013b – אין נערכין - פרק שני – ערכין, דף יג ע”ב

[The lambs] inspected in the Chamber of Lambs four days before slaughter,^[1]

… inspected four days before. On the first day they took two for the tamid offerings and put two in their place, and inspected them; on the second day they took two of the four that remained and put two in their place; and on the third day they took the two that remained of the first ones and put two in their place. And so always: they take two and put two. Those that were inspected and placed there on the first day are fit for the fourth day, and those placed there on the second are fit for the fifth, and so they go round always; thus all the tamid lambs that are slaughtered have been inspected four days before slaughter, counting the day of inspection and the day of slaughter. So I have heard. But this is difficult for me: it is not like the four days of the Pesach, whose inspection is on the tenth and its slaughter on the fourteenth – that is four days apart from the day of slaughter. Therefore it seems to me that eight were placed there on the day of inauguration, and the “six” taught in the Mishnah means: one may not have fewer than six – that is, even when they take the two of each day, six inspected ones remain there; and afterwards, before night, they inspect two and put them there; and these, since they are not yet there at the time the two are taken, are not counted. Another explanation: it is merely a sign. Just as, when Shabbos and Rosh Hashanah fall next to each other, the lamb for the third day of the week is inspected on Erev Shabbos – for on those days one cannot go and look for a lamb and inspect it – and so it is four days before slaughter, so too we always require four days before slaughter.^[2]

And whose [view] is this? It is Ben Bag Bag, as it was taught: Ben Bag Bag says: From where [do we know] that the tamid requires inspection four days before slaughter? The verse says (Bamidbar 28:2): “You shall keep [it], to offer to Me in its appointed time,” and further on it says (Shemos 12:6): “And it shall be kept for you until the fourteenth day of this month.” Just as there it requires inspection four days before slaughter, so too here it requires inspection four days before slaughter.^[3]

This is precise too, for it teaches “enough for Shabbos,” and does not teach “for Shabbos.” Learn from it [that it is so].^[4]

דיקא נמי - That it is merely a sign, and they are not needed for the sake of Shabbos and Rosh Hashanah; for it does not teach “for Shabbos and for the two days” etc., which would imply [that they are] for the needs of Shabbos and Rosh Hashanah. Since it teaches “enough,” learn from it: according to the count fit for Shabbos and Rosh Hashanah, which is six – and it is merely a sign.

“From two trumpets, and one may add,” etc.^[5]

And up to how many?

Rav Huna said, and some say Rav Zavdi said in the name of Rav Huna: Up to a hundred and twenty, as it is said (Divrei Hayamim II 5:12): “And with them a hundred and twenty kohanim sounding with trumpets.”^[6]

“From nine lyres,” etc. “and the cymbal alone.”^[7]

From where are these words [derived]?

מנה"מ - That there is a single cymbal and no more.

Rav Assi said: For the verse says (Divrei Hayamim I 16:5): “And Asaf with cymbals [sounding].”

ואסף - The name of the Levite.

Metziltayim are two!^[8]

Since they do one job, and one man plays them, [the verse] calls them one.

עבידתא חד עבדי - For one is of no use without its fellow: they are two broad pieces of metal, struck one against the other, and they are called in the vernacular cimbes.

Mishnah

One may not have fewer than twelve Levites standing on the platform,^[9] and one may add without limit.

A minor does not enter the Courtyard for service except at the time when the Levites are saying [the] song,^[10]

מתני' אין לוי קטן נכנס לעזרה - A minor Levite [does not] enter the Courtyard for any service, such as sweeping the Courtyard or closing the doors, except at the time when the Levites stand on the platform in song; then the young Levites enter to sing with them.

and they would not say [it] with harp and lyre, but with the mouth, to add flavour to the melody.

ולא היו - Those minors.

אומרים בנבל וכנור אלא בפה ליתן תבל בנעימה - To add spice to the Levites’ melody, for the voice of the young Levites is thin, and it seasons the voice of the adult Levites.

Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: They do not count toward the number, and they do not go up onto the platform; rather they would stand on the ground, with their heads between the Levites’ feet, and they were called the tormentors of the Levites.

[ואין עולין למנין] - They did not count those Levites toward the number of twelve Levites needed for the platform.

ולא עולין - Onto the bench prepared for the platform; rather they stood on the ground.

וצוערי הלוים - For they distressed the Levites, as is explained in the Gemara.

Gemara

These [twelve] – corresponding to what?

Rav Pappa said: Corresponding to nine lyres, [two] harps and one cymbal, as it is said (Divrei Hayamim I 25:9): “He [and his brothers and his sons] were twelve.”^[11]

“A minor does not enter the Courtyard for service except at the time when the Levites,” etc.^[12]

From where are these words [derived]?

Rabbi Yochanan said: For the verse says (Ezra 3:9): “And Yeshua stood, his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Yehudah, together, to oversee [the doers of] the work [in the House of God],” etc.^[13]

“They would not say it with harp nor with lyre, but with the mouth,” etc.^[14]

Is this to say that a nevel is one thing and a kinor another?^[15]

Shall we say our Mishnah is not according to Rabbi Yehudah? For it was taught: Rabbi Yehudah says: The lyre of the Mikdash had seven strings, as it is said (Tehillim 16:11): “Fullness of joys is in Your presence” – do not read sova (fullness) but sheva (seven).

And that of the days of Mashiach [will have] eight, as it is said (Tehillim 12:1): “For the conductor, on the sheminis” – on the eighth string.

That of the World to Come [will have] ten, as it is said (Tehillim 92:4): “Upon a ten-stringed instrument and upon the nevel, upon a melody with the kinor,”

and it says (Tehillim 33:2–3): “Praise Hashem with the kinor; with a nevel of ten sing to Him; sing to Him a new song”!^[16]

גמ' בנבל עשור - Of ten strings. And it speaks of the World to Come, since it is written “a new song (shir)” in the masculine; for the songs of this world are in the feminine, as it says in the Mechilta:^[17] just as a female gives birth, so these salvations end by giving birth to troubles; but the song of the World to Come is in the masculine, for it does not give birth.

Since Rabbi Yehudah brings “kinor … nevel of ten,” evidently a kinor is a nevel.

You may even say [it is] Rabbi Yehudah: In the World to Come, because its strings are many, its sound is great like a nevel, [so] it is called a nevel.

דנפיש קליה כי נבל - And a nevel is made like a smiths’ bellows, and produces its sound by wind.

“Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: They do not count toward the number,” etc.^[18]

It was taught: And they were called the helpers of the Levites.

וסועדי - Helpers.

And our Tanna [why does he call them tormentors]?

Since these have thin voices and those have thick voices, these sing fine and high and those cannot, he calls them tormentors.

The [adult] Levites – their voices are thick; the minors – their voices are thin, their voice is fine.

מקטטי - That is, they make it small, making their voice very fine and beautiful, and they distress the Levites, who cannot sweeten their voices as they do.

Chapter Three – Yesh Ba’arachin^[19]

Mishnah

There is in arachin [a case] to be lenient and to be stringent; and in an ancestral field, to be lenient and to be stringent; and in a forewarned ox that killed a slave, to be lenient and to be stringent; in the violator, the seducer and the slanderer, to be lenient and to be stringent.^[20]

מתני' להקל - The most handsome in Israel, worth a hundred maneh – he gives only fifty sela’im.

להחמיר - For one who valued the ugliest in Israel, even if he is worth only five sela’im, gives fifty sela’im – [for a man] from twenty to sixty years old.

בשדה אחוזה - One who consecrates an ancestral field.

