Yoma 18a (יח.) — the Talmud in English

And what

is the explanation of what we learned in the Mishna, that he takes

“four or five”?

When does he take four, and when does he take five?

According to the Rabbis, who say:

the incoming watch

takes six

loaves,

and

the outgoing watch

takes six

loaves.

And

according to them, two loaves are given as

payment for closing the doors

at the conclusion of Shabbat—

no,

the incoming watch does not take them; rather, the two watches divide all twelve loaves between them.

As for the High Priest—

he must divide the twelve

and take his portion.

And since according to the Rabbis he takes less than half,

one less

loaf

than half

of the six loaves, which are half of the twelve loaves,

therefore,

he takes five.

But

according to Rabbi Yehuda, who says

that the watch

entering takes seven

loaves, because they divide only ten loaves, while

two

loaves are taken by the incoming watch

as payment for closing the doors

at the conclusion of Shabbat.

And the watch

leaving takes five

loaves from the ten that are divided.

Therefore, the High Priest

must divide

only ten loaves;

he must divide them.

And since according to the Rabbis he takes less than half:

one less

loaf

than half

[five out of ten].

And

therefore

he takes four.

Rava said: It is all Rabbi’s opinion,

and the High Priest takes half,

and he agrees with Rabbi Yehuda.

But if so, what does it mean that he takes

four?

He ought to take five!

This is not difficult.

This—

where there is a watch that remains

because of a Festival, which takes two loaves for itself, while the incoming watch takes two loaves, leaving only eight loaves to be divided.

That—

where there is no watch that remains.

If there is a watch that remains—

he must divide eight, and he takes

half of them,

four.

If there is no watch that remains, he must divide ten, and he takes five.

If so, what does “Rabbi says: always five” mean?

Yet there are times when he takes only four!?

And we conclude:

The matter remains difficult.

Mishna:

Throughout all those days during which the High Priest was secluded in the Parhedrin Chamber in the Temple in order to prepare himself for the Yom Kippur service,

they gave him

the court

elders, from the elders of the court,

to be with him.

And

these elders

would read before him

from the Torah

the order

of the service of

the day

in the portion of Aharei Mot, and they would teach him all the laws of the service.

And

thus they

would say to him: My master,

[my lord,]

High Priest! Read

also

with your own mouth.

Perhaps you have forgotten

the laws of the service,

or perhaps

you

never learned them.

And

on the eve of Yom Kippur,

at

the morning service,

they would

station him

[the High Priest]

at the Eastern Gate

of the courtyard,

and

they would

parade before him

there

bulls, rams, and sheep.

So that he would recognize

and contemplate them,

and

through this he would attend to the laws of the order of the day’s service, and become more

accustomed to the service.

All

those

seven days—

they did not withhold from him

any

food or drink.

But

on the eve of Yom Kippur, as

before

darkness fell, they did not allow him to eat much, because

excessive

food induces sleep,

and if he slept on the night of Yom Kippur, he might experience a seminal emission and thereby become disqualified from the service.

Gemara:

We raise a difficulty concerning the words of the Mishna:

Granted,

this statement that we learned, that they told him to read aloud,

lest he had forgotten—

that is fine

[it is understandable].

But

the concern

lest he had never learned

is difficult:

Who

—can it be that

we appoint

a High Priest

of this sort,

who had never learned the laws of the service!?

But it was taught in a beraita:

It is stated in the Torah: “And the priest who is greater than his brothers.” And they expounded from this

that

the High Priest must be

greater than his brothers in strength, in appearance, in wisdom, and in wealth.

Others say: From where do we know that if he has no

personal wealth,

his fellow priests enrich him

from their own funds, so that he will be greater than they in wealth?

The verse states: “And the priest who is greater than his brothers”—

make him greater

in wealth

from his brothers’ funds.

And since he is greater than all of them in wisdom as well, how could they be concerned that he might never have learned the laws of the service?

And we answer:

Rav Yosef said: This is not difficult.

Here

[in the beraita] it is referring to High Priests who served

in the First Temple,

who were appointed in accordance with Torah law and were great in wisdom.

Here

[in our Mishna], which expresses concern that they might never have learned, it is referring to High Priests who served

in the Second Temple,

who were appointed through money paid to the government.

And this is as

Rav Asi said: A tarkav

[a measure of three kav, which is half a se’a]

of dinars, she brought him

[gave him] a wealthy woman named

Marta daughter of Baitos—

to King Yannai,

Yannai the king,

so that he would appoint

[in order to appoint]

Yehoshua ben Gamla,

her husband,

among the great priests,

that is, appoint him to the High Priesthood.

We learned in the Mishna:

On the eve of Yom Kippur, at the morning service, they would station him at the Eastern Gate, and parade bulls, rams, and sheep before him.

A tanna taught: They also

the

goats

were paraded before him, since there were also three goats among the offerings of Yom Kippur. One was offered as a sin-offering, like the other additional offerings of the Festivals, and the other two were the Yom Kippur goats, one of which was an internal sin-offering and the other sent to Azazel.

We raise a difficulty:

And the tanna

of

our

Mishna—

why did he not teach

the goats?

And we answer:

Since

the goats come to atone

for sin,

they were concerned that perhaps

his mind would be weakened

when the High Priest remembered the sins of Israel.

And we challenge this:

If so,

since they are concerned that the High Priest’s mind might be weakened, they should likewise not parade the bull before him, since

the sin-offering bull also

comes for sin

[it comes].

