“With a young bull [ben bakar],” this is Abraham, as in: “Abraham ran to the cattle [habakar]” (Genesis 18:7). “And a ram as a burnt offering,” this is Isaac, as in: “Behold, afterwards, there was a ram caught in the thicket” (Genesis 22:13). A goat,30See Leviticus 16:5. due to the merit of Jacob, as it is written: “Take for me from there two [fine] goat kids” (Genesis 27:9). “Fine,” Rabbi Berekhya said in the name of Rabbi Levi: It is fine for you and fine for your descendants.
It is fine for you, as through them you will receive the blessings; it is fine for your descendants, as through them they will receive atonement on Yom Kippur. That is what is written: “For on this day shall atonement be made for you” (Leviticus 16:30). I have only the patriarchs, from where is it derived regarding the matriarchs? The verse states: “Each part shall be equal [bad bevad]” (Exodus 30:34).31In Leviticus 16:4, the word linen [bad] appears four times in reference to the vestments donned by the High Priest.
They correspond to the four matriarchs in whose merit he performed the Yom Kippur service. The verse cited in the midrash here implies that the four matriarchs were equal in that they were exceptionally righteous (Etz Yosef). Rabbi Berekhya and Rabbi Yirmeya said in the name of Rabbi Ḥiyya: Like the service On High, so is the service below. Just as the service On High: “one man in their midst was clothed in linen” (Ezekiel 9:2), so, the service below: “He shall don a sacred linen tunic” (Leviticus 16:4).