Menachot 65a — the Talmud in English

And this is what we learned:

and this is what we learned in tractate Shekalim [5:1]:

These are the officials who were in the Temple:

Pethahiah over

the bird-pairs

Regarding the collection box called “bird-pairs,” because when the man with a flux, the woman with a flux, and the woman who has given birth wished to bring obligatory bird-pairs, they did not buy the birds themselves; rather, they gave their money to the “collection boxes” in the Temple, and the officials over the collection boxes took the money and brought bird-pairs with it.

Pethahiah

this was Mordecai,

and

why was he called Pethahiah? Because he opened matters and expounded them, and knew seventy languages.”

But, ostensibly, there is a difficulty from this Mishna in Shekalim:

all the members of the Sanhedrin also knew seventy languages,

so what novelty was there in Mordecai, who was among the members of the Sanhedrin, that he knew seventy languages!?

For

indeed

Rabbi Yohanan said: They place on the Sanhedrin only men of wisdom, men of appearance, men of stature,

so that litigants would be afraid of them and would not lie,

men of old age, men skilled in sorcery,

so that if the defendant were a sorcerer, and the fire did not prevail over him, they would perform sorcery and put him to death by whatever death they could

And they know seventy languages,

so that

the Sanhedrin would not

have to be

hearing

the litigants

through the mouth of an interpreter,

lest the interpreter alter his claims, and they declare him liable unlawfully.

Rather, for

Mordecai

was skilled in languages, and expounded them

[he would combine and mix the languages], such as “sugar eye” and “reed roofs”—

And this is also

indeed

why they called him

[in the Book of Nehemiah 7:7]: Those who came [from the captivity] with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah,

Mordecai the interpreter

[the one who combines languages].”

Mishna:

How did they perform

the reaping of the omer on the night after the first festival day of Passover?

The emissaries of the court went out on the eve of the first festival day

of Passover,

and made them

[the grain that was to be reaped]

bundles while attached to the ground

[they would wrap and tie the tops of the ears to the thickness of a full fist]

so that it would be easy to reap

quickly through the bundling.

All the towns near there

to the place of the reaping,

would gather there

on the festival day

so that it would be reaped

as soon as it became dark

with a great public display

[with a sound of commotion and publicity].

When it became dark

on the night after the first festival day:

He says to them

[each of the three reapers asks]

aloud the people who gathered there]: “

Has the sun set”

[has the sun already set, so that I may reap, since the mitzva of reaping is at night, and I will not desecrate the festival day]? And the people answer and

say: “

Yes”

[indeed, the sun has set]; and again each one of them asks, “

Has the sun set,” and they

and they

say: “

Yes”;

and likewise a third time, as explained further in the Mishna.

And each of the reapers also asks: “

This sickle”

[shall I reap with this sickle]? And the people answer and

say: “

Yes”;

and again he asks: “

This sickle,”

and they

and they

say: “

Yes,”

and likewise a third time.

And he also asks: “

This basket”

[shall I put the grain in this basket]? And they

say: “

Yes”; “

This basket”?

And they

say: “Yes,”

and likewise a third time.

On Shabbat

they add another question here:

He says to them: “

This Shabbat”

[shall I reap on this Shabbat]? And they

say: “

Yes”; “

This Shabbat”?

and they

And they

say, “Yes.”

And he also asks on all the days: “

Shall I reap?”

And they say to him: “

Reap!”; “

Shall I reap?”

And they say to him: “Reap.”

Three times

they would ask

about each and every matter, and they would say to him: Yes

[for the first question],

Yes

[for the second] and

Yes

for the third.

And

so many

questions would they ask—

why?

Because of the Boethusians

[the disciples of Boethus, who denied the Oral Torah]

who would say: The reaping of the omer is not on the night after the festival day,

but on the day after the first Shabbat, and they would raise their voices so that the Boethusians would hear, in order to remove the matter from their hearts.

Gemara:

The Sages taught

in the Scroll of Fasts:

These are the days on which it is not permitted

to fast on them, and some of them

are more stringent

for

even

not to mourn on them

[these are the days that the Sages established as days on which not to fast, and these are the days on which they added a prohibition even against mourning]:

From the beginning of the month of Nisan until the eighth of it, the daily offering was established

[from the beginning of the month of Nisan until the eighth day of it, the judgment of the daily offering was restored to its proper basis; and it explains this further], and they established these days

on which not to mourn.

And from the eighth of it until the end of the festival

[Passover],

the festival of Shavuot was restored to its proper basis

[from the eighth of Nisan until the end of Passover, the judgment of the festival of Shavuot was restored to its proper basis, and it explains this further], and they established these days

on which not to fast

only, but mourning is permitted.

And the Gemara explains:

From the beginning of the month of Nisan until the eighth of it, the daily offering was established, so as not to mourn:

For the Sadducees would say: An individual volunteers and brings

the

daily offering

that is brought every day, and it does not come from the community’s [funds].

And the Gemara explains:

What did

the Sadducees expound?

For it is written in the section of the daily offering [Numbers 28:4]: “

The one lamb you shall make in the morning, and the second lamb

you shall make between the evenings,”

so the Torah said “you shall make” in the singular.

And the Gemara further explains:

What did they answer them

[what did the Sages answer and prove to them]?

For it is written in the section of the daily offering: “

My offering, My bread for My fires, My pleasing fragrance, you shall take care of,”

so the Torah said “you shall take care of” in the plural, to teach:

that they should all come from the chamber donation

[for Israel would give their half-shekels in the chamber designated for this, and from there they would contribute to the boxes, and with them they purchased communal offerings].

We further explain:

From the eighth of it until the end of the festival, the festival of Shavuot was restored to its proper basis, so as not to fast:

For the Boethusians would say: Shavuot

[the festival of Shavuot] is always

after Shabbat

[that is, what the Torah said concerning the omer and the beginning of the counting, “From the day after Shabbat the priest shall wave it. And you shall count for yourselves from the day after Shabbat, from the day on which you bring the omer of the waving,” means the day after the “Shabbat of Creation”; and the counting of the seven Shabbatot ends on Shabbat, and the next day is the festival of Shavuot].

Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai confronted them and said to them: Fools, from where do you have

the basis

and was there not one person

among the Boethusians

who answered him, except for one old man, who babbled against him and said:

Moses our teacher loved Israel, and he knew that Shavuot is only one day

alone

it is,

unlike the other pilgrimage festivals, which are seven days;

therefore he arose

Moses

and established it

for Shavuot

after

the

Shabbat, so that Israel would delight in two days one after the other.

He cited concerning him

Rabbi Yohanan, concerning that old man,

this verse

[Deuteronomy 1:2]: “[The journey is]

eleven days

[alone]

from Horeb

[where they received the Torah]

by way of Mount Seir,

until Kadesh-barnea [which is near the Land of Israel]”—