כי בענן אראה. כִּי תָמִיד אֲנִי נִרְאֶה שָׁם עִם עַמּוּד עֲנָנִי, וּלְפִי שֶׁגִּלּוּי שְׁכִינָתִי שָׁם, יִזָּהֵר שֶׁלֹּא יַרְגִּיל לָבֹא, זֶהוּ פְשׁוּטוֹ;
כי בענן אראה means, for I constantly show Myself there with My pillar of cloud, and because the revelation of My Shechinah takes place there he should take care not to make it his habit to come there. This is the literal meaning of the verse.
(7) Aaron shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before יהוה at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; (8) and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for יהוה and the other marked for Azazel. (9) Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for יהוה, which he is to offer as a sin offering; (10) while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before יהוה, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel.
The Scapegoat, From Covenant and Conversation by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks -- The "escape goat"
Azazel is a compound noun meaning “the goat [ez] that was sent away [azal].” This led to the addition of a new word to the English language. In 1530 William Tyndale produced the first English translation of the Hebrew Bible, an act then illegal and for which he paid with his life. Seeking to translate Azazel into English, he called it “the escapegoat,” i.e. the goat that was sent away and released. In the course of time, the first letter was dropped, and the word “scapegoat” was born.
https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/acharei-mot/the-scapegoat/
(20) When he has finished purging the Shrine, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, the live goat shall be brought forward. (21) Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness through a designated (22) Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness. (23) And Aaron shall go into the Tent of Meeting, take off the linen vestments that he put on when he entered the Shrine, and leave them there. (24) He shall bathe his body in water in the holy precinct and put on his vestments; then he shall come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, making expiation for himself and for the people.
The Scapegoat, From Covenant and Conversation by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Two quite distinct processes were involved on Yom Kippur. First there was kapparah, atonement. This is the normal function of a sin offering. Second, there was taharah, purification, something normally done in a different context altogether, namely the removal of tumah, ritual defilement, which could arise from a number of different causes, among them contact with a dead body, skin disease, or nocturnal discharge. Atonement has to do with guilt. Purification has to do with contamination or pollution. These are usually two separate worlds. On Yom Kippur they were brought together.
https://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/acharei-mot/the-scapegoat/
(8) The child grew up and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. (9) Sarah saw the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing. (10) She said to Abraham, “Cast out that slave-woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” (11) The matter distressed Abraham greatly, for it concerned a son of his. (12) But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed over the boy or your slave; whatever Sarah tells you, do as she says, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be continued for you. (13) As for the son of the slave-woman, I will make a nation of him, too, for he is your seed.” (14) Early next morning Abraham took some bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar. He placed them over her shoulder, together with the child, and sent her away. And she wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
(ט) [ט] ....וקח לי משם שני גדיי עזים טובים (שם כז:ט). מה הוא טובים, ר' ברכיה בשם ר' חלבו א' טובים לך וטובים לבניך, טובים לך שעל ידיהם את מקבל ברכות, וטובים לבניך שעל ידיהם מתכפר לבניך ביום הכיפורים, כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם וגומ' (ויקרא טז:ל).
.Why did Rebekah say ‘good?’ Because she meant, explained R. Berechiah in the name of R. Helbo, they will be good for you, [O Jacob], and good for your children—good for you since through them you will receive [your father’s] blessings; and good for your children, for, because of the offering of he-goats, atonement will be made for your children on Atonement Day: On this day shall atonement be made for you, etc. (Lev. 16:30)...
(ויקרא טז, כב): וְנָשָׂא הַשָּׂעִיר עָלָיו, זֶה עֵשָׂו, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: הֵן עֵשָׂו אָחִי אִישׁ שָׂעִר. (ויקרא טז, כב): אֶת כָּל עֲוֹנֹתָם, עֲוֹנוֹת תַּם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (בראשית כה, כז): וְיַעֲקֹב אִישׁ תָּם.
“the goat shall bear upon itself” (Leviticus 16:22) – this is Esau, as it is stated: “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy [sa’ir] man.” “All their iniquities [avonotam]” (Leviticus 16:22) – the iniquities of the simple man [avonot tam], as it is stated: “Jacob was a simple [tam] man” (Genesis 25:27).
Read into the verse in our parashah, it means that the goat that goes to Azazel will carry off the sins of the “pure” man (an ironic usage)—that is, the sins of Ya’akov, which now means all sins of Israel. And that is just what this goat in the Yom Kippur ritual does. Those linguistic connections might awaken us to a larger parallel between the scene of blessing theft in Genesis and the Avodah service of Yom Kippur. For both settings involve a selection between two fates, one of which leads to God, and the other away from the covenantal community.
Rabbi David Kasher, The Goat Man, Parashat Aharei Mot 5784
https://mechonhadar.s3.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_source_sheets/KasherParashatAhareiMot5784.pdf
The second goat is also “placed before the Lord,” that the treatment meted out to him and the tragic record of his unusability also form an integral part of the sign and testimony set up on the Day of Atonement. Cain is just as indispensable as Abel, and Ishmael as Isaac. For the grace which makes an elect man of the first can be seen only from the second, because the first, the elect, must see in the second, the non-elect, as in a mirror, that from which he was taken, and who and what the God is who has delivered him from it.
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, II-2.360. (first published in 1932, but Barth worked on it until his death in 1968).
....the Leviticus rite of atonement points to the central theological theme of the Pentateuch, a chosen people and the contrast with the people who have not been chosen. The Genesis stories are about the eldest sons, for example, Ishmael and Esau, being superseded. Their respective younger brother, Isaac and Jacob, destined before birth to the disciplines of the Covenant, would parallel the goat on which the lot of the Lord fell. Ishmael and Esau would parallel the bird and the goat not chosen, set free in a remote uncultivated land.
Mary Douglas, Jacob's Tears: The Priestly Work of Reconciliation, (2004). Page 55
רַבִּי אַבָּא בַּר כַּהֲנָא אָמַר, אָמְרָה כְּנֶסֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל לִפְנֵי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, אֲנִי הִיא וַחֲבִיבָה אָנִי, שֶׁנְּתוּנָה בְּעִמְקֵי הַצָּרוֹת, וּכְשֶׁיִּדְלֵנִי הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מֵהַצָּרוֹת, אֲנִי מַרְטֶבֶת מַעֲשִׂים טוֹבִים כְּשׁוֹשַׁנָּה וְאוֹמֶרֶת שִׁירָה לְפָנָיו.
Kavannah for an Alternative Model
Song of Songs Rabbah 2:4:
R. Abba said: The community of Israel said in the presence of God: “I am she [the rose] and I am beloved, for I am set in the deep places of suffering. But when God draws me out of these sufferings, I am full of sap like the full blooming rose, and I utter song before Him.”
Sources:
The Atoning Dyad: The Two Goats of Yom Kippur in the Apocalypse of Abraham by Andrei A. Orlov
https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/atoning123.pdf
David Kasher, The Goat Man, Parashat Aharei Mot 5784
https://mechonhadar.s3.amazonaws.com/mh_torah_files/KasherParashatAhareiMot5784.mp3