One such example are two identical goats, that when Israel had a national temple would be sacrificed on the holiest day of the year - Yom Kippur. The high priest led a sequence of sin offerings and calls for repentance. In his heightened spiritual state he would draw a lottery to determine which goat would be designated Az-Azel (scapegoat) and which would be offered in the temple. Repentance simply means agreeing not to do the same thing again and achieving it.
As mentioned in last weeks entry, elements in three of four evil realms cannot be redeemed, but the fourth translucent realm depends on our actions. Given the power of these realms, redeeming elements to a state of holiness empowers the redeemer, but only when purity of process is realized. The two goats represent undercover agents of the translucent realm and only the wise, or sweetened agent can be redeemed by the redeemer who will be empowered if the pure process is maintained. In this case one goat will be sacrificed in the temple, the other will be taken to a high desert cliff and thrown to its death. Either way both die! For repentance the sacrifice in the temple is momentarily redeeming, while the other distracts negative forces that would otherwise have the redeemer, in this case Israel fail in its restraint.
In a modern context compare this to a goal to restrain yourself from breaking your resolution by improving your behavior through dieting, speaking, behaving etc. When you pass your first test, you may be internally pleased, but if you express your pleasure before you have completely and permanently separated from your past behavior you may be setting yourself up for failure. Here distraction often ensures no relapse, a positive separation from your old ways. In context, the word holy always means to separate from something less holy!
In the depths of initial restraint, when the battle to hold back is at its toughest with each small victory character is strengthened and power to restrain improves - will power! Without restraint from repeating the very thing you resolved to achieve, there can be no self-test of honesty to yourself and your connection to reality.
Esoteric wisdom of not mixing wool and linen (flax) in the clothes you wear dates back to the sons of Adam and Eve. Prodigal Cain brought an offering of dark flax-seed to use the power of earth to reunite the four realms his father and mother had released when their self interested ego's distracted the selflessness they had been instructed to preserve. But his grandiose desire was too self-serving. His brother Abel brought white wool from a sheep to symbolize that the animal or emotive realm must first be offered and sacrificed, by the intellectual realm in order to defeat the self-actualization of ego.
Noah was the tenth generation after Adam. He was instructed by God to build an ark and prepare his family for the great flood. On the ark they were not permitted to have sexual relations, but his son Ham, the dog and raven did not obey. After exiting the ark, Noah planted a grapevine, got drunk and uncovered his nakedness in his tent. Ham saw his father, but his brothers Shem and Japheth turned their backs until they covered their father. Noah cursed Ham's son Canaan seemingly for the actions Ham had perpetrated. However, from laws against practices of sexual misconduct we can learn that Canaan was the product Ham's incestuous relation with his mother. Canaan the product deserved the direct curse of his grandfather as punishment to Ham and his Noah's wife. On numerous occasion the Torah warns; If a man lies with his fathers wife, he is considered to have uncovered his fathers nakedness, perhaps offering insight to Noah's grief.
Torah records the living practices and precedents of the Israeli nation for almost 4000 years, its text is alive and continues to inform those who dedicate time to discover it.
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