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Acharei Mos-Kedoshim: Lesson of the Lotery

  • Writer: Zachary Fish
    Zachary Fish
  • May 9
  • 2 min read

By Zachary Fish

In the heart of the עבודה of יום הכיפורים, at the height of the holiest day of the year, we come across one of the most mysterious scenes in the Torah: the שני שעירים. Identical in appearance, height, and value, and yet destined for opposite fates—one לה׳, brought as a קרבן פנימי, and one לעזאזל, cast into the wilderness. And how is this enormous decision made? Not by merit, not by background, not by preparation or choice, but by גורל.


Rav Hirsch [1] gives a beautiful explanation. גורל means a total break from the past. It’s a reset button. Normally, we assume that our present is shaped by everything that came before—our upbringing, our choices, our habits, our mistakes. But גורל says the opposite. It tells us that none of that has to decide what comes next. Who you were until now, what you’ve done, even what kind of spiritual life you’ve lived—all of that can be set aside. The moment of גורל is a moment where nothing from the past holds you back. The future is still completely open.


And that’s exactly the message of יום כיפור. We start again. We don’t define ourselves by our past, whether it was full of mistakes or full of accomplishments. We look at who we are right now and who we want to become.


The Be’er Yosef [2] makes a very similar point. Just like the two goats—completely identical going in, yet ending up in opposite places, one elevated to קדושה and one thrown off a cliff—we, too, can enter יום כיפור with the same background, the same starting point, the same potential as someone else. But what happens next is not chance. For the שעירים, it’s גורל. But for us, the whole point of the גורל is to teach us that we’re not like them. We get to choose. What makes the difference is what we do with the opportunity in front of us. Whether we take advantage of the day or not—that’s what determines where we end up.


And that’s really the takeaway—not just for יום כיפור, but for every day. We don’t need to be weighed down by where we’ve been or what we’ve done. The only thing that matters is the next moment, the next choice, the next time I decide who I want to be. Am I moving closer to who I’m meant to become? That’s all that counts. The lesson of the גורל is that nothing is fixed. Every moment is a new chance, and it’s always in our hands.




[1] Heard here from Rabbi Asaf Bednarsh: https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/1134756


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