לזכות א"מ ר' יצחק יונה בן חנה
וא"מ מרת הענא מרים בת חנה
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT A CRIMSON-COLORED STRAP IS TIED TO THE SCAPEGOAT [שעיר המשתלח]? BECAUSE IT IS SAID, IF YOUR SINS BE AS SCARLET, THEY SHALL BE AS WHITE AS SNOW [אם יהיו חטאיכם כשנים כשלג ילבינו].
[Instead of] ka-shanim [like scarlet threads], kashani [like a scarlet thread] is required? Said R. Isaac, The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel: [Even] if your sins be like these years [ka-shanim] which have continued in ordered fashion from the six days of the Creation until now, yet they shall be as white as snow. [Shabbos 89]
What is the idea behind sending a crimson colored strap to the desert? And what does it mean that your sins are ordered like years??
The desert is a place of emptiness and desolation. What causes desolation in our lives is the excessive passion of our [red] BLOOD wherein resides our nefesh - כי הדם הוא הנפש. So we send this red strap to the place of desolation and discard it. This enables us to restore the equilibrium provided by the Torah.
Many people have habits and/or addictions. I need not expand for I have spoken about this many times as have many others. The Torah is teaching us that we have the capacity to atone for even those sins which have become so habitual and even addictive they may be compared to the order of time from the six days of creation which is ALSO a long standing constant reality..
We can get out of ANYTHING. It requires will power, LSD [Lotsa Siyata Dishmaya] and oftentimes - therapy.
[עפ"י עין איה שבת פ"ט]
