Yoma 33a — the Talmud in English

And Reish Lakish concludes his words:

For this reason we learned

at the end of the Mishna in tractate Chullin: One who slaughters

the majority

of one

סימן in a bird, and the majority of two

simanim

in an animal—his slaughter is valid. And this Mishna is a superfluous Mishna, and it comes to teach that also with sacrificial animals, one who slaughters the majority of the simanim is valid after the fact.

his slaughter is valid. This Mishna is an extra Mishna, and it comes to teach that even with offerings, if one slaughters the majority of the signs, the slaughter is valid after the fact.

And we learned from the words of Reish Lakish that “he cut its neck” means that he slaughtered the majority of the animal’s simanim, and with this the slaughter is valid.

And we challenge this:

And since there is not even a rabbinic disqualification

at all

when one slaughters the majority of the simanim—

why do I need

another priest

to finish

the slaughter?

And we answer: Since

it is a mitzva to finish

the slaughter initially, in order to bring out a great deal of blood from the animal’s neck and receive it in a service vessel, in order to sprinkle it on the altar [Rashi, Chullin 99b].

Our Mishna deals with the order of the service of the daily offering, and with other services that are performed every day. The Gemara here expands on the matter and brings the words of Abaye, who arranged the order of the services performed every day in the Temple.

Abaye arranges

the order of

the arrangement

—he arranged the order of the services performed every day in the Temple—

in the name of the Gemara,

in the name of the received tradition of all the members of the academy [who received it from their teachers. Rashi 14b].

And

he arranged this

according to

the view of

Abba Shaul [and not according to the view of the Sages above, 14b ]:

a.

The large arrangement,

the arranging of the wood on the outer altar, in a large pile [fire] upon which all the offerings were burned—

precedes

the arranging of

the second arrangement for the incense.

And this is the second pile from which they made a fire beside the outer altar, and from which they brought coals into the Sanctuary in order to burn incense upon them.

And below the reason for this is explained. And as for the other words of Abaye:

b.

The second arrangement for the incense—

precedes the arranging of the two logs of wood,

which they added to the large arrangement.

c.

And the arranging of the two logs of wood

which they added to the large arrangement—

precedes the removal

of the ashes [the ash] from the

inner altar.

d.

And the removal

of the ashes, the removal of the ashes from the

inner altar—

precedes the preparation of five lamps.

The cleaning of five cups from among the seven cups in the Menorah [for he removed the wicks and the ashes that remained in them]. And below it is explained that they did not prepare all the lamps of the Menorah at once, but interrupted in the middle of their preparation with another service.

e.

And the preparation

[the preparation of]

five lamps—

precedes

the services performed with

the blood of the daily offering,

which are the slaughtering of the daily offering and the sprinkling of its blood on the altar.

f.

And

the services performed with

the blood of the daily offering—

are performed

before the preparation of the two

remaining

lamps,

which they had not yet prepared.

g.

And the preparation of two lamps—

precedes

the burning of the

incense,

on the inner altar.

h.

And

the burning of the

incense—

precedes

the burning of the

limbs

of the daily offering on the outer altar.

i.

And

the burning of the

limbs

of the daily offering—precedes

the

burning of the

meal-offering

that comes with the daily offering [a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of beaten oil. Numbers 28].

j.

And

the burning of the

meal-offering—

precedes

the

burning of the meal-offering of the

ḥavitin

that the High Priest brought every day.

k.

And

the burning of the

ḥavitin—

precedes

the

pouring of

the libations

of wine [a quarter of a hin] that comes together with the daily offering.

l.

And

on Shabbat or on other days on which there is an additional offering, the pouring of

the libations

was

before

the offering of the sacrifices of the

additional offerings.

m.

And

on Shabbat, on which two bowls of frankincense that come with the showbread are offered, the

additional offerings

preceded

the

burning of the

bowls.

n.

And

the burning of the

bowls

precedes

the daily offering of the afternoon.

And from where is it established that sacrifices are not offered after the daily offering of the afternoon?

For it is stated

concerning the daily burnt-offering of the morning [Leviticus 6]:

“And he shall burn upon it the fats of the peace-offerings.”

And the Sages expounded: “Upon it,” upon the daily burnt-offering of the morning—“the peace-offerings.”

From here they said: Specifically,

upon it,

upon the daily burnt-offering of the morning, continue after it with the offering of the other sacrifices, and

complete

upon it the offering of

all the sacrifices

[of that day]

all of them.

But do not continue and complete the offering of the sacrifices of the day upon the second daily burnt-offering that is offered in the evening.

To teach you that no sacrifice is offered on the altar after the daily offering of the afternoon.

And now the Gemara explains the words of Abaye, in order, one matter after another.

The Master said,

Abaye:

a.

The large arrangement

of wood for the offering of most sacrifices—

precedes the second arrangement for the incense.

And we inquire about it:

From where do we know this,

from where do we know that the large arrangement precedes?

And we answer:

For it was taught:

It is stated [Leviticus 6:2] concerning the daily burnt-offering:

“It is the burnt-offering upon its firewood upon the altar all night.”

And “its firewood” means a fire of wood. And

this is the large arrangement.

And further in the verse it is stated:

“And the fire of the altar shall burn upon it.”

“Shall burn” means it shall burn in the fire. And from here it follows that there was an additional fire on the outer altar, and

this is the second arrangement for the incense.

And it appeared to Abaye that the order of the verse implies that this arrangement was second, and that the large arrangement was before it.

And we challenge this: The verse brought by the beraita teaches only that there were two arrangements on the outer altar, but not their order.

And it still must be asked:

But let me reverse it!

For I can reverse the order that Abaye stated and say that the arrangement for the incense precedes the large arrangement! And from where does Abaye know that the large arrangement precedes?

