Yoma 29a — the Talmud in English

And incidentally, the Gemara brings additional matters whose secondary aspect is more difficult than the matter itself.

Thoughts of transgression

the desire for women —

are more difficult,

the difficult ones that weaken his body, more

than transgression.

And its sign is: the scent of roasted meat.

One who smells roasted meat—the scent is very harmful to him because he desires it [more than one who smells it and eats it. Tosafot Yeshanim].

The end of the summer,

the heat of summer in the month of Elul, which is at the end of summer —

is more difficult than the summer.

It is more difficult than the heat of Tammuz, which is in the middle of summer. Since the air has already become heated throughout the entire summer, when the month of Elul arrives, even slight heat heats the air greatly.

And the person’s body has already become very hot from the summer, and every slight heat heats it greatly and harms it.

And its sign is: a furnace that has been stoked.

A furnace that has been heated several times during the day; since it is hot, it can be stoked with few pieces of wood.

A winter fever

a fever [high temperature] that occurs in the winter,

is more difficult than one of the summer.

It is a sign of a more serious illness than a fever with which a person is afflicted in the summer.

And its sign is: a cold furnace,

a cold furnace is more difficult to heat than a hot furnace. And similarly, a person’s body, which is cold in the winter, is difficult to heat. And if a person is afflicted with a fever in the winter, it is a sign that a serious illness is heating him.

To finish with an old matter

to return and study an old matter that he studied and forgot —

is more difficult than a new one.

It is more difficult than studying a new matter that he has never studied.

And its sign is: clay son of clay.

Mud made from mud.

That is, mud that one kneads from mud ground out of an old wall is more difficult to knead than mud made from new earth.

We learned in a beraita above: Rabbi says: A column of moonlight is not similar to a column of sunlight. A column of moonlight rises and ascends like a staff; a column of sunlight breaks forth here and there.

Rabbi Abbahu said: What is Rabbi’s reason?

For it is written:

[in Psalms 22]

“For the leader, concerning the hind of the dawn.”

The verse called the dawn “a hind”:

Just as this hind, its antlers branch out

[split apart]

here and there —

so too this dawn breaks forth here and there.

The Gemara in tractate Megilla [15b] says that when Esther arrived at the house of the idols of Ahasuerus, she recited Psalm 22: “My God, my God—why have You forsaken me,” and the entire continuation of the psalm.

And this psalm opens: “For the leader, concerning the hind of the dawn,” which is a designation for Esther.

Rabbi Zeira said: Why was Esther compared to a hind?

To tell you: Just as this hind has a narrow womb, and is beloved by her husband at every hour and every hour as at the first hour,

when she is a virgin,

so too Esther was beloved by Ahasuerus at every hour and every hour as at the first hour.

Rav Asi said: Why was Esther compared to the dawn

[the hind of “the dawn”]?

To tell you: Just as the dawn is the end of the entire night —

so too

the miracle of Purim that took place in the days of

Esther was the end of all the miracles.

And we challenge this:

But there is

the miracle of

Hanukkah,

which was after Esther!

And we answer: Esther was the end of all the miracles that

were given to be written

in the sacred writings in the Scroll,

we are saying.

But the miracles that occurred after it were not written in the sacred writings.

And we challenge this:

That works

the answer that we answered

for the one who says “Esther was given to be written

by means of the Divine Spirit.”

But for the one who says “Esther was not given to be written

by means of the Divine Spirit” —

what is there to say?

After all, the miracle of Esther was not the last miracle to be given to be written, and why was Israel compared to the dawn?

And we answer: The one who says that Esther was not given to be written —

applies it

interprets the verse for a different exposition,

in accordance with Rabbi Binyamin bar Yefet said in the name of Rabbi Elazar:

For Rabbi Binyamin bar Yefet said in the name of Rabbi Elazar: “Dawn” in the verse is from the language of prayer, as it is said [in Isaiah 26:9]: “My spirit within me, I will seek You early.” And this is the intention of the verse: For the leader, concerning the prayer that was compared to the hind of the dawn.

And

why was the prayer of the righteous compared to a “hind”?

To tell you: Just as this hind

[the stag, for a female hind does not have antlers],

whenever she grows —

her antlers branch out,

growing new branches —

so too the righteous, whenever they increase prayer, their prayer is heard.

We learned in the Mishna: Once the light of the moon rose, and they thought that the east had become illuminated, and

they slaughtered the tamid

and took it out to the place of burning. And the Mishna continues: They brought the High Priest down to the immersion chamber.

And the Gemara assumed that what is stated at the end, “They brought the High Priest down to the immersion chamber,” is part of the incident: on that same day on which the mistake occurred, that they slaughtered the tamid at night, on that day they brought the High Priest down to the immersion chamber to immerse and slaughter another tamid.

And we inquire into it:

When

did the incident mentioned in the Mishna take place?

If you say

that it took place

during the other days of the year,

then there is a difficulty: And is it

not possible without a High Priest!?

Is the service of the other days of the year not sufficiently performed by another priest who is not the High Priest?! And why did they bring specifically the High Priest down to the immersion chamber?

Rather,

what will you answer? That it concerned

Yom Kippur,

when all the services were performed by the High Priest—this too is difficult:

On Yom Kippur,

the light of the moon

near dawn,

is there?

After all, Yom Kippur is near the beginning of the month, and the moon is not visible at the end of the night except at the end of every month! [For at the beginning of the month the moon is visible at the end of the day and only at the beginning of the night].

And we answer: The incident in the Mishna took place during the other days of the year.

And what we learned: “And they slaughtered the tamid and took it out to the place of burning” is the conclusion of the incident. And afterward it is a separate matter.

And

this is what he says,

this is what the tannai in our Mishna said:

And on Yom Kippur, when

[when]

he said,

the one who saw,

“The flash has flashed,”

then

they brought the High Priest down to the immersion chamber.

We learned in the Mishna an incident involving a tamid that was slaughtered at night, which they took out to the place of burning. This is because it is stated [in Leviticus 19] concerning the offerings: “On the day of your slaughter.” And zevach is an expression of slaughter. From here we learned that the slaughter of the offering is performed only during the day.

The father of Rabbi Avin taught: Not

only

this alone,

in the case of an offering that was slaughtered at night,

did they

say

that it should be burned.

Rather, even the melika of a bird and the kemitza of a meal-offering,

if they were performed

at night —

it shall be burned!

And even though it is stated in the verse “your slaughter,” whose meaning is slaughter, nevertheless, melika in birds and kemitza in meal-offerings are in place of the slaughter of offerings [Rashi].

And we inquire into it:

Granted, the bird burnt-offering

that was subject to melika at night and was thereby disqualified, it should properly be burned, and there is no remedy for it, but —

what has happened has happened!

Since he performed melika on it at night, he can no longer return and perform melika on it during the day, for it is already dead.

But the handful

of a meal-offering that he performed at night—why should the meal-offering and the handful be burned? After all, there is a remedy for it: