YOMA - 039b – טרף בקלפי – פרק רביעי - יומא, לט ע”ב

…“ben chamtzan” until the day he died.^[1]

חמצן - a robber.

Rabbah bar [Rav] Sheila said: What is the verse?

(Tehillim 71:4): My G‑d, rescue me from the hand of the wicked, from the grip of the lawless and the robber (chometz).

Rava said: From here: (Yeshayahu 1:17): Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the robbed (chamotz).

אשרו חמוץ - support the one who was robbed.

Strengthen the robbed — and do not strengthen the robber.

ולא חומץ - this does not belong here, but rather in Sanhedrin (35a), where we learn from it that the court attends to the claimant first.^[2]

The Rabbis taught: In the year in which Shimon HaTzaddik died, he told them: This year he will die.^[3]

They said to him: How do you know?

He said to them: Every Yom Kippur an old man dressed in white and wrapped in white would join me; he went in with me and came out with me.

And today an old man dressed in black and wrapped in black joined me; he went in with me but did not come out with me.

After the festival he was ill for seven days and died.

And his brothers the kohanim refrained from blessing with the Name.^[4]

מלברך בשם - from blessing the people with Birkas Kohanim using the Shem HaMeforash, for they were not worthy.

The Rabbis taught: During the forty years before the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash, the lot did not come up in the right hand,^[5]

nor did the strip of crimson wool turn white,

nor did the western lamp stay lit,

and the doors of the Heichal would open by themselves,

נפתחות מאליהן - a sign for the enemies to come and enter.

until Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai rebuked them.

He said to it: Heichal, Heichal, why do you alarm yourself?

I know that in the end you are destined to be destroyed, and Zechariah son of Iddo already prophesied about you (Zechariah 11:1): Open your doors, O Levanon, and let fire consume your cedars.

וכבר נתנבא עליך - that this opening was a sign of the destruction.

Rabbi Yitzchak ben Tavlai said: Why is it called Levanon?

Because it whitens (malbin) the sins of Israel.

Rav Zutra bar Tuviah said: Why is it called a forest, as it is written (Melachim I 10:17): the House of the Forest of Levanon?

To teach you: just as a forest blossoms, so the Beis HaMikdash blossomed.

As Rav Hoshaya said: When Shlomo built the Beis HaMikdash, he planted in it all kinds of precious fruit trees of gold,

and they would bring forth fruit in their season,

and when the wind blew on them, their fruit would fall,

as it is said (Tehillim 72:16): its fruit shall rustle like Levanon.

And from them the kohanim had their livelihood.

And once the nations entered the Heichal, they withered,

as it is said (Nachum 1:4): and the blossom of Levanon withers.

And in the future Hashem will restore it to us,

as it is said (Yeshayahu 35:2): It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, with joy and song; the glory of Levanon is given to it.

He placed them on the two goats:^[6]

The Rabbis taught: Ten times the Kohen Gadol mentions the Name on that day:

three in the first confession, three in the second confession, and three over the goat that is sent away,^[7]

שלשה בוידוי ראשון - of the bull: Please, Hashem, I have sinned… please, Hashem, atone… before Hashem you shall be purified.

and one at the lots.

ואחד בגורלות - a chatas to Hashem.

And once he said the Name and his voice was heard in Yericho.

וכבר אמר - that is, there was already an incident in which his voice carried as far as Yericho.

Rabbah bar bar Chanah said: From Yerushalayim to Yericho is ten parsaos.

And the hinge of the doors of the Heichal was heard eight techumim of Shabbos away.^[8]

The goats in Yericho would sneeze from the scent of the ketores.^[9]

The women in Yericho did not need to perfume themselves, because of the scent of the ketores.

A bride in Yerushalayim did not need to adorn herself, because of the scent of the ketores.

כלה - it is her way to adorn herself with spices.

Rabbi [Eliezer ben Diglai] said: My father had goats in the mountains of [Michvar], and they would sneeze from the scent of the ketores.

בהרי מכמר - the name of the region.

Rabbi Chiya bar Avin said in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korchah: An old man told me: Once I went to Shiloh,^[10] and I smelled the scent of ketores from between its walls.

