Tamid 32b — the Talmud in English

He said to them: Do people eat golden bread,

and is this the custom here?

They said to him:

It is not our custom to eat golden bread. Rather, we brought it before you because it seemed wondrous to us—

if you wanted bread,

and this was all that you sought—and

did you not have bread to eat in your place, that

for this reason

you took yourself and came

as far as

here? And therefore we gave you this golden bread, because we thought that you had come because of the silver and gold here.

That is why we gave you bread of gold: We thought that you had come because of the silver and gold found here.

When he went out and came

from that city,

he wrote on the gate of Mehoza [

on the gates of the city]:

I, Alexander of Macedon, was a fool [

a fool],

until I came to the country of Africa,

to the city

whose

that was entirely

of rulers. And I learned counsel from rulers [

who taught me wisdom]!

When

Alexander

took himself and came

on his way,

he sat by that spring and was eating bread. He had salted fish in his hands [

salted fish].

As he was washing them [

at the time when he washed them in the spring water to remove their saltiness,

a good fragrance fell upon them. [

And there are those who read: a spirit fell upon them; they rose to life].

Alexander

said:

learn from this, this spring [

spring],

comes from Gan Eden!

There are those who say:

once this became known to him,

he took from that water and washed his face in it [

he washed his face in it].

And there are those who say: he went up along all of it [

he went along the entire length of the spring],

until he reached the entrance of Gan Eden. He raised his voice [

he raised his voice and said:

Open the gate for me!

They said to him: “This is the gate of Hashem—

“the righteous shall enter through it”! And not every person has permission to enter here.

He said to them: I too am a king. I am also considered important.

And if you do not want to open the gate for me, at the very least

give me something

from Gan Eden!

They gave him an eyeball [

the eyeball] . [ And the commentator reads “gulgulta,” and it is the skull of the head].

Alexander

Alexander

brought it and weighed it [

he weighed]

all his gold and silver

in one pan of a balance,

together with it

the eyeball, which he placed in the second pan of the balance.

And his

silver and gold

did not weigh as much as it [

weighing as much as the eyeball, for it was tipping the pan of the balance.

Alexander

said

to the Sages: What is this

matter, that I cannot find anything equal in weight to this eyeball?

They said to him: The eyeball

of the eye

is of flesh and blood [

of a human being of flesh and blood]

It is one that is never satisfied

ever with what it has. Therefore its weight draws to it all the silver and gold in the world.

And likewise your eye was not satisfied, until you went beyond the Mountains of Darkness to bring silver and gold from there.

He said to them: From where

is there proof

that this is so,

as you say?

They said to him: Take a little dust [

a little dust],

and cover it

over the eyeball so that it cannot see, and then it will be satisfied and will not draw to itself the weight of anything.

And he did so, and

immediately it tipped the balance

for at once the weight that he placed opposite it tipped the pan of the balance.

And this is

as it is written: “The Grave and destruction are never satisfied,

and the eyes of man are never satisfied.”

A tanna of the school of Elijah taught: Gehinnom is above the firmament!

For it comes from the sweat of the living creatures in the firmament.

And there are those who say:

Gehinnom is

behind the Mountains of Darkness!

as it is written: “Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples” .

A tanna of the school of Rabbi Hiyya taught: Whoever engages in Torah at night—

the Shekhina is opposite him! As it is stated: “Arise, cry out at night, at the beginning of the watches; pour out your heart like water before the presence of Hashem’”.

For if you arise and cry out at night through engaging in Torah, your heart will be before the presence of Hashem .

Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah said: Torah scholars increase peace in the world! As it is stated: “And all your children shall be disciples of Hashem, and great shall be the peace of your children”

. Do not read

“your children”

, but “your builders”.

That is, Torah scholars. And it is written afterward,

“Great peace is for those who love Your Torah

and they have no stumbling block.” From here [we learn] that they increase peace in the world.

We shall return to you, chapter “They would not bind.”

Mishna:

1.