There is in arachin to be lenient and to be stringent – how? Whether one valued the most handsome in Israel or the ugliest in Israel, he gives fifty sela’im; but if he said, “His worth is upon me,” he gives his value.^[21]

שהעריך - Who said, “The erech of so-and-so is upon me.”

Gemara

“There is in arachin to be lenient,” etc. “and to be stringent – how? One who valued,” etc.^[22]

In Israel – yes; among non-Jews – no.

גמ' בעובד כוכבים לא - For if a Jew said, “The erech of so-and-so the idolater is upon me,” he has said nothing, for an idolater is not valued.

Shall we say our Mishnah is not according to Rabbi Meir? For we learnt: A non-Jew – Rabbi Meir says: He is valued, but he does not value?^[23]

נערך אבל לא מעריך - The reason is explained in the first chapter (above, 5b).

You may even say [it is] Rabbi Meir: the same law applies even to a non-Jew too; but…^[24]

Tosfos

ומוסיפין עד עולם עד כמה אמר רב הונא ואמרי לה כו' - And Rabbi said: It is certainly obvious that they may add without limit; rather he asks up to how many it is a beautification of the mitzvah, beyond which one need not search further for kohanim. Rav Huna said: up to a hundred and twenty, for we find in the verse (Divrei Hayamim II 5) that they sought out a hundred and twenty kohanim to blow the trumpets, and no more. Alternatively: it is obvious that one may not add without limit, for if they add more, the sound becomes confused; Rav Huna said: up to a hundred and twenty kohanim one may add, for we find in the verse that we are not concerned about confusion of sound.^[25]

[אין] פוחתין מי"ב לוים העומדין על הדוכן - Every day, when they say the song: two for the harps, nine lyres and the cymbal – that makes twelve. And the two trumpets – kohanim blow them, not Levites. And so we learnt in the last chapter of Tamid (33b): “And two kohanim stand at the table of the fats, with two trumpets in their hands.” And it did not trouble there to teach the lyres and flutes, since they were played not by kohanim but by Levites. And it is somewhat difficult, for it teaches there: “And Ben Arza struck the cymbal”; and he answered that it mentions one of them.^[26]

אין קטן נכנס בעזרה מנה"מ אמר ר' יוחנן [דאמר קרא] ויעמוד ישוע בניו ואחיו קדמיאל - Rabbeinu Elchanan asked: How do we learn that a minor enters the Courtyard to sing at the time when the Levites stand on the platform? And the Ri said: he includes it from the superfluous wording of the verse. It is written “their sons and their brothers the Levites,” and it is written “Yeshua, his sons, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Yehudah, the sons of (Morad) [Chenadad], their sons” – why do I need this? Did it not already mention each one’s sons? Rather, learn from it that it wrote this for this purpose, since it is superfluous, and it implies minors.

