A Pair of Goats

Azazel

The so-called scapegoat was originally never actually blamed for causing any problem. In fact the source ritual brings forward a pair of equally unblemished goats and selects, at random (by lottery), one of them to be sacrificed on the temple altar. The other goat is the "scape" goat, given a transmission by the high priest, who lays his hands on the goat's head in a sort of magical act of transferring the sins of the nation, to carry the pollution away ... to Azazel, the desert, wilderness, wasteland. 

The goat is simply a messenger--again, he's never considered responsible for committing the transgressions of the nation (or of anyone, really--he's just a goat, after all, capable of capricious mischief but nothing comparable to what humans can do). He carries his burden away from the community, out to the harsh, uninhabitable zone, where he's set loose to wander and survive as well as he can (or, according to some accounts, pushed off a cliff--but even then, goats are excellent climbers...). 

The desert, for this culture, was a demonic realm--people forced out into it go crazy, wandering lost and alone, have nightmarish visions, uncertain if they are alive or dead. As such it's entirely receptive to the gift the goat conveys, especially considering that the "sins" of the people probably originated in the demonic realms in the first place. And considering that the proportion of wilderness to habitable land is heavily weighted to the wild, there's little danger of the sins returning within the first day or so (though of course demons travel quickly, not necessarily confined to the rocky path).

This ritual of ostracizing the accumulated sins of the country is a calculated ploy to clean up the ritual space for a day. There's no presumption that the sins won't return tomorrow. (And since the biggest party of the year starts a few days later, they're more or less expected to creep back in.) It's simply a necessary element of preparation to enable the high priest, as the proxy of the community, to enter the holiest place, free from distraction, for a single day. It will be repeated next year, and in between will be all the mundane opportunities for committing and correcting errors.

Highly important in understanding the ritual of the goats are two points: one, as mentioned, that the removal of the collective sins is temporary--just because you washed the floor, in no way is it protected from the crap you track in the following day (though you may be inspired to be a bit more careful for a brief moment). It's an annual clearing for a specific purpose. Two, that the displacement of the collective pollution does not absolve individuals of their responsibility for wrongdoing. (The day is called Yom HaKippurim, "day of the atonements"--individual, separately, as well as collective). It's still necessary to correct one's own misdeeds in the usual tiresome ways, such as paying fines and seeking forgiveness from the person you were rude to.

Gateway

The holy of holies, the most sacred space in the Hebrew tradition, was considered a portal, a conduit unifying heaven and earth, a very potent spot where matter and energy are actively interchangeable. (Not necessarily the only such place on earth--to varying degrees every human has this capacity--and, as I'll explore later, every photosynthesizing plant. But in the fullest degree, the only place available for the highly specific technologies of this group of people--and only available in that place by means of these technologies.) Attempting to enter the holy of holies without attending to every preparatory detail would not only defile the space, but would make the priest and the people susceptible to immolation, insanity, plague. 

Without veering too far into superstitions about the dangers of psychic pollution (more on that later), I'll just mention that, though metaphorical, there's also reasonable evidence suggesting that people are susceptible to physical (as well as emotional, social, psychological) ailments as a result of psychic toxins. And certainly, to be effective in one's endeavors, it's important to have clarity of purpose, but also to not be bogged down by too much unresolved grief, trauma, guilt and other distracting, soul-clogging flotsam. So even from a purely practical standpoint, finding ways to clear up the debris isn't a bad idea.