The appointed one said to them,

concerning the order of the day’s service, to the priests of the ancestral division who had come to the Chamber of Hewn Stone:

Recite one blessing

of the blessings of the recitation of the Shema!

[And they dispute concerning it in Berakhot 11b: According to one opinion, they recited the blessing “Who forms light.” And according to another opinion, they recited the blessing “With great love,” because the time for “Who forms light” had not yet arrived, since sunrise had not yet come.]

And they recited

this blessing,

and

afterward

they recited

the

Ten Commandments,

which are the foundation of the Torah [Bartenura]. And the three sections of the recitation of the Shema, the section

“Hear,”

the section

“And it shall be, if you surely heed,”

and the section

“And He said.”

And they did not have time to pray the entire Eighteen-Benedictions Prayer; rather

they recited only three blessings,

and they are:

1. The blessing

“True and Certain”

[at the end of which is the blessing “Who redeemed Israel.”]

2.

And

the blessing of

Service

[the prayer “Be favorable,”] so that their offering would be for a pleasing fragrance. And they conclude it: “That You alone we shall serve with awe.”

3.

And the Priestly Blessing [“Our God and God of our fathers, bless us with the threefold blessing written in the Torah.”] And this is not the Priestly Blessing with which they blessed the people, for that was after the completion of the service. Rather, they now prayed concerning the raising of the hands that they would perform afterward: that the Holy One, blessed be He, agree to bless Israel through them. And they would skip the verses of the blessings and conclude with “Grant peace.”

And on Shabbat

they would

add

another

blessing for the outgoing watch!

For on Shabbat the priestly watches would change. The watch that had served throughout the entire week would complete its service after the morning service, and afterward the next watch would enter. And the outgoing watch would bless the incoming watch: “May He who caused His Name to dwell in this House cause love, brotherhood, peace, and friendship to dwell among you!”

The appointed one said to them,

the priests who were

new for the incense

[who had never yet merited offering it]:

Come and cast lots

to merit offering it! For the incense enriches the one who offers it, as it is written concerning the sons of Aaron: “They shall place incense before You—bless his resources.” And therefore each time they would seek new priests, so that all of them would become wealthy.

They cast lots,

and he merited

the lot

who merited it.

Afterward

he said to them: New and old together

[both priests who had already merited carrying up the limbs and those who had not yet merited it], all of you

come and cast lots,

to determine

who will carry up the limbs from the ramp to the altar!

Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says:

They would not cast lots for this matter. Rather, the priest who

carried up

the

limbs

from the tables

to the ramp—he

was the one who

carried them up onto the top of the altar!

For it is not proper conduct to begin the carrying up and leave its completion to another. Yoma 26.

And the limbs were divided among nine priests. And each priest carried up the limb for which he had obtained the lot, as explained in the previous chapter.

And in Yoma 24 the amoraim disputed the explanation of the Mishna. And according to Rav Naḥman, this is the meaning of the Mishna: They cast lots while wearing ordinary garments. And those priests who obtained the lot now had to put on priestly garments for the service.

They handed them over

those priests

to attendants

[servants] who were appointed to dress the priests. And the priests would remove their ordinary trousers and put on sacred trousers, which precede all the garments, as it is written: “And linen trousers shall be upon his flesh.”

And afterward

the

attendants

would strip them,

the priests,

of

the rest of

their garments

of ordinary clothing.

And they would not leave

[the attendants]

upon them

any garment whatsoever

except

[other than]

trousers

of sacred clothing

alone, which they had already put on beforehand. And afterward, once they had removed their ordinary garments, they would dress them in the sacred garments.

which they had already put on. After they had removed the ordinary garments from them, they dressed them in the sacred garments .

And windows

[compartments]

were there

in the Chamber of Hewn Stone, within the wall.

And the use of the vessels was written upon them!

For each window was designated for a different garment, and the name of the garment placed in it was written upon it.

The one who merited the incense would take the ladle,

designated for this purpose,

and

that

ladle resembled a large gold tarkav

[a vessel holding three kav, an abbreviation of “two” and “kav”]

of gold,

and it

held three kav.