Acharei Mot - Goat Demons

(1) יהוה spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelite people and say to them: This is what יהוה has commanded: (3) if anyone of the house of Israel slaughters an ox or sheep or goat in the camp, or does so outside the camp, (4) and does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to present it as an offering to יהוה, before יהוה’s Tabernacle, bloodguilt shall be imputed to that party: having shed blood, that person shall be cut off from among this people. (5) This is in order that the Israelites may bring the sacrifices which they have been making in the open—that they may bring them before יהוה, to the priest, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and offer them as sacrifices of well-being to יהוה; (6) that the priest may dash the blood against the altar of יהוה at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and turn the fat into smoke as a pleasing odor to יהוה; (7) and that they may offer their sacrifices no more to the goat-demons after whom they stray. This shall be to them a law for all time, throughout the ages.

(13) The priests and the Levites, from all their territories throughout Israel, presented themselves to Rehoboam. (14) The Levites had left their pasturelands and their holdings and had set out for Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had prevented them from serving the Eternal, (15) having appointed his own priests for the shrines, goat-demons, and calves which he had made.

(19) And Babylon, glory of kingdoms, Proud splendor of the Chaldeans, Shall become like Sodom and Gomorrah Overturned by God. (20) Nevermore shall it be settled Nor dwelt in through all the ages. No Arabian shall pitch tent there, No shepherds make flocks lie down there. (21) But beasts shall lie down there, And the houses be filled with screech-owls; There shall ostriches make their home, And there shall goat-demons dance.

(13) Thorns shall grow up in [Edom's] palaces, Nettles and briers in its strongholds. It shall be a home of jackals, An abode of ostriches. (14) Wild beasts shall meet hyenas, Goat-demons shall greet each other; There too the lilith shall repose And find herself a resting place. (15) There the arrow-snake shall nest and lay eggs, And shall brood and hatch in its shade. There too the buzzards shall gather With one another.

(1) The Se’irim (satyrs) - these are the demons. They are so called because the body of one who sees them “storms.” However, it appears that they are so called because the insane see them in the form of goats (se’irim). The word “more” teaches that the Israelites did so in Egypt.

(8) and [the High Priest] shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for יהוה and the other marked for Azazel.

(1) LOTS. ... Rabbi Samuel says that even though it is written that the goat offered as a sin offering is to be offered to God, the goat that was sent was also offered to God. There is no need for this interpretation, for the goat sent into the wilderness did not serve as an offering since it was not slaughtered. If you are able to understand the secret that follows Azazel then you will know its secret and the secret of its name, for it has comrades in Scripture. I will reveal a bit of its secret to you in a hint. When you are thirty-three, you will understand it.

Come and see: The Holy Blessed One produced ten holy lofty crowns, with which He is crowned and clothed. He is they and they are He, as a flame attached to a burning coal. There is no separation. Correspondingly, there are ten crowns that are not holy below, held by the filth of the nails of one holy crown called Wisdom. Therefore, they are called Chochmot (lit. 'wisdoms').
We have learned that ten types of these 'Wisdoms', descended to the world and all became unclean in Egypt, except for one that spread. They consisted of all types of sorcery, and from them the Egyptians knew sorcery more than the rest of humanity. When the Egyptians wished to gather kinds of sorceries for their purposes, they used to go out into the field to the high mountains and offer sacrifices. They made diggings in the ground and surrounded the diggings with blood while the rest of the blood gathered within the diggings. They placed upon it flesh. They offered the sacrifice to evil beings. And these evil beings gathered and approached together, and were appeased by them on that mountain.

Israel, who were subjugated by the Egyptians, approached them, learned from them, followed their erroneous ways, as the verse says, "After the doings of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt, shall you not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan..." (Lev 18:3). It is also written, "And they shall no more offer their sacrifice to demons..." (Lev 17:7). We have learned that when they were offering before them upon the field and preparing the blood and offering their sacrifices, all these evil types assembled and they saw them as demons, as they were full of hair (sa'arah) and they told them what they wanted.