Commentary for Yoma 5:1

הוציאו לו – from the chamber of the utensils.

Introduction This mishnah picks up where we left off in 4:3 above. The last thing he did there was take the cinders off the altar and rest the coal-pan on the highest terrace leading up from the courtyard to the Hekhal.

וכך היתה מדתה – as its measurement outside, so its measure inside, what on the outside he would take grabs of incense with his actual hands and not with a utensil, so also inside, when he pours the incense from the ladle into his handfuls, he would not pour with a utensil that is made like the measure of his handfuls, but into his actual handfuls.

They brought out to him the ladle and the pan and he took two hands full [of incense] and put it into the ladle, a large [high priest] according to his size, a small one according to his size and thus was its measure. After putting the coal-pan down on the fourth terrace they would give him a ladle in which to bring the incense into the Holy of Holies and a pan in which there was a preparation of incense, made in the house of Avtinas (see 1:5; 3:11). He would take two handfuls of the incense from the pan and put it into the ladle. It didn’t matter whether he was large and would therefore take large handfuls or small and therefore would take small handfuls. The measure of two handfuls was set by Leviticus 16:12.

נטל את המחתה בימינו – since it is heaven and hot and the ladle of the incense is lighter than it, therefore, the firepan is in his right-hand and the ladle is in his left-hand.

He took the pan in his right hand and the ladle in his left hand. He walked through the Hechal until he came to the place between the two curtains which separated the Holy from the Holy of Holies; between them was [a space of] one cubit. Rabbi Yose says: there was but one curtain, as it is said: “And the curtain shall serve you as a partition between the Holy and the Holy of Holies” (Exodus 26:33). He would then pick up the coal-pan with the burning embers and begin to walk through the Hekhal until he got to the curtains which separated the Holy (the Hekhal) from the Holy of Holies. Rabbi Yose says that there was only one curtain. In any case, the mishnah continues according to the opinion that there were two.

היה מהלך בהיכל – he enters and walked within towards the west.

The outer curtain was looped on the south side and the inner curtain on the north side. He walked along between them until he reached the north side. When he reached the north side he turned round to the south and went on along the curtain, to his left, until he reached the Ark. The curtains were folded back on opposite sides; the outer curtain was folded back and held with loops so that it was open on the south while the inner curtain was folded back and open on the north side. He would enter on the south side and walk to the north, and enter the Holy of Holies and then walk to the south until he got to the Ark. We should note that there was no Ark in the Second Temple, as we shall see in the next mishnah. Therefore this mishnah and other references to the ark in the Mishnah are understood by the Talmud as referring to the place where the Ark would have been in the First Temple. In other words, the mishnah refers to the ark as if it is still there even though it knows that it was not.

לבין שתי הפרוכות – since they were doubtful in Second Temple times if the partition that separates between the Holy and the Holy of Holies which was [found] in the First Temple and was a cubit thick, if that cubit was within or from the outside, therefore, they made two curtains, one an outer one and one an inner one. וביניהן – the airspace of a cubit to retain between them the air space of the partition.

When he reached the Ark he put the pan of burning coals between the two poles. He heaped up the incense upon the coals and the whole house became full with smoke. Upon reaching the Ark he would place the coal-pan upon its two poles and then pour out the incense onto the coals until the entire Holy of Holies was filled up with smoke.

החיצונה פרופה מן הדרום – The Rabbis stated it, that they dispute on that of Rabbi Yosi and state that the curtain divided them in the Tabernacle alone, it was stated.

He came out by the way he entered and in the outer house he uttered a short prayer. He did not make the prayer long so as not to frighten Israel. He would then walk out of the Holy of Holies, never turning his back on it out of reverence for the place. In the Hekhal he would offer a short prayer. The prayer itself is recorded in the Talmud (Taanit 24b) and it is mostly is concerned with rain and sustenance for the coming year. Interestingly, the mishnah notes that he would not recite a long prayer so as not to frighten Israel into thinking that something had happened to him in the Holy of Holies. This was a moment extremely fraught with tension and fear and it seems that the well-being of the high priest was considered a portent for things to come to Israel in the coming year.

פרופה – its top was doubled to the outer side and was held with a gold clasp in order [to be open] from the south and standing.

מהלך ביניהן – he entered in the southern clasp and walked between them until he reaches the northern clasp.

הגיע לצפון – when he entered into the space between the Holy of Holies, he turned his face to the south to walk until he was between the bars projecting from the Ark (Tractate Yoma 42b) which is in the middle of the empty space, for the bars were long until the curtain, one head facing to the west and the other one to the east, one at the top of the ark to the north and one at the top to the south.

מהלך לשמאלו עם הפרוכת – when he walks from the north to the south, his left is to the east and the curtain was in the east, his left side is found with the curtain.

עד שהוא מגיע לארון – to the place of the Ark and not to the Ark itself, for the in the Second Temple, there was no Ark there.

דרך כניסתו – so that he would not turn his face to leave, but rather depart in the path of his back with his face towards the Ark.

ומתפלל תפלה קצרה – and this is (Talmud Yoma 53b): “May it be Your will, O LORD my God, for if this year is parched (explanation: hot), that it be rainy, and that the ruler’s staff will not depart from the House of Judah, and that your people Israel will not need substance either one from the other nor from another people, and that the prayers of those on the crossroads will not enter before You,” meaning that people they pray that rain will not fall.

בבית החיצון – in the Temple/the hall containing the golden altar.

שלא להבעית את ישראל – that they will say that he has died.