Yoma 67 - Walking with the goat

The appointed Kohen, who was taking the goat to the desert cliff, was accompanied by the eminent people of Jerusalem. They could only walk with him on the first leg of the journey, though, because of the "techum" limitation: one cannot walk more than 2,000 steps away from his place of residence on holidays. There were twelve such stretches from Jerusalem to the cliff, with a booth prepared at the end of the first ten, and they accompanied him as far as the first booth.

At each booth, there was an attendant who would tell him, "Here is food and drink" - not because he was absolved from fasting, but because he might feel weak. In reality, he never used this food because knowing that it was available was already helpful enough. The person waiting for him at the booth would accompany him to the next one. After the tenth booth, they would only accompany him for half of the way and then stand and observe his actions from a distance.

He would part the strip of scarlet wool at the cliff, tie half of it to the goat's horn, and another half to a rock. He would then push the goat from the back, and it would tumble down, and before it reached half the mountain, it was already torn to pieces. The man would then go back to the last booth and sit in the shade until the day was over. Later, he had to purify himself in a mikveh because one who leads the goat becomes ritually impure.

Art: Four Still Lives of Food and Fruit by Jan van Kessel