Kommentar zu Yoma 1:9

From his house. The explanation of the Ram is that this means from his wife so he won't touch a Nidda and become impure during the seven days.

Seven days... We separate the High Priest. Since all the service of Yom Kippur is not kosher except through him [Yuma 32a and many other places], as it says in regard to Yom Kippur (Vaikra chapter 16) "And the Cohen ,who will be anointed with oil, will atone." [note of the translator: from this verse we see that only the anointed Cohen, i.e. High Priest can perform atonement service of Yom Kippur]. And this separation is learned out for us from what is written in regard to seven days of the dedication [of the Mishkan] (ibid. chapter 8) "And from the entrance of the Tent of Meeting don't go away for seven days", and after this it is written (ibid.) "Just like was done on this day commanded Hashem to do to atone for you", and the sages expound: [the phrase] "to do" this is doings of the cow [red heifer], [and the phrase] "to atone for you" this is doings of the Yom Kippur. Thus, the Cohen that burns the cow [red heifer] and the Cohen serving on Yom Kippur, both require separation from their houses for seven days just like were required Aharon and his sons during the seven days of dedication [of the Mishkan]. [note of the translator: thus, from the proximity of the two verses, the verse that talks about the seven days of separation during the dedication of the Mishkan and the verse that was expounded to mean "just like was done on this day, commended Hashem to do for the procedure of the Red heifer and the Yom Kippur service", the sages learn that the Cohen that does the burning of the red heifer and the High priest that serves on Yom Kippur should be separated from their houses similar to the seven day separation of the days of dedication of the Mishkan.]

Introduction Tractate Yoma begins with preparations made seven days before Yom Kippur falls. This whole chapter deals with the week before Yom Kippur and how the sages instruct the High Priest so that he will be able to correctly perform the Yom Kippur service.

ללשכת פלהדרין – the officers of the king are called Palhedrin/counselors, for since that the High Priests that existed in Second Temple times after Shimon HaTzaddik/the Righteous (see Mishnah Avot, Chapter 1, Mishnah 2) would give money in order to serve in the High Priesthood, and because they were wicked, they would not complete their years, and would be exchanged every twelve months like the officers of the king, who would exchange them every year, therefore, they call this apartment the apartment/cell of the counselors.

Seven days before Yom HaKippurim they remove the high priest from his house to the chamber of the counselors and they set up another priest to take his place lest something should occur to him to disqualify him [from being able to worship]. Seven days before Yom Kippur they isolate the High Priest so that he doesn’t become impure. Part of the purpose of this separation was to keep him away from his wife, lest his wife become a menstruant and he have intercourse with her and thereby be defiled. If he contracted a serious form of impurity he would not be able to perform the service in the Temple. The idea of a seven day period of separation is also learned from the Torah which also speaks of a seven day separation period, albeit not before Yom Kippur. In Leviticus 8:33 Moses instructs Aaron and the other priests not to leave the Tent of Meeting for the seven days before the Tabernacle is initially consecrated. This separation period is seen by the Talmud as a precedent for the separation of the high priest before Yom Kippur.

ומתקנין לו – They would invite another Kohen to become the High Priest in his place if a nocturnal pollution would occur to him or some other kind of defilement.

Rabbi Judah said: they even prepare another wife for him in case his wife should die, as it says “And he shall make atonement for himself and for his house” (Leviticus 16:6): “his house” this refers to his wife. They said to him: if so there would be no end to the matter. The Torah states that the High Priest makes atonement “for his house”, and the word “house” is understood by the rabbis to refer to his wife. This means that in order to be a high priest who can perform the Yom Kippur service, he needs to be married. Hence, Rabbi Judah says that they set up for him an alternative wife, lest his first wife dies right before Yom Kippur thereby preventing him from fulfilling the biblical verse. The rabbis respond that if we start worrying about such far-fetched possibilities, there will be no end to the matter. We will need to worry lest both the first wife and the second wife should die. Since the random death of his wife is unlikely, we don’t need to find him a second wife. However, the possibility that he should become defiled is not so unlikely, and hence he does need to be separated from his home a week before Yom Kippur. I should note that there are some interesting implications from this Mishnah on the rabbinic views of marriage. It is interesting that the rabbis demand that the “holiest” person in Judaism, the person responsible for the holiest service, must be married when he performs that service. This may be a statement somewhat directed against those Jewish groups who advocated celibacy, at least for their religious leaders. However, we should also note that during the week before his service, he is separated from his wife. In other words, there is some ambiguity here. He needs to be married, for the rabbis generally looked favorably upon procreation and upon sexual pleasure. However, they may have seen marital life as partially distracting and hence dictated a separation during this brief but intense period.

אם כן אין לדבר סוף – if so, that he would concerned for his death, and there would be no end to this, lest she (i.e., his wife) would also die, but for defilement that is frequent we are concerned, therefore we appoint for him another Kohen, for death is not frequent that he would die suddenly, we are not concerned, therefore, we do not appoint for him another wife. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

He casts the blood. Of the sacrifices, so that he will be knowledgeable in the service

Introduction This mishnah teaches that during the seven days before Yom Kippur the high priest performs regularly duties which he may or may not perform during the rest of the year.

ומטיב את הנרות – trims them from the ashes of the wicks that went out (see also Mishnah Tamid, Chapter 3, Mishnah 9).

All seven days he sprinkles the blood and burns the incense and cleans lamps and offers the head and the leg; “Sprinkling the blood” refers to the blood of the daily tamid offerings which are offered in the morning and the evening. The incense is mentioned in Exodus 30:1-8. It is offered daily on the golden altar. “Cleaning the lamps” means cleaning them from the accumulated ashes, waste-oil and putting in them new oil and wicks. This task also includes lighting the new flame. Finally, the “head and the leg” are the partsof the two daily tamid offerings which were put first onto the altar. The point of this mishnah is that parts of the service and other Temple duties that he could take part in during the rest of they year, but did not have to if he did not want to, become obligatory for him during the week before Yom Kippur. This is so that he becomes more accustomed to working in the Temple. In other words, this is a warm up.

ושאר כל הימים – if he wants to offer any sacrifice that he wishes, he can offer it, and the men of the division of duty cannot prevent him from doing so.

And on all other days if he wants he offers, for the high priest is first in offering a portion and has first place in taking a portion. During the rest of the year, he need perform these tasks only if he wishes to do so. The mishnah points out that any part of the sacrificial service that the high priest wishes to perform he may do so. His right trumps that of any ordinary priest, even those whose shifts are currently serving in the Temple. He also is the first to choose whichever part of the sacrifice he wishes, even if he wasn’t the one to offer it. As they say, “it’s good to be the high priest!”

מקריב חלק בראש – the head he offers of every portion that he chooses.

וטוטל חלק בראש – in the distribution of the Holy Things, he takes a nice portion that he chooses for him, and these words concern the Sacred things of the Altar, but the Sacred gifts [that are set apart and consumed] outside of the Temple and Jerusalem, both the High Priest and the common priest divide equally.

And they read before him. All seven days.

Introduction This mishnah describes how the elders educated the high priest during the week that preceded Yom Kippur. We can easily note that the rabbis anticipate that the high priest will be completely uneducated in Torah and in the proper ways of the Temple service. Indeed, they don’t think that he even knows how to identify common sacrificial animals! According to the traditional understanding of this mishnah, the high priests that served in the Second Temple period were appointed by the kings out of political considerations and not for their expertise in Temple practice or for their personal piety. This is largely corroborated out by other descriptions of the high priests in such writings as Josephus and other historical works. However, the rabbis’ description of the high priest’s utter ignorance may be exacerbated by the Second Temple rivalry between the Pharisees, the rabbis’ spiritual forefathers and the Sadducees, a sect to which many high priests belonged. Another interesting way of understanding this mishnah is to note the tension between the genealogically transmitted priesthood and the Torah which is transmitted from teacher to pupil and not necessarily from father to son. The rabbis generally favored the relationship of teacher to pupil even over that of father to son but also realized that the priesthood was genealogical. In the high priest who must serve in the Temple’s most critical service even though he was an ignoramus these two values distinctly clash.

From the order of the day. From parashat Acharei Mot.

They delivered to him elders from the elders of the court and they read before him [throughout the seven days] from the order of the day. And they say to him, “Sir, high priest, you read it yourself with your own mouth, lest you have forgotten or lest you have never learned.” During the week that precedes Yom Kippur the elders read to the high priest from Leviticus 16 so that he will understand how to perform the service. Even if he professes to know what to do, they tell him to read it himself, or perhaps to repeat what they say to him, lest he might have forgotten it or lest he never read the portion in the first place.

My master. My lord.

On the eve of Yom HaKippurim in the morning they place him at the eastern gate and pass before him oxen, rams and sheep, so that he may recognize and become familiar with the service. On the eve of Yom Kippur they show him various animals so that he will know which ones are which and which ones are offered for which sacrifice.

שמא לא למדת – During Second Temple times, it was necessary for this, as they would appoint High Priests who were not honest, according to the Kingdom, whereas during First Temple Times, they would not appoint a High Priest, other than someone who is the greatest among the Priests in wisdom, beauty, strength and riches, and if he did not have riches, his brethren among the Priests would raise him up from their own, as it states (Leviticus 21:10): “The priest who is exalted above his fellows….”they would raise him from among his brothers.

שיהא מכיר – he would take consideration of the animals passing before him to place upon his heart the laws of the order of the day [of Yom Kippur].

לא היו מניחין אותו לאכול הרבה – even from those foods that would not bring him to sexual excitement (pollution – see Talmud Yoma 18a), and we completely prevent him [from consuming] all foods that would bring him to sexual excitement and nocturnal emission like milk and eggs and fat meat and old wine and similar kinds of things.

All seven days they did not withhold food or drink from him. On the eve of Yom HaKippurim near nightfall they would not let him eat much because food brings about sleep.
This mishnah teaches that they didn’t let the High Priest drink or eat a lot on the eve of Yom Hakippurim because they thought that eating a big meal would make him sleepy and they didn’t want him to sleep that night. The reason that he wasn’t allowed to sleep was lest he have a nocturnal emission which would make him impure and thereby prevent him from serving in the Temple the next day. Since seminal emissions cause one to be impure for only one day, they only needed to prevent him from eating on the eve of Yom Kippur. During the rest of the week he was allowed to eat and drink in a normal fashion.

The elders of the Court would transfer him. Those who had read before him the order of the day.

Introduction As I stated in my commentary to mishnah two and in my introduction to the tractate, many of the high priests were Sadducees, or perhaps more accurately, had Sadducean leanings. The Sadducees debated with the Pharisees the proper form of the Yom Kippur ritual, as I explain below. In the mishnah’s eyes, the elders spend a week teaching the high priest how to perform the service in the proper Pharisaic manner. Our mishnah describes the parting words between the elders and the high priest, where they remind him to act like a Pharisee and not a Sadducee.

לזקני כהונה – to teach him the priest’s taking handfuls of incense (see Talmud Yoma 19a, which was the task of the House of Avtinas to teach him the manipulation of the incense), as it says (Leviticus 16:12): “two handfuls of finely ground aromatic incense” and this was difficult work.

The elders of the court handed him over to the elders of the priesthood and they took him up to the upper chamber of the house of Avtinas. On the eve of Yom Kippur the elders would give him over to the elders of the priesthood. He would go up to the house of Avtinas where the incense was normally made. There he would learn how to make the incense that he was going to make on Yom Kippur within the Holy of Holies.

The House of Avtinas. There they would make the incense.

They adjured him and then left. And they said to him [when leaving]: “Sir, high priest, we are messengers of the court and you are our messenger and the messenger of the court. We adjure you by the one that caused His name dwell in this house that you do not change anything of what we said to you.” When the elders of the court depart from him they recite to him the following oath, reminding him that he must do whatever they have taught him to do. The Talmud explains that there was the following debate between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees held that the high priest would put the incense into the incense pan outside of the Holy of Holies and then go inside, whereas the Pharisees held that this was done inside.

והשביעוהו – that he would not become a Sadducee to improve the incense upon the coal-pan from outside and to bring it in from inside, as they expound (Leviticus 16:2): “for I appear in the cloud over the cover,” from the cloud of the of smoke of the incense it will come, and then I will appear over the cover, but the matter is not this, for the Biblical verse states there (Leviticus 16:13): “He shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD…”

He turned aside and wept and they turned aside and wept. In the climactic conclusion to the mishnah, both the high priest and the elders end up crying (this would make a good movie). He cries because they suspected him of being a Sadducee and they cry because reality forced them to suspect him. Alternatively, they cry because the situation in their time had deteriorated so badly that they had to force a high priest to take an oath that he would not act like a Sadducee.

הוא פורש ובוכה – for they suspected him of being a Sadducee.

והן פורשין ובוכין – that they suspected him, as the Master said (Shabbat 97a): “A person who suspects those who are fit, is whipped on his body.”

If he was clever he would explain. The issue of halacha all night of Yom Kippur, so that he wouldn't fall asleep. And if he wasn't so clever, and wasn't able to understand and explain an issue of halacha, then they would explain it to him.

Introduction The mishnah has now reached the night before Yom Kippur is to begin. As we learned in mishnah four, he had to stay up all night. Our mishnah teaches that in order to keep himself awake he would study Torah all night (this never seems to work for me, but I’m not a high priest, not even a priest).

From Job and Ezra. These are things which depress the heart and make it hard to sleep.

If he was a sage he would expound, and if not, the disciples of the sages would expound before him. If the high priest was a sage, then he would expound upon the Torah all night. But if he didn’t know how to interpret the Torah, then disciples of the sages would do this in front of him, thereby helping to keep him awake.

If he was familiar with reading [the Scriptures] he would read, if not they would read before him. If he could read the Tanakh, then he himself would read. But again, if he couldn’t even read, then the disciples of the sages would read in front of him. Note again how the mishnah takes into consideration the possibility that the high priest would not even know how to read from the Bible. The Talmud again reminds us that in the Second Temple period high priests were often positions appointed by the king based on political considerations and were not given to the most knowledgeable of the priests.

