yosef who is compared to a Bull who is a vehicle for giving parnassah to his nation.  In this post we start with the assumption that Esav is compared to a Goat.  There are many sources for this:

1. When Ya'akov fooled his father Yitzchak to think that he was his brother Esav so that he could receive Esav's brachah, he wore the skin of a goat on his arm and neck.

2. When Esav inherited his portion in this world, his first territorial inheritance was Mt. Se'ir, the Mountain of the Male Goat.  A Se'ir is a male goat.

3. Me'am Lo'ez based on the Zohar compares the meeting of Ya'akov and Esav when Ya'akov is traveling back from Lavan's house in Aram Naharai'im to the meeting of two goats on Yom Kippur.  Ya'akov goes LaShem by traveling on to the next festival, Sukkot while Esav goes to Mt. Se'ir (toward Aza'zel) to be "thrown over the cliff" there at the End of Days.

In actuality though, it is not at Mt. Se'ir, Esav's ancient homeland, where Esav is thrown over the cliff.  The text of Yishayahu 34 and 63 and the Zohar VaEira 32 from the previous post tell us that the Angel of Edom will be slaughtered in Batzrah, the modern city in southern Iraq at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as they enter the Persian Gulf.  These two rivers flow from Gan Eden, and their mineral wealth (50% of the world's sweet non-shale oil reserves) will only be truly valuable in Olam HaZeh.  So when Olam HaZeh makes way for Yemot HaMashiach, Esav's guardian angel will be slaughtered there.  Even the text of Yishayahu 34 compares Esav's guardian angel to a Male Goat.

 וּפָגְשׁוּ צִיִּים אֶת-אִיִּים, וְשָׂעִיר עַל-רֵעֵהוּ יִקְרָא; אַךְ-שָׁם הִרְגִּיעָה לִּילִית, וּמָצְאָה לָהּ מָנוֹחַ. 14 And the wild-cats shall meet with the jackals, and the (Se'ir or satyr) shall cry to his fellow (satyr); yea, the night-monster (Lilith, the Chief Se'ir's feminine companion) shall repose there, and shall find her a place of rest.

In this verse we see that the Sar (Heavenly Minister) of Esav is dead at this juncture because the Chief Goat, the Ministering Angel of Esav, has already been slaughtered in Batzrah, but his servant demons called satyrs in English continue to live on in this burning wasteland.  And the Heavenly Minister of Esav had a mistress named Lilith who continues to live on in this barren hell on earth with burning oil fires that are never quenched and tar on the principle rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, continuing to burn in smoldering fires.  

This of course happens after the oil rich Persian Gulf and the two Rivers themselves go up in flames as described in the text of Yishayahu 34, and no Red Adair will go to the Gulf to put out the fires at one million bucks per oil well, demonstrating that it will not be economically feasible to put out these oil fires in Yemot HaMashiach.  The oil just won't be worth that much as it was in 5751 after the First Persian Gulf War when "Red" Adair went to Batzrah and neighboring Kuwait to douse these fires to preserves the ancient "Red"'s inheritance called in the Torah, Shmanei HaAretz, the Oil of the earth.

Bereishit 27:    לח  וַיֹּאמֶר עֵשָׂו אֶל-אָבִיו, הַבְרָכָה אַחַת הִוא-לְךָ אָבִי--בָּרְכֵנִי גַם-אָנִי, אָבִי; וַיִּשָּׂא עֵשָׂו קֹלוֹ, וַיֵּבְךְּ. 38 And Esau said unto his father: 'Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father.' And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

לט  וַיַּעַן יִצְחָק אָבִיו, וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו:  הִנֵּה מִשְׁמַנֵּי הָאָרֶץ, יִהְיֶה מוֹשָׁבֶךָ, וּמִטַּל הַשָּׁמַיִם, מֵעָל. 39 And Isaac his father answered and said unto him: Behold, of the fat places of the earth {or Oil of the earth.  (This is a double entendre.)} shall be thy dwelling, and of the dew of heaven from above;