And we answer:

The bull,

his sin-offering,

since

it comes to atone

for him and for his fellow priests—

his mind will not be weakened.

For

with regard to his fellow priests, if there is a person

among them

who has something

[a transgression],

he knows about it

the High Priest, and arouses him,

and returns him

that priest

to repentance.

But

with regard to all Israel,

who are atoned for through the goats, if there are sinners among them,

he does not know

about them, and his mind is weakened lest they fail to repent and thereby not attain atonement.

Ravina said:

This fact, that the High Priest knows the deeds of his fellow priests,

is

like what

people say,

as people are accustomed to say this proverb:

If your sister’s son

[who knows you and is familiar with your deeds]

were a police officer,

the king’s officer,

see

and pay attention to how you conduct yourself:

in the marketplace before him—

do not pass by!

Do not pass before him in the marketplace, lest he fabricate a pretext against you based on your deeds or your property, in order to extract money from you for the government, since he knows your actions.

We learned in the Mishna:

Throughout all seven days they did not withhold from him

food.

On the eve of Yom Kippur, as darkness fell, they did not allow him to eat much, because food induces sleep.

It was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Yehuda ben Nekosa says:

On the morning of the eve of Yom Kippur they

would feed him semolina and eggs,

because they were concerned that he might need to relieve himself the next day during the service; therefore, they fed him these foods, which have a laxative effect,

in order to dissolve it

[to dissolve the food in his intestines], so that he would completely evacuate that day.

They said to him,

to Rabbi Yehuda ben Nekosa: If you do this,

all the more so you

will cause him harm, because by eating these things you

bring him to arousal,

as semolina and eggs increase semen.

It was taught in a beraita: Sumakhos says in the name of Rabbi Meir:

In addition to what we learned in the Mishna, that they did not allow him to eat much, there are certain additional foods that bring about a seminal emission, and he had to refrain from eating them.

Therefore,

they do not feed him not A-B-Y.

And some say: not A-B-B-Y.

[This will be explained below.]

And some say: They also do not

allow him to drink

white wine.

And we explain:

Not A-B-Y—

not an etrog, not eggs, and not aged wine.

And some say: Not A-B-B-Y—

not an etrog, not eggs, not meat, and not aged wine.

And some say: Also not white wine, because

even

wine

that is

white brings a person to impurity.

One from whose body a seminal emission has issued is called a ba'al keri, and he is impure for one day. If zav discharge issues from his body [whose appearance is unlike that of semen] once, he too is impure only for one day, like a ba'al keri.

But if he experiences two discharges of zav, he must count seven clean days free of zav, and afterward he becomes pure. And if he experiences three discharges of zav, he is also obligated to bring an offering.

Zav discharge renders him impure only if it issues from his body neither because of illness nor because of an external circumstance. As it is stated: “When a discharge issues from his flesh,” and they expounded: from his flesh, and not because of something else.

Therefore, if some cause likely to bring about zav discharge preceded his discharge, this is not considered a discharge of zav that renders him impure with the severe impurity of a zav; rather, his status is that of a ba'al keri.

This law applies with regard to a second discharge: if he experienced it because of an external circumstance, he does not become a zav requiring him to count seven clean days. But a first discharge—which in any event does not make him a zav—renders him impure like a ba'al keri, even if it occurred because of an external circumstance.

Likewise, a discharge caused by an external circumstance is not considered a zav discharge with regard to liability for an offering.

Rather, the tannaim disagree when he has already experienced the first two discharges, which were “from his flesh” [that is, naturally], and he now experiences a third discharge, such that if it is zav discharge, he becomes obligated to bring a zav’s offering.

According to Rabbi Eliezer, they examine him to determine whether, before the third discharge, a cause likely to bring about this discharge had preceded it.

But according to the Rabbis, they do not examine him, because he had already become established as a zav through the two discharges he experienced. He becomes obligated to bring an offering with the third discharge even if it was caused by an external circumstance.

Everyone agrees that if he became a zav through three natural discharges “from his flesh” [whose law is that he must count seven clean days free of zav and then become pure], and he began counting the clean days, and experienced a zav discharge during the counting of the seven clean days, then even if that discharge was caused by an external circumstance, the count of the seven clean days is interrupted, and he must begin counting seven other clean days anew.

The seven clean days during which he examines himself to determine whether the zav discharge has indeed ceased are called “the days of his examination.”

And concerning this,

the Sages taught:

A zav

who experienced a discharge after eating excessively—

they attribute

the cause of the discharge

to

the excess

food,

and he does not become a zav through this discharge with regard to seven-day impurity or an offering.

And every type of food

can bring about zav discharge if one eats a great deal of it, and not only particular foods.

Elazar ben Pinhas says in the name of Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira:

they do not feed him

anything at all during these days,

not H-G-B-Y, nor G-B-M, nor any

of the

things that bring about impurity.

And we explain:

Not H-G-B-Y—

not milk, not cheese, not an egg, and not wine.

Nor G-B-M—

not the water of crushed beans, and

not

fatty meat, and

not

rice porridge.

And we raise a difficulty: This that the tanna taught at the end:

“Nor any of the things that bring about impurity”—

what does this come to include

[what does this add]?

And we explain:

To include

the following,

as the Sages taught:

Five things,

when eaten,

bring a person to impurity, and these are: garlic,