The Scarlet Thread of Yom Kippur: The Scapegoat, the Whitening Sign, and Its Jewish and Christian Interpretations

Abstract

The ritual of the scapegoat described in Leviticus 16 is one of the most distinctive elements of the Yom Kippur liturgy. Later Jewish tradition developed the biblical account by introducing the custom of attaching a scarlet thread or strip of scarlet wool (lāšôn šel zehôrît, lit. tongue of scarlet) to the scapegoat. Rabbinic sources state that this thread miraculously turned white when Israel’s atonement was accepted by God. Even more strikingly, the tradition preserved in the Babylonian Talmud claims that this sign ceased approximately forty years before the destruction of the Second Temple. This article explores not only the textual evidence but also the interpretive imagination that shaped the ritual over centuries. It examines the development of the scarlet thread motif, its theological symbolism, and the interpretive trajectories that it generated within Jewish and Christian traditions. Special attention is given to the meaning of the Hebrew term ʿăzāʾzēl, the ritual description preserved in the Mishnah, and to parallels found in Second Temple literature. Recent comparative research suggests that the motif of a ritual thread connected with the scapegoat may reflect a broader ritual pattern in the ancient Near East, in which cords, wool, or colored threads functioned as material carriers of transferred impurity or misfortune before being expelled from the community. Such parallels point to a shared cultural logic extending beyond the biblical text itself. The study argues that this motif represents a later ritual concretization of atonement and reflects broader shifts in theological interpretation across Jewish and Christian traditions.