Yoma 20b — the Talmud in English

And if it should enter your mind

according to the words of Rav—that what we learned in Zevahim, that the time of the removal of the ashes is

from midnight

of the night—

is from the Torah,

if so,

how do we advance

the removal of the ashes on the Festivals from the first watch, when the time of the mitzva has still not arrived.

How do we delay it

every day.

Rather, Rabbi Yohanan said:

What we learned—that limbs that fell off after midnight should not be returned—is not for the reason that Rav said: since the time of the mitzva of removing the ashes has arrived, the mitzva of burning them has been completed. For it is proven from our Mishna that midnight is not the time of removal according to the Torah.

Rather, we learned from another verse that these limbs, over which the fire of the altar had already prevailed but which had not yet been completely consumed, become ashes at midnight, and there is no need to return them if they fell off after midnight.

For

from the implication of what is stated, “It is the burnt offering upon its firewood upon the altar

all the night

,”

and is it so that

I do not know that it is until the morning?

And what does the verse teach by saying “until the morning”?

Rather, to teach you that

you give a morning

[an additional awakening]

to the morning of the night,

which is dawn.

For concerning dawn, which is the morning at the completion of the night, you have to add another time before it, which is also considered morning, with regard to the fact that you may not burn from that point onward. And since the verse left it unspecified and did not explain its time, you are compelled to interpret that it is midnight.

And it stands to reason that this exposition was stated with regard to those limbs that are not completely consumed; but whatever was consumed before midnight and had already become ashes, the mitzva of removal applies to it immediately when it became ashes, even at the beginning of the night.

Therefore,

since no specific time was stated as the beginning of the time for removing the ashes, the Sages established the time of the removal according to the need. Therefore

every day,

when there was not a large quantity of ashes, and there was also no reason to hurry before the end of the night, they would

remove the ashes from the altar

at the end of the night, that is,

at the crowing of the rooster, or near it, whether before it or after it,

and

it suffices

for this.

But

on Yom Kippur,

when its service is performed only by the kohen gadol, since

there is weakness of the kohen gadol, they advance the time of the removal and

they advance the time for removing the ashes and

perform it from midnight,

so that he will have time to rest after this service, before he begins the service of the daily offering.

And on the Festivals, when Israel are numerous,

who would go up for the Festival pilgrimage,

and the offerings are numerous,

which Israel would bring to offer in the Temple on the Festivals—for so it is stated, “And you shall come there,” “And you shall bring there”—and the quantity of ashes gathered on the altar was large, and they needed much time to clear the ashes to the middle of the altar, in order to make room for the offerings of the day, and this clearing was done only after the removal of the ashes; therefore they advanced it still further.

And

they performed

the removal of the ashes

from the first watch.

And

as its reason is taught

in the Mishna:

the crowing of the rooster had not yet arrived before the courtyard was full of Israel.

And we raised a question concerning it:

What is the crowing of the rooster?

Rav said: At the end of the night

a man calls,

and this is the man appointed to announce: “Stand, kohanim, for your service.”

Rabbi Sheila said:

a rooster calls.

Rav happened to come

[he happened to be present]

to the place of Rabbi Sheila

when Rabbi Sheila was lecturing publicly, and they did not recognize him there [and they used to conduct themselves such that the sage would lecture in the holy tongue, and an amora would stand before him to translate his words into the Aramaic tongue, so that the people would understand more].

There was not

there

an amora to stand over Rabbi Sheila

at the time of his lecture,

Rav stood over him

—Rabbi Sheila [without knowing that he was Rav].

And when Rabbi Sheila whispered to him, “The crowing of the rooster,” Rav translated his words

and explained: What is “the crowing of the rooster”?—

A man calls.

Rabbi Sheila said to him: And let the master say: A rooster calls.

He said to him,

Rav: And he answered him with a familiar proverb, which is:

A flute

[a type of pipe]

for nobles

[for honored free men] is

music,

and they enjoy it. But when it comes to playing

for

people of

lowly status

[people inferior in their standing],

they do not accept it from him.

And the meaning of the parable is: I myself,

when I was standing

as the translator

before Rabbi Hiyya,

who is greater than you,

and I explained: What is “the crowing of the rooster”? “A man calls,”

and he heard my words

and did not say anything to me—

thus he agreed with this explanation of mine.

But

if

you

do not accept my explanation, and

you say to me: Say, “A rooster calls.”

From the fact that Rav related that he had been Rabbi Hiyya’s translator, Rabbi Sheila understood that he was Rav.

And

he said to him,

Rav: But

the master is indeed Rav;

from now on

let the master sit,

for it is not honorable that Rav should be Rabbi Sheila’s translator.

He said to him,

Rav:

People say: If you have hired yourself out

[if you have been hired by a person for his work], do not interrupt your work, even if

you beat his wool

[you beat out his wool], even though it is a lowly task.

And I too, since I began translating your words, will finish.

Some say: This is what he said to him

Rav said to Rabbi Sheila: It is proper that

one ascends in holiness and does not descend,

and if I stop and someone inferior to me stands in my place, it is a lowering in the standing of the lecture.

And we conclude:

It was taught in a beraita in accordance with Rav,

and likewise

it was taught in a beraita in accordance with Rabbi Sheila.

It was taught in a beraita in accordance with Rav: Gavini the announcer

[the name of a man who was appointed over the announcement]

what would he say?

“Stand, kohanim, for your service; and Levites, for your platform; and Israel, for your station.”

And his voice

was strong, to the point that it

was heard at

a distance of

three parasangs.

And once there was

an incident involving King Agrippa, who was traveling on the road and heard

the

voice

of the announcer

at

a distance of

three parasangs, and when

the king

came to his house, he sent him gifts.

And nevertheless,

although the voice of Gavini the announcer was strong, the voice of the

kohen gadol was superior to it.

For the master said: And already

there was an incident in which

the

kohen gadol said on Yom Kippur, when he confessed,

“Please

O Lord”,

in a loud voice, and his voice was heard in Jericho.

And Rabba bar bar Hanna said in the name of Rabbi Yohanan:

The distance

from Jerusalem to Jericho

is

ten parasangs.

And

the voice was so strong

that although here

—on Yom Kippur—

there is weakness

of the kohen gadol on account of his fast,

and

if

here,

in the incident of Gavini the announcer,

there is no weakness.

And

further,

here

—on Yom Kippur—it was

daytime, and

if there, it was

night—before the sun had risen—when the voice is heard farther away.

before sunrise, when a voice is heard farther away.

For

this is what

Rabbi Levi said: Why is a person’s voice not heard during the day,

with such strength,

in the manner in which

it is

heard at night? Because of

the voice of the

sun’s sphere, which saws through the firmament, like a carpenter

[a craftsman]

sawing through

cedar

trees.

And this sawdust of the day

[the waste of the sawdust produced by that sawing through which the sun’s sphere performs, and which appears like dust in the sunlight],

“not” is its name, and this is what Nebuchadnezzar said

in praise of the Holy One, blessed is He:

“And all the inhabitants of the earth are considered as nothing

[nothingness]

,”

for human beings are not considered by Him as more than floating dust.

The Sages taught: If not for

the voice of the

sphere

of the

sun,

there would be

heard throughout the entire world the voice of the tumult of Rome; and if not for the voice of the tumult of Rome,

there would be

heard the voice

of the

sun’s sphere.

The Sages taught: There are three voices

that

go from one end of the world to the other, and these are: the voice of the sun’s sphere, the voice of the tumult of Rome, and the voice

of the

soul when it departs from the body.

And there are those who say,

and they add:

also

the voice of

childbirth,