והרחתי ריח קטרת - from the ketores that was offered there while the Mishkan was in Shiloh.

Rabbi Yannai said: Bringing up the lot out of the urn is indispensable;^[11]

עליית גורל מתוך קלפי מעכבת - it is part of the service, for the goats are set apart, one for Hashem and one for Azazel, only through the lot. Therefore one must see which lot came up in the right hand, and the goat on the right is fixed by it, and which came up in the left, and the goat on the left is fixed by it.

placing it is not indispensable.

אבל הנחה - of the lot on the goat is not indispensable; even if he did not place it on it [the designation stands], since the goat on the right was already fixed by the lot that came up in the right hand, and likewise the goat on the left by the lot of the left.

And Rabbi Yochanan said: Even bringing it up is not indispensable.

אף עלייה אינה מעכבת - if the kohen calls the name “chatas” on one and “Azazel” on the other, they are fixed without a lottery, for the lottery is not indispensable; he has only fallen short of the mitzvah.

According to Rabbi Yehudah, who said: things done in the white garments outside are not indispensable,^[12]

אליבא דרבי יהודה כו' - in perek Hotziu Lo (later, Yoma 60a) Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Nechemiah disagree about one who changed the order of the services, doing a later one first. Rabbi Nechemiah said: the whole order of the services done in the white garments, whether inside, such as in the Kodesh HaKodashim, or outside, such as in the Heichal or the Azarah, is indispensable, for the word chukah written in the passage of Acharei Mos is written about all of them. And Rabbi Yehudah says: chukah is written only about the things done in the white garments inside. Therefore the lottery, which is done not inside but outside, [is not indispensable] according to Rabbi Yehudah, who said that chukah is not written about the things done outside.

all agree that it is not indispensable.

דכולי עלמא לא פליגי - for even Rabbi Yannai agrees that according to Rabbi Yehudah it is not indispensable, since indispensability is not written about them.

Where they disagree is according to Rabbi Nechemiah:

כי פליגי אליבא דרבי נחמיה - who said that chukah is written about everything done in the white garments, and this is in the white garments, as is written in the passage.

the one who says it is indispensable holds like Rabbi Nechemiah,

and the one who says it is not indispensable holds: that applies to a service, and the lottery is not a service.

הני מילי - the chukah written to make it indispensable comes to make a service indispensable. (Rabbi Nechemiah said only that chukah makes indispensable a service, such as scooping the coals from the altar and slaughtering the bull, which are services and are invalid when done by another kohen; but the lottery, which is not a service, since it is valid when done by the segan according to the one who said above that the segan and the Kohen Gadol put their right hands into the urn, here I may say that Rabbi Nechemiah agrees that it is not indispensable.)

Some say: According to Rabbi Nechemiah, who says it is indispensable,

all agree that it is indispensable.

כולי עלמא לא פליגי דמעכבא - for he says that chukah is written about them.

Where they disagree is according to Rabbi Yehudah:

the one who says it is not indispensable holds like Rabbi Yehudah,

and the one who says it is indispensable holds: here it is different, for the verse repeats it: upon which [the lot] came up, upon which [the lot] came up — twice.

שאני הכא דתנא בה קרא - even though chukah does not stand here to make it indispensable, it is indispensable, for the verse repeated it to make it indispensable; its indispensability is derived from the extra verse.

They challenged: It is a mitzvah to cast lots, but if he did not cast lots, it is valid.

Granted, according to the version in which you said: According to Rabbi Yehudah all agree that it is not indispensable,

whose is this teaching? It is Rabbi Yehudah’s…

Tosfos

וציר דלתות ההיכל היה נשמע בשמונה תחומי שבת - This is difficult, for in Maseches Tamid, perek 3 (Mishnah 8), we learned: From Yericho they would hear the sound of the great gate opening, and it is evident there that this is the gate of the Heichal. One can answer that the hinges of the doors were heard only eight techumim of Shabbos away, but the gate itself was heard in Yericho. Alternatively, within eight techumim of Shabbos they could recognise the sound of the door hinges, so that anyone could tell it was the sound of hinges, while from Yericho they heard a mere echo, and one who did not know could not tell what sound it was. And so I explained at the end of the first perek (20a, s.v. והיה), regarding Gevini the crier.^[13]

