אחרי מות, G’d told Moses to warn Aaron so that he would not die as had his sons because of unauthorised entry into the Temple.

כי בענן אראה על הכפורת. According to the plain meaning of the text, we are told that G’d would become manifest by means of the cloud which hovers over the spot where the lid of the Holy Ark is situated within the Tabernacle. Compare Exodus 25,22 where G’d told Moses: “I will speak with you from above the כפורת from the area between the two cherubs.” If the priest would see this area with his own eyes he would die. Therefore, when he would enter the Tabernacle (Holy of Holies) on the Day of Atonement to burn the incense and sprinkle the blood of the bull and ram of the sin offering on the dividing curtain, the cloud would first wrap the entire Tabernacle into darkness so that he would not be able to see what he was not allowed to see.

והקריב אהרן, in the courtyard, עזרה,

את פר החטאת אשר לו וכפר בעדו. He will immediately pronounce his personal confession over the animal. According to the plain meaning of the text he will bring it into the courtyard in order to sacrifice it as atonement as explained by the line ושחט את פר החטאת אשר לו, “he will slaughter the bull of the sin offering for his personal atonement.(verse 11).

לשלח אותו לעזאזל המדברה, according to the plain meaning it means to dispatch it “alive” to the goats in the desert, similar to the one bird of the two bird offerings in Leviticus 14,7 being released live into the open spaces. The purpose of the procedure is to ritually purify the afflicted from his ritual contamination. Here in our verse too, the purpose of the procedure is to cleanse the entire Jewish people from the ritual contamination which they have been in by releasing the scape-goat to the desert, to an area where it can find grazing, as we know from Exodus 3,1 where Moses had taken his father-in-law’s sheep into grazing land behind the desert, According to the Talmud (Beytzah 40) the meaning of מדבריות, is בייתות, “domesticated.” [this would support the idea that the word המדברה here does not mean “to a desolate, desert region.” Ed.]

לעזאזל. The letter ל at the beginning is not an integral part of the word. It is like the letter ל in ארבאל בית in Hoseah 10,14 where the word is really derived from ארב as in Deuteronomy 19,11 וארב לו “and he prepared an ambush for him.” The letter we are speaking about is similar to the letter ם which sometimes appears at the end of the word ריקם, empty, instead of ריק, but which does not add to the meaning of the word. Similar examples of apparently redundant letters are the letter ן in words such as עשרון, עצבון, and שגעון, In verse 22 the place called המדברה in our verse is called ארץ גזרה, a totally arid land, one that cannot produce a crop. It is literally “cut off,” גזורה, from all goodness.

ביד איש עתי, a man familiar with the paths and the desert regions, someone always available, on call, for such an assignment.

וכפר הכהן אשר ימשח אותו, seeing that the Torah had previously stated that the service on the Day of Atonement is to be performed by the High Priest, i.e. בזאת יבא אהרן אל , הקודש, the Torah had to make provision for an alternate to Aaron if he or the High Priest in his generation was not available. The priest who had been anointed as an alternate would then officiate.

ויעש, when that day arrived Aaron performed, כאשר צוה ה' את משה, as G’d had commanded Moses.