Yoma 31a — the Talmud in English

If a substance separates part of a person's body from the water when he immerses, does it

invalidate the immersion

as it does with other immersions?

Or

, since this immersion is not performed in order to purify him from ritual impurity, but rather to cause him to remember an earlier impurity that he has contracted,

it does not invalidate the immersion

and the separation does not disqualify it?

Rav Yosef said to him

: There is an answer:

Whatever the Sages instituted

—all the ordinances that the Sages enacted—

they instituted in the form of what is prescribed by Torah law. Since a separation invalidates an immersion required by Torah law, it likewise invalidates this immersion.

И поскольку при погружении, требуемом Торой, преграда делает погружение непригодным, следовательно, и при этом погружении преграда делает его непригодным.

Abaye said to Rav Yosef: There is another uncertainty concerning this immersion:

Есть сомнение относительно этого погружения:

Does

partial entry

, when only part of a person's body enters the courtyard, meaning that he inserts only one of his limbs into the courtyard,

qualify as entry

and make him obligated to immerse?

Or does it not

qualify as entry, so that he need not immerse?

Rav Yosef said to him

:

The thumbs and big toes

of a leper

will prove that partial entry qualifies as entry

: On the eighth day, a leper stands at the Nicanor Gate and inserts the thumbs of his hands and the big toes of his feet into the Israelite Courtyard, but not his entire body.

And it was taught in a beraita: A leper immerses and stands at the Nicanor Gate. Thus, partial entry qualifies as entry, and he is obligated to immerse.

Отсюда следует, что частичный вход считается входом и человек обязан совершить погружение.

The members of the academy raised a question

:

If one slaughters the offering and wishes to exempt himself from immersing before entering the courtyard,

what is the ruling: may he make a long knife and slaughter with it?

Can he make a long knife, stand outside the courtyard, and slaughter the sacrificial animal standing inside the courtyard without immersing?

The question may be raised

between

the

view of

ben Zoma

, who holds that everyone who enters the courtyard must immerse.

And

the question may be raised

also

according to the Sages, who disagree with Rabbi Yehuda

and hold that one who enters the courtyard need not immerse [apart from a leper on the eighth day, who must immerse because he has become accustomed to ritual impurity].

And we explain the uncertainty:

The question according to ben Zoma

is as follows. This is the uncertainty according to ben Zoma, who obligates one who enters the courtyard to immerse:

Perhaps

ben Zoma obligated immersion only

for the one who enters

inside

the courtyard,

into

its interior,

but

this person, who made a long knife and stands

outside

, outside the courtyard,

is not

obligated to immerse.

Or perhaps

he is also obligated to immerse in this case, because we are concerned that perhaps

he will come to continue inward

and enter the courtyard, and therefore he must immerse.

The question according to the Sages, who disagree with Rabbi Yehuda

is as follows. This is the uncertainty according to the Sages, who disagree with Rabbi Yehuda and hold that one who enters the courtyard need not immerse: Perhaps

the Sages stated there

, in that case, that one who enters the courtyard is exempt from immersing, only with regard to a person

who is not performing the Temple service

and is not engaged in the sacred service.

But here

, in this case,

where he is performing the Temple service

and is engaged in the service of slaughtering ,

they did not

exempt him from immersing.

Or perhaps it makes no difference

: Perhaps one who performs the Temple service is no different from the other people entering the courtyard. Just as everyone who enters the courtyard is exempt from immersing, so too one who performs the Temple service is exempt from immersing.

And we conclude:

The question remains unresolved.

[этот вопрос остается неразрешенным].

We learned in the Mishna:

The High Priest immerses five times and sanctifies his hands and feet ten times

on that day; all of them take place in the sacred area, in the Parva Chamber, except for this one [the first] alone.

The Sages taught:

The High Priest immerses five times and sanctifies his hands and feet ten times on that day ;

and all of them take place in the sacred area

inside the courtyard,

in the Parva Chamber, except for the first, which took place in an unconsecrated area

outside the courtyard. A chamber was built there containing a ritual bath, adjacent to the wall of the courtyard,

above the Water Gate.

And beside his chamber

the High Priest's chamber

was

this chamber.

From the words of the beraita, which makes clear that a ritual bath was built above the Water Gate, Abaye derived an additional point, as follows.

In Tractate Zevaḥim 54b, Rava said that they wanted to build the Temple at Ein Eitam because it is the highest place in the Land of Israel, and it is stated [Deuteronomy 17]: “You shall rise and ascend to the place that the Lord your God will choose” [which is the Temple]. From here they learned that the Temple would be in the highest place.

However, they did not build the Temple there, but in Jerusalem, which is slightly lower than Ein Eitam, because it is stated [Deuteronomy 33]: “And He dwells between his shoulders.” The Divine Presence rests at the height of the shoulders, which are slightly lower than the height of the head.

And from where did we learn that Ein Eitam is higher than Jerusalem?

Abaye said: Learn from this

from the beraita cited above [which stated that a ritual bath was built above the Water Gate], that

Ein Eitam

, the spring from which the water flowed to the ritual bath above the Water Gate in the Temple, was

higher than the ground

of the

courtyard.

For water never rises upward; it flows downward. Since the water from Ein Eitam reached the ritual bath above the Water Gate, Ein Eitam must necessarily have been higher than this ritual bath [and certainly Ein Eitam was higher than the ground of the courtyard].

And by how much was Ein Eitam higher than the ground of the courtyard?

Twenty-three cubits.

For we learned:

all the entrances that were there

in the courtyard were twenty cubits high and ten cubits wide, except for

the entrance of

the Entrance Hall

, which was forty cubits high and twenty cubits wide.

From this we learn that the height of the Water Gate was twenty cubits,

and it was taught:

With regard to the ritual impurity of one who experienced a seminal emission, it is stated [Leviticus 15:16]: “And he shall bathe all his flesh in water.” The verse is expounded as follows:

“And he shall bathe his flesh in the water.”

Since the letter bet in the word “in the water” is vocalized with a pataḥ and not with a sheva, it comes in place of the definite article and means “the designated water,” water that had already collected and stood there from the outset on its own; that is,

in the water of a ritual bath

, rather than drawing water now and immersing in it.

And why is it stated,

“all his flesh”

[when the word “all” appears to be superfluous]? To teach you that he must immerse in

water in which his entire body can be covered

[то есть покрыться]

by it

at one time.

And how much

water

is that?

One cubit by one cubit, with a height of

[то есть глубиной]

three cubits

, for with these dimensions a person can enter and be entirely covered by the water.

And the Sages calculated

[то есть установили определенный размер]:

that the water of a ritual bath must be forty se'a

[regardless of whether it measures one cubit by one cubit and three cubits high, or one cubit by one and a half cubits and two cubits high, and so forth].

Since the required height of the ritual bath was three cubits, and the height of the Water Gate was twenty cubits, the two together were twenty-three cubits high. From this it follows that Ein Eitam was twenty-three cubits higher than the ground of the courtyard [and slightly more, so that there would be a slope from Ein Eitam to the ritual bath at the Water Gate, allowing the water to flow down into the ritual bath, Rabbeinu Ḥananel].