כלה שבירושלים לא היתה צריכה להתבשם מריח הקטרת - This is difficult, for it says in perek Kol Sha’ah (Pesachim 26a): Sound, sight and smell are not subject to me’ilah,^[14] and it infers: there is no me’ilah, but there is a prohibition. Does that not refer to those standing inside, for whom it cannot be avoided and who intend it? And Abaye applies it to those outside. If so, according to Abaye they would have been doing something forbidden every day. One can answer that it is forbidden only to bring oneself near the Azarah in order to smell more.

דתנא ביה קרא אשר עלה כו' - And the one who says it is not indispensable holds that since no command is written, even though the verse repeats it, it is not indispensable, just as with mixing, as we learned (Menachos 18b): If he did not mix, it is valid,^[15] even though “mixed” is written many times; rather, since it is not written in the language of command, it is not indispensable. And according to the one who says it is indispensable, it is not like mixing, for here chukah has some effect: since from chukah we learn indispensability for the other matters in the passage, we learn from it for the lottery as well, since the verse repeated it at least somewhat.

Notes

1. 1. The sentence began at the foot of the previous amud: a kohen who took his own portion of the communal meal-offerings and his fellow’s as well was called “ben chamtzan”, son of a robber, until the day he died.
2. 2. For example, a lender sues for his loan and the borrower counters that the lender spoiled or lost a pledge; the court first rules on the lender’s claim, and only afterwards on the pledge.
3. 3. Shimon HaTzaddik was Kohen Gadol early in the Second Temple era, one of the last members of the Anshei Knesses HaGedolah. The previous amud listed the signs of Divine favour during his forty years of service.
4. 4. In the Beis HaMikdash the kohanim pronounced the Name as it is written, the Shem HaMeforash, in Birkas Kohanim. After Shimon HaTzaddik died they stopped doing so.
5. 5. These are the signs listed on the previous amud for the days of Shimon HaTzaddik: the lot “for Hashem” coming up in the Kohen Gadol’s right hand, the strip of crimson wool turning white as a sign that Israel’s sins were forgiven, and the western lamp of the Menorah staying lit. In the last forty years none of them happened.
6. 6. After drawing the two lots from the urn, the Kohen Gadol places each lot on the goat facing it, and over the goat chosen for Hashem he says “a chatas to Hashem”, pronouncing the Name. The beraisa now counts every time he says the Name on Yom Kippur.
7. 7. The Kohen Gadol made three confessions on Yom Kippur: over his bull for himself and his household, over his bull again for his brothers the kohanim, and over the goat sent to Azazel for all Israel. In each he pronounced the Name three times.
8. 8. A techum Shabbos is 2,000 amos, the distance one may walk beyond a town on Shabbos; eight techumim are 16,000 amos.
9. 9. The ketores was the incense of spices burned on the golden altar in the Heichal every morning and evening.
10. 10. Before the Beis HaMikdash was built, the Mishkan stood at Shiloh for 369 years.
11. 11. Two lots, one inscribed “for Hashem” and one “for Azazel”, are drawn from an urn (kalpi) to decide which goat is offered as a chatas and which is sent to Azazel; then each lot is placed on its goat. “Indispensable” means that without it the service is invalid.
12. 12. The Kohen Gadol performs the special services of Yom Kippur in white linen garments, and the Torah calls them a chukah, which makes their order indispensable. Rabbi Yehudah applies this only to the services done in white garments inside the Kodesh HaKodashim; Rabbi Nechemiah applies it to those done in white garments outside as well.
13. 13. Gevini was the crier in the Beis HaMikdash, who called each morning: Kohanim, rise to your service; Levi’im, to your platform; Yisrael, to your posts.
14. 14. Me’ilah is the sin of taking personal benefit from hekdesh, consecrated property; one who does so by mistake brings an offering and repays the value plus a fifth. Sound, sight and smell have no substance, so they carry no me’ilah.
15. 15. Belilah is mixing the oil into the flour of a minchah. Although the Torah mentions it many times, the Mishnah rules that a minchah that was not mixed is valid.