From what would they read before him? From Job, Ezra and Chronicles. Zechariah ben Kv’utal says: I have often read before him from Daniel. The sections that they would read to him from were sections that were considered particularly interesting and that would help keep him awake. Job and Daniel are compelling stories. Daniel and Ezra are partly in Aramaic, which may have made them easier to comprehend for a high priest who didn’t even understand Hebrew. I am not sure what the attraction of Chronicles is. Note that all four books are from “K’tuvim”, the last portion of the Hebrew Bible.

פרחי כהונה – young men when the hair of heir beards begins to flower are called those who blossom.

Introduction This mishnah shows how the young priests would keep the high priest awake all night on the eve before Yom Kippur.

באצבע צרדה – the finger that is closest to the thumb. And the language of צרדה/snap is (see Talmud Yoma 19b – a phonetic play), the match to this (the middle finger) what is it? The thumb, i.e., the sound produced with these two fingers, the nearest to the thumb, closest to it, and they would combine the thumb with the finger closest to it, and it would slip off and strike his palm and produces a sound so that the High Priest doesn’t sleep.

If he wished to sleep, young priests would snap their middle finger before him and say: “Sir high priest, stand up and drive the sleep away by standing once on this [cold] floor. There were two things that the young priests, those with the strength to stay up all night, would do to keep the high priest awake. First they would snap their fingers at him and then they would tell him to stand on the cold floor. The rabbis believed that standing on a cold floor would wake up a tired person. If you’re not sure, try this yourself.

עמוד – on your feet.

They would keep him busy until the time for the slaughtering [of the daily morning offering] would arrive. Finally, they made sure to keep him busy all night so that he wouldn’t fall asleep.

והפג אחת על הרצפה – of marble in order to remove the head, for the coolness of the feet removes the sleep and the word הפג is the language of removal, like (Talmud Betza 14a) like spices “losing their taste” when pounded the day before.

תורמין את המזבח – the removal of the ashes from the altar (based upon Leviticus 6:3), through which he takes the coals out with a (silver) coal-pan (see Mishnah Yoma, Chapter 4, Mishnah 4) whether there is a lot or whether there is a little on the eastern side of the ramp and it is absorbed there in its place, and it was at the beginning of the Divine Service in the morning.

Introduction This mishnah teaches that on Yom Kippur Temple work which was usually left for the beginning of the day was moved up and done in the night so that the day would be free to do other things.

או סמוך לו – near the time of the cock’s crowing or from before it or from after it.

Every day they would remove [the ashes from] the altar at the cock’s crow or close to that time, either before or after. On most days they would remove the old ashes from the altar at the time when the rooster crows, which is at the time when it begins to get light outside, before sunrise. The removal of the ashes is referred to in Leviticus 6:3 and in tractate Tamid, which is in Seder Kodashim (hopefully we will learn this, but not for a few more years). I should note that in the Talmud there is a debate over the meaning of the phrase that I have translated as “the cock’s crow”. Some interpret this to mean an announcement made by a man, who said, “Priests get up for your word.” In Hebrew the word for “cock” and the word for “man” is the same. I will not comment on this.

ביוה"כ – he removes them from midnight, because of the weakness of the High Priest, since everything is upon him alone, he needs to wise earlier.

But on Yom HaKippurim from midnight, and on the festivals at the [end of the] first watch; However, on Yom Kippur they began to clean out the old ashes at midnight, hours before it got light outside. The Talmud explains that this was because the high priest himself would clean out the ashes and they wanted to give him some time between this work and the rest of the day’s work. Others explain that they did the cleaning of the ashes early so that they wouldn’t have to delay beginning the real work of the day which would come later. On festivals they cleaned out the ashes even earlier, at the end of the first watch, which means one-third into the night. On festivals there are a lot of sacrifices and therefore there a lot of ashes, so that had to start cleaning out early.

וברגלים – since there are many Israelites and many sacrifices and a lot of ashes in the place of the pile of wood on the altar in the Temple, and he must take up the ashes from the place of the pile of wood to a place that is in the middle of the altar, which is called תפוח/TAPUACH, for there is a large of pile of the ashes and the community which is directed like an apple, it was necessary to arise earlier and they would rise from the first watch which is one-third of the night (i.e. 10 pm, assuming that the sun sets at 6 pm and rises at 6 pm).

And the cock’s crow would not arrive before the Temple court was full of Israelites. Finally, on Yom Kippur and on festivals the Temple’s courtyard would be full of Israelites already by the time the cock crowed, meaning before sunrise. People were so enthusiastic for the day’s service that they would get there even before the sunrise.

ולא היתה קריאת הגבר מגעת – on the Festivals.

עד שהיתה עזרה מלאה מישראל – who bring their sacrifices to offer them immediately after the morning daily-offering.