From here we see that Esav's blessing gives him the oil of the earth cart blanche.  He does not have to have merit for it.  The dew of heaven which he also receives comes as a result of all the merits that he has in This World, but since the dew is mentioned AFTER the blessing of the oil of the earth and not before as it is with Ya'akov's brachah, the oil is not dependent upon his merits whose reward comes through the Dew.  Also the name Elokim is missing from his brachah meaning that unlike Ya'akov he will not necessarily suffer for his sins in This World.  He will only suffer from them primarily in the World to Come.  That aspect of his brachah made him extremely angry and is the source of much of his hatred for Ya'akov throughout all of history.  And at the very end of history when his merits have been used up, Esav's angel will flee to Batzrah to permanently receive his reward of the Oil of the earth.  And there the Angel, the two legged goat as we shall soon see, will be slaughtered.

 A more detailed discussion of this was presented in my 2006 post about Esav's angel fleeing to Batzrah.     I have in previous years written extensively about this topic on this blog.

A chicken has two legs called Kra'ayim, but a bull, a sheep, and a goat have four legs.  It is well known in Hebrew grammar that when there is two of something that is when things are paired, the plural form Cheerik dot followed by a Yud and a Final Mem (the regular plural form) is transformed into Patach Yud Cheerik under the Yud followed by a Final Mem.  In modern Hebrew an extra Yud is added after the Cheerik to distinguish it from the regular plural consonants of the three letter shoresh followed by a Yud and a Final Mem.  In ancient Hebrew though, no such second Yud was added.  Consonantally it was impossible to distinguish between the two forms, the regular plural form and the form that meant a pair of something.  Here are examples from the Torah and Na"kh:

From Sefer BaMidbar 22 in the story about Bilaam we see that he hit his jackass three times:

כח  וַיִּפְתַּח יְהוָה, אֶת-פִּי הָאָתוֹן; וַתֹּאמֶר לְבִלְעָם, מֶה-עָשִׂיתִי לְךָ, כִּי הִכִּיתַנִי, זֶה שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים. 28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam: 'What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?'

Or when speaking of the three Pilgrimage festivals when in ancient times we all walked to Yerushalayim, we have this verse from Shemot 23:

יד  שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים, תָּחֹג לִי בַּשָּׁנָה. 14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto Me in the year.

Notice in both cases the regular masculine plural form.  Now here is the form referring to pairs of legs:  Iyov (Job) 29:

טו  עֵינַיִם הָיִיתִי, לַעִוֵּר; וְרַגְלַיִם לַפִּסֵּחַ אָנִי. 15 I was eyes to the blind, and legs was I to the lame.

I specifically chose that pasuk so that you could see the Pair of limbs and organs form of both the word for Eyes and Legs in Tana"kh since almost every human being on the planet was born with two of them each.

Now from this past week's parsha, Shmini, let us look at an insect whose hind legs are for hopping and its front legs are for stabilizing their body.  These are the kosher locusts that can be eaten if you have a mesorah to know exactly which species of locusts are kosher:  VaYikra 11:

כא  אַךְ אֶת-זֶה, תֹּאכְלוּ, מִכֹּל שֶׁרֶץ הָעוֹף, הַהֹלֵךְ עַל-אַרְבַּע:  אֲשֶׁר-לא (לוֹ) כְרָעַיִם מִמַּעַל לְרַגְלָיו, לְנַתֵּר בָּהֵן עַל-הָאָרֶץ. 21 Yet these may ye eat of all winged swarming things that go upon all fours, which have jointed legs above their feet, wherewith to leap upon the earth;

Notice the Pair of limbs form of the word כְרָעַיִם.  It makes sense because for a locust, the hind pair of legs are for leaping upon the earth (as the pasuk itself says) while the front legs are only for standing on all four legs.  The hind legs have knees above the plane of the body while the front legs do not.  In this case you really have two distinct pairs of legs.  Just to point out where we are headed with this, notice the singular form of of the word Kra'ayim.  It is Kera which is a combination of both the lower and upper legs.  For a chicken the lower leg is called a shok while the upper leg known as a thigh in English is called a Yarech.  They are joined at the knee, and together they are called a Kera spelled Kaf Reish Ayin. So the Hebrew word for kneel is Korea (כֹּרֵעַ) (Yes, you read that right.)  From the Book of Esther 3 when Mordechai refused to kneel before Haman we have the following:

   ב  וְכָל-עַבְדֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר-בְּשַׁעַר הַמֶּלֶךְ, כֹּרְעִים וּמִשְׁתַּחֲוִים לְהָמָן--כִּי-כֵן, צִוָּה-לוֹ הַמֶּלֶךְ; וּמָרְדֳּכַי--לֹא יִכְרַע, וְלֹא יִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה. 2 And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, knelt down, and prostrated themselves before Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordechai knelt not down, nor prostrated himself before him.

and   ה  וַיַּרְא הָמָן--כִּי-אֵין מָרְדֳּכַי, כֹּרֵעַ וּמִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לוֹ; וַיִּמָּלֵא הָמָן, חֵמָה. 5 And when Haman saw that Mordechai would not kneel, nor prostrate himself before him, then was Haman full of wrath.

So now here is the important point of this post.  Starting from the first chapter of VaYikra we learn about the various Qorbanot.  In only one case are the limbs themselves burnt upon the altar.  It is with a fully burnt offering, usually a personal and voluntary one.  It is often offered up for failing to do positive commandments since the Qorban Cheit (Sin offerings) are for unintentionally transgressing the Thou shalt nots.  In all other cases, the limbs are either eaten by the Kohanim or in the case of Peace offerings are eaten by the general public in Yerushalayim when they are tahor.  Sometimes they are burnt outside the Temple Mount compound.  But in the case of the fully burnt offering or the Qorban Olah, they are burnt upon the altar.  So notice from VaYikra 1, first the Torah tells us about how to sacrifice a Bull, a Par.  Notice the words used to describe the four limbs that are burnt on the altar:

  ט  וְקִרְבּוֹ וּכְרָעָיו, יִרְחַץ בַּמָּיִם; וְהִקְטִיר הַכֹּהֵן אֶת-הַכֹּל הַמִּזְבֵּחָה, עֹלָה אִשֵּׁה רֵיחַ-נִיחוֹחַ לַיהוָה.  {ס} 9 but its inwards and its legs shall he wash with water; and the priest shall make the whole smoke on the altar, for a burnt-offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

Now this makes sense because in the case of a four legged kosher mammal, the front legs and the hind legs serve virtually the same purpose.  It allows for the four legged mammal to walk on all four legs, and each of the four legs has a split hoof.

Yet, just four pasukim later, we read about the exact same Qorban from the flock instead of from cattle.  There should be precise parallelism since a four legged sheep or goat has legs which serve the same purpose as a four legged bull or cow.  Therefore it should read Kirbo UKra'av, meaning its innards and its legs, but it does not! 

Instead for the sheep and goat Olah it reads:
יג  וְהַקֶּרֶב וְהַכְּרָעַיִם, יִרְחַץ בַּמָּיִם; וְהִקְרִיב הַכֹּהֵן אֶת-הַכֹּל, וְהִקְטִיר הַמִּזְבֵּחָה--עֹלָה הוּא אִשֵּׁה רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ, לַיהוָה.  {פ} 13 But the inwards and the legs shall he wash with water; and the priest shall offer the whole, and make it smoke upon the altar; it is a burnt-offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

Now we all know that unlike a chicken or a turkey, a goat or sheep does NOT have two legs.  So it should not read Kra'aim.  It should also read either Kra'av (its limbs) or Kra'im (limbs) without the extra patach before the Yud.  I have yet to find the reason in Chaza"l why there would be this difference between the bull and an animal from the flock.  So I have to conclude it is a hint that the Qorban of Edom, who is compared to a goat, at the End of Days will have two limbs, two proxy limbs fighting each other which when the time comes will both be placed on the altar in Batzrah when Western Civilization is brought to its knees.  The two limbs?  The Korea (Kera) of the North and the Korea (Kera) of the South.

To the East we go to Enter the 7th Millennium, The Time Piece for B'itah before the Year 6000; Why it is necessary for a nation at the Edge of the World to enter Yom sheKulo Shabbat less than 250 years BEFORE Eretz Yisrael enters Yom sheKulo Shabbat in the year 6001:

To be continued later......