Menachot 99b (צט:) — the Talmud in English

a. Nullified:

Reish Lakish said: Sometimes

the nullification of Torah study—

for example, when one nullifies Torah study in order to accompany the dead or to escort a bride—

this is its foundation,

that is, he receives reward as though he were sitting and establishing it and engaging in its study,

as it is written: “

Which you broke,”

and He did not say this to him in anger, we may infer:

Thus

the Holy One, blessed be He, said to

Moses, “

May your strength be firm for having broken them.”

The דעת of the Shekhina agreed with him when he nullified Torah study and broke them, since his intention was for the good.

b. He transgressed:

And Reish Lakish said:

A Torah scholar who has sinned is not publicly humiliated, as it is stated

Hosea 4]: “

You shall stumble by day, and the prophet with you shall stumble by night”—

to teach:

Cover him

do not humiliate the prophet who stumbled in public]

as the night

when it has grown dark and no one can see].

c. And forgot:

And Reish Lakish said:

Any Torah scholar who forgets a single matter of his learning transgresses a prohibition, as it is stated

Deuteronomy 4:9]: “

Only

take heed for yourself and guard your soul diligently, lest you forget the matters

that your eyes saw, and lest they withdraw from your heart all the days of your life... the day on which you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb... [This refers back to the verse above it, ‘which your eyes saw... the day on which you stood at Horeb, when you saw the sounds and the flames,’ Rashi]”—

And

Reish Lakish’s statement that he transgresses a prohibition is

in accordance with Rabbi Avin in the name of Rabbi Ila’a, as Rabbi Avin said in the name of Rabbi Ila’a:

Every place where it is stated

in the Torah, in the wording

“take heed”

or

“lest”

or

“do not,”

it refers only to a prohibition.

Ravina said:

He transgresses two prohibitions:

a.

“Take heed”;

b.

and

“lest.”

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said:

He transgresses

three prohibitions, for

it

is stated:

“Take heed for yourself”

that is one],

“and guard your soul diligently”

that is two],

“lest you forget the matters”

that is three].

One might have thought even

one who forgets

because of circumstances beyond his control; the verse teaches

in the continuation of the verse:

“and lest they withdraw from your heart,”

which indicates that

Scripture is speaking of one who removes them from his heart.

Rabbi Dostai bar Yannai said:

One might have thought even when his learning has become difficult for him,

so that he cannot maintain his version,

the verse teaches: “

Only take heed for yourself,” and every occurrence of “only” indicates a limitation.

take heed for yourself”; and every instance of “only” indicates a limitation.

Rabbi Yoḥanan and Rabbi Elazar both said:

The Torah was given over forty

days [the period Moses remained on the mountain],

and the soul is formed over forty

days [from conception]:

Anyone who safeguards

the

Torah

so as not to forget it,

his soul is safeguarded; but anyone who does not safeguard the Torah, his soul is not safeguarded.

The tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael:

This may be compared to a person who entrusted a free bird to his servant and said

to him:

Do you imagine that if you lose it, I will take from you

only

a small coin, its value!?

Not so; rather,

I will take your soul from you.

Mishna:

There were two tables—

in the Entrance Hall,

which was before the Sanctuary],

inside, at the entrance to the House

near the entrance of the Sanctuary]:

One table

was

made

of marble, and

one table

was

made

of gold, on which the bread was placed during its arrangement and removal. How so?

On

the table

of marble,

they

placed

the

showbread when it entered,

as the priests entered the Sanctuary to arrange the bread on the table in the Sanctuary.

And on

the table

of gold

they placed the bread

when it exited,

as the priests left the Sanctuary when they removed the bread from the table; the bread remained there until the bowls were burned.

For one ascends in sanctity and does not descend,

and therefore, when it entered, they placed it on the marble table, and then elevated it in sanctity and placed it on the table in the Sanctuary, which was made of gold. But when it exited, they did not place it on the marble table, so as not to descend from the golden table in the Sanctuary to the marble one.

And

one

golden table inside,

within the Sanctuary,

on which

the

showbread was always arranged.

And this was the procedure for arranging the bread on the table in the Sanctuary and removing it:

Four priests entered

the Sanctuary at the time of arranging the bread:

Two

of the priests carried

two rows in their hands,

six loaves for each priest.

And two

of the priests carried

two bowls in their hands,

with frankincense, one bowl for each priest.

And four

priests

preceded them:

Two

of the priests went ahead in order

to take the two rows,

which were due to be removed from the table.

And two

of the priests went ahead in order

to take the two bowls.

The priests

who brought in the new bread stood—

at the time of removing the bread and arranging the new bread beside the table, which according to our Mishna stood from east to west—

to the north

of the table,

with their faces toward the south.

And

the priests

who took out the old bread stood to the south

of the table,

with their faces toward the north.

These would draw out

the bread and the bowls from the table,

and

before those drawing them out had managed to remove everything from the table,

these would place

the new bread and bowls—

with this one’s handbreadth beside that one’s handbreadth.

To fulfill

what is stated [

Exodus 25:30]: “And you shall place upon the table showbread

before Me always.”

Rabbi Yose says:

Even

if

these

who remove it

were taking

the leḥem ha-panim, and

these

who arrange it came after them and

were placing it, and

they would not be particular about one’s handbreadth being next to the other’s handbreadth,

this too was “

always.”

The Mishna continues explaining the order of removing the leḥem ha-panim:

And they placed them—

the leḥem ha-panim that they had removed from the Table—

on the golden table that was in the hall,

as explained at the beginning of the Mishna, and left them there until they burned the frankincense in the bowls.

When they burned

the

frankincense that was in the

bowls,

the bowls—

then

the loaves were divided among the kohanim,

for the burning of the frankincense in the bowls permits the loaves to be eaten, just as the burning of the kometz of a meal-offering permits the remainder to be eaten by the kohanim.

And if

Yom Kippur occurred on Shabbat,

and the loaves could not be eaten that same day:

then

the loaves were divided in the evening

at the conclusion of Yom Kippur.

And if

Yom Kippur

occurred

on Friday, then

the

goat of Yom Kippur—

that goat upon which the lot for the Lord had fallen, designating it as a sin-offering—

was eaten in the evening

on Friday night.

And the Babylonians ate it—

when Yom Kippur occurred on Friday—

while it was alive,

without cooking it,

because they were unfastidious,

and did not find it repulsive to eat meat while it was alive.

Gemara:

We learned in the Mishna: Rabbi Yosei says: Even if these take it and those place it, this too was “always”:

It was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Yosei says:

Even if he removed the

arrangement

of the old

loaves

in the morning, and

did not

arrange the new one

until

the evening

[between the evenings],

there is nothing wrong with this.

Rather, how do I fulfill “

always before Me”?

That the Table should not spend the night without bread.

Rabbi Ami said: From Rabbi Yosei’s words we learn:

Even if a person studied only one chapter in the morning and one chapter in the evening, he has fulfilled the mitzva of [

Joshua 1]: “

This Torah scroll shall not depart from your mouth.”

Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai:

Even if a person read only the Shema in the morning and in the evening, he has fulfilled “

This Torah scroll shall not depart

from your mouth.”

And this matter—

which we stated—

is forbidden to say in the presence of unlearned people,

lest one say: Reading the Shema is sufficient, and he will not accustom his children to Torah study.

And Rava said:

On the contrary,

it is a mitzva to say it in the presence of unlearned people,

for he will understand: If one receives such a great reward merely for reading the Shema, as the continuation of the verse states, “For then you will succeed in your ways and then you will act wisely,” surely if he engages in Torah study all day, how much greater will his reward be; and he will accustom his children to Torah study.

Ben Dama, the son of Rabbi Yishmael’s sister, asked Rabbi Yishmael:

For example, I, who have learned the entire Torah, what is the ruling

that I should be permitted

to study Greek wisdom?

He cited to him—

Rabbi Yishmael cited to his sister’s son—

this verse: “

This Torah scroll shall not depart from your mouth, and you shall contemplate it day and night”

; go out and investigate

and find

a time that is neither of the day nor of the night, and study Greek wisdom during it.

And it disagrees—

with this statement of Rabbi Yishmael, who maintains that one is obligated to study all day—

with Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani! For Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan:

This verse—“

This Torah scroll shall not depart...” —

is neither an obligation nor a mitzva, but a blessing;

for:

The Holy One, blessed be He, saw Joshua, that words of Torah were exceedingly dear to him, as it is stated: “And his attendant, Joshua son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from within the tent,”

therefore

the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him:

Joshua! So dear are words of Torah to you,

I am going to bless you that “

this Torah scroll shall not depart from your mouth.”

The tanna of the school of Rabbi Yishmael:

Words of Torah should not be an obligation upon you,

like a person who has a debt and says, “When will I repay it and be free of it?” So, too, a person should not say, “I will study one chapter and be free of it,”

and

because

you are not permitted to exempt yourself from them.

Ḥizkiya said:

What is the meaning of that which is written [

Job 36, concerning Elihu’s words to Job about the afflictions that had befallen him]: “

And

this is another great kindness that the Lord has done for you through these afflictions, that

He has lured you away from the mouth of distress, broad and without constriction beneath it

[he proceeds to explain that this means Gehinnom], “and the repose of your table is full of fatness [he proceeds to explain that this means the World to Come]”:

namely, the mouth of Gehinnom, which is narrow, so that its smoke will be concentrated Location of exact page column within it, and the smoke will not escape outside, so that the wicked will be judged both by fire and by smoke; and your table is laden with fatness”—namely, the World to Come: Come and see how unlike the attribute of the Holy One, blessed be He is the attribute of flesh and blood:

The attribute of flesh and blood:

When he incites, he

incites his fellow from the ways of life to the ways of death,

as it is written: “For if your brother, the son of your mother, incites you... saying, ‘Let us go and worship other gods...’”—

But the Holy One, blessed be He, incites a person from the ways of death to the ways of life,

so that he will study Torah,

as it is stated: “And He has lured you away from the mouth of distress,”

namely,

from Gehinnom, whose mouth is narrow, so that its smoke will be concentrated

Location of exact page column

within it, and the smoke will not escape outside, so that the wicked will be judged both by fire and by smoke.

and the smoke will not emerge outside, so that the wicked will be judged both by fire and by smoke. ![](pamud.bmp "