Yom Kippur Scapegoat Plaque

An allegorical representation of Yom Kippur. Depicts the silhouette of a leaping goat, the scapegoat, colored with a red-white gradient superimposed on a black, red and and orange fractal background image. Hebrew text reading "Slichah" (forgiveness) also appears in glowing, or fiery, letters. Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) is the most solemn day of the Jewish calendar; it occurs sometime during the last two weeks of September and the first two weeks of October. In the Torah (Leviticus 16) we read that the ritual for Yom Kippur included the sacrifice of one he-goat and another was chosen to be the scapegoat. The High Priest laid his hands on its head and confessed the sins of Israel after which it was led away symbolically carrying the sins to "Azazel" in the wilderness. In Leviticus 16 the Hebrew word "la-aza'zeyl" can be read as either "for absolute removal" or "for Azazel. Having been forgiven the people's sins become accounted as nothing, as unreal as the goat demon, Azazel, worshiped by some pagans. The red-white gradient of the scapegoat symbolizes the fading away of sins into nothingness as it carries them away into the desert. "Azazel" has been interpreted as a combination of the Hebrew words "azaz" (rugged), and "el" (strong), referring to the rugged and rough mountain to which the scapegoat was led, and from which it may have been cast down to its death.