The day of atonement

Once a year, Israel gathered to celebrate the gift of forgiveness. The high priest sacrificed one goat and took its blood into the special room in the tabernacle. Only on this day, once a year, could the priest enter the most holy zone with this sin offering. Then the priest placed his hands on the head of a second goat. He confessed the sins of God’s people and then released it into the wilderness. As the goat disappeared over the horizon, the Israelites could say, ‘There goes our sin!’ That’s where the idea of a ‘scapegoat’ comes from.