Notes

1. 1. Continues from the previous amud [Arachin 13a], where the Gemara explained the Mishnah’s “six lambs” as a mere sign and said: “This is what it means: one may not have fewer than six lambs” – inspected in the Chamber of Lambs four days before slaughter. Each tamid lamb was checked for blemishes and kept ready in a chamber of the Courtyard.
2. 2. The head of this Rashi stands at the foot of the previous amud [Arachin 13a]: ד"ה ארבעה ימים קודם שחיטה – “And for this reason we always need six, for at the time of inauguration they placed there six [lambs] inspected four days before”; the text here continues it.
3. 3. The Pesach lamb was taken on the tenth of Nisan and kept until the fourteenth (Shemos 12:3, 6), and during those four days it was checked for blemishes. Ben Bag Bag links “you shall keep” said of the tamid (Bamidbar 28:2) with “kept” said of the Pesach, so the tamid also needs four days of inspection.
4. 4. Had the Mishnah said “for Shabbos,” the six lambs would be needed for Shabbos and Rosh Hashanah themselves. “Enough for Shabbos” means only a number equal to what those days would need – a sign for the count (Rashi).
5. 5. The Mishnah [Arachin 13a]: one may not have fewer than two trumpets, and one may add without limit. These are the silver trumpets that the kohanim blew over the offerings (Bamidbar 10:2, 10). The Gemara asks how far one may add.
6. 6. At the dedication of Shlomo’s Mikdash, a hundred and twenty kohanim blew trumpets alongside the Levites’ song (Divrei Hayamim II 5:12). Tosfos explains: up to this number the addition is a beautification of the mitzvah, and so many trumpets are not a confusion of sound.
7. 7. The Mishnah [Arachin 13a]: one may not have fewer than nine lyres, and one may add without limit; but the cymbal is alone – there was only ever one cymbal.
8. 8. Metziltayim is a dual form: two plates of metal struck against each other (Rashi). So it seems there were two cymbals.
9. 9. The duchan was the platform of steps between the Israelites’ Courtyard and the Kohanim’s Courtyard, where the Levites stood and sang over the daily offerings.
10. 10. A young Levite, not yet fit for service, could not enter the Courtyard for any task, but he could come in to sing with the Levites while they sang (Rashi).
11. 11. Nine lyres, two harps and one cymbal are the minimums taught in the Mishnayos [Arachin 10a; 13a]; together they make the twelve Levites of our Mishnah.
12. 12. The clause means: a young Levite enters the Courtyard only during the song, to sing together with the Levites. The Gemara seeks its source in a verse.
13. 13. The verse (Ezra 3:9) describes the Levites who oversaw the building of the second Mikdash, and lists sons together with their fathers. Tosfos explains that the extra mention of sons shows that young Levites took part.
14. 14. The clause means: the young Levites sang only with their mouths, not with harp or lyre. Since the Mishnah names the two separately, it implies that nevel and kinor are two different instruments.
15. 15. The kinor is a lyre sounded on strings; the nevel, says Rashi below, is made like a smiths’ bellows and sounds by wind.
16. 16. Rabbi Yehudah reads “with a nevel of ten” as the kinor of the World to Come. If a kinor of ten strings is called a nevel, the two are one instrument (Rashi) – against our Mishnah.
17. 17. The Mechilta is the Tannaic midrash on Shemos. There it says that the songs of this world are called shirah, a feminine word, for after each salvation troubles follow; the song of the future is shir, masculine.
18. 18. The clause means: the young Levites were not counted among the twelve, and they did not stand on the platform but on the ground below it.
19. 19. The third chapter of Arachin, “Yesh Ba’arachin,” deals with sums fixed by the Torah, which work sometimes as a leniency and sometimes as a stringency.
20. 20. Erech is the sum fixed by the Torah for one who vows “the erech of so-and-so” (Vayikra 27:1–8), by age and gender, not by worth: fifty shekels for a man of twenty to sixty. Fixed sums also apply to redeeming a consecrated ancestral field (Vayikra 27:16), an ox that killed a slave (thirty, Shemos 21:32), the violator and seducer (fifty) and the slanderer (a hundred).
21. 21. “His worth upon me” is a vow of the person’s market value, as he would be sold as a slave; here the handsome and the ugly pay differently.
22. 22. The clause means: in arachin the handsome and the ugly are alike – fifty sela’im. The Gemara notes the words “in Israel.”
23. 23. The Mishnah [Arachin 5b]: a non-Jew – Rabbi Meir says: he is valued (a Jew who vows his erech must pay it), but he does not value. So for Rabbi Meir a non-Jew can be valued, and “in Israel” seems to exclude him.
24. 24. The sentence continues on the next amud [Arachin 14a].
25. 25. The Vilna edition prints this Tosfos at the foot of the previous amud [Arachin 13a]; Sefaria places it here, where the Gemara’s words stand.
26. 26. The Vilna edition prints this Tosfos on [Arachin 10b]; Sefaria places it here, on our Mishnah. The two trumpets are counted apart, since kohanim blew them.