And we answer:

It is logical that the large arrangement is superior,

more important,

since its atonement is greater,

for most of the sacrifices that come to effect atonement are offered upon it [apart from the incense]. And since the large arrangement is more important, it precedes.

And we challenge this:

On the contrary! The second arrangement is superior,

it is more important,

since from it they bring in

coals [for burning the incense]

inside

the Sanctuary!

And we answer:

Even so,

even so, the advantage that the large arrangement has—“since its

atonement is greater”—

is superior!

It is more important than the advantage of the incense, for which they bring coals from it inside.

And if you wish, I shall say

and if you wish, you can give another reason to prefer the advantage of the large arrangement over the second arrangement, from which they bring coals inside:

For after all,

if he does not find

if he does not find

wood for the second arrangement,

will he not bring in

will he not bring coals into the Sanctuary

from the large arrangement,

and burn the incense upon them?!

That is to say, the large arrangement too is fit to be brought inside the Sanctuary. Therefore the second arrangement, which is intended only for the incense, should not be considered superior to it.

The Gemara now brings another matter from the words of Abaye above:

b.

The second arrangement for the incense precedes the arranging of the two logs of wood,

which they added to the large arrangement.

And we inquire about it:

From where do we know this,

from where do we know that the second arrangement precedes the arranging of the two logs of wood?

And we answer:

For it is written

[in Leviticus 6:5]: “And the fire upon the altar shall burn upon it; it shall not be extinguished,

and the priest shall burn wood upon it morning by morning.”

“Wood” implies at least two, and from here they learned that the priest adds two logs of wood to the large arrangement.

And the verse says

“upon it”,

to emphasize that specifically upon it shall he add the two logs of wood

and not upon its companion,

which is the second arrangement for the incense.

And from the fact that the verse had to teach that he should not add the logs of wood to the second arrangement,

by inference,

it is proven from here

that its companion exists,

that the second arrangement already exists.

For if it were said that he added the two logs of wood before arranging the second arrangement, it would be self-evident that he could not add them to the second arrangement, since it did not yet exist at all; so why was it stated, “upon it”?

It must therefore be that the second arrangement for the incense precedes the arranging of the two logs of wood!

And we challenge this: From where do we know that “upon it” comes to exclude: “upon it—and not upon its companion”?

And

after all,

this “upon it”—

is needed for its own matter!

For the word “upon it” is needed for the arranging of the two logs of wood itself, to teach you that he should place them on top of the arrangement, and not to the side or by themselves! [Ritba].

And we answer:

Two “upon it” are written.

The word “upon it” was written twice in the same verse [“and the priest shall burn wood upon it ... and he shall arrange the burnt-offering upon it”], and one of them is superfluous. And it comes to exclude “upon it and not upon its companion,” as above.

c.

The arranging of the two logs of wood precedes the removal of the ashes from the inner altar.

Concerning the two logs of wood, it is explained in the Torah that the time for placing them on the altar is “morning by morning.” The repetition of the word “morning” teaches that he should perform this early in the morning.

And it is possible to prove that the time for the removal of the ashes from the inner altar is also “morning by morning.” For it is stated [Exodus 30:7] concerning the morning incense: “Morning by morning, when he prepares the lamps, he shall burn it,” and the burning of the incense comes only after the removal of the ashes from the altar [Rashi. His intention is that the cleaning of the altar of its ashes was certainly performed before the incense, to honor it].

And we explain:

Although here,

in the arranging of the two logs of wood,

it is written “morning by morning.” And

also

here,

in the removal of the ashes from the inner altar,

it is written “morning by morning.”

If so, from where do we know that the arranging of the two logs of wood was before the removal of the ashes from the inner altar?

Even so,

even so, the wood enables the incense to be burned, for it is impossible to burn the incense except upon the coals of the wood.

And

an enabler is superior,

it precedes the removal of the ashes from the altar. For even without removing the ashes it is possible to burn the incense, and therefore they arranged the two logs of wood before they removed the ashes from the altar [based on Tosafot Yeshanim].

And we wonder: The

enabler

that we are discussing—

what is it

that we were speaking about?

After all, we were speaking about

the two logs of wood!

And if so, this is difficult:

But you said

above,

the two logs of wood—

go to the large arrangement

[they go there]; but the two logs of wood do not enable the incense, for they arranged a second arrangement specifically for the incense!

The Gemara brings several answers:

a.

Rabbi Jeremiah

answered:

Rabbi Jeremiah: The “enabler” that we mentioned included everything that is called by

any

[name of]

[name of]

wood.

That is to say, since there is wood that enables the incense [namely, in the second arrangement], therefore all the service of the wood is considered an important service, to which enabling the incense applies [and for this reason the arranging of the two logs of wood precedes the removal of the ashes from the inner altar].

b. Ravina disagrees with what we said, “an enabler is superior,” and therefore:

Ravina said:

The arranging of the two logs of wood precedes the removal of the ashes from the altar for another reason:

Since he began to arrange

the arranging of the

arrangement

the large one,

he completes

it and adds the two logs of wood to it before turning to remove the ashes from the inner altar.

c. Rav Ashi agrees with the first reason stated above, that wood which is an “enabler” precedes the removal of the ashes from the inner altar. But we challenged this, for the arranging of the two logs of wood was on the large arrangement, and it does not enable the incense.

And concerning this

Rav Ashi

answered [not like the answer of Rabbi Jeremiah above] and

said: If he does not find

if he does not find

wood for the second arrangement—

will he not bring in,

will he not bring in coals

from the large arrangement

and burn incense upon them?! It follows that the large arrangement too is considered an “enabler” for the incense.

The Gemara discusses another passage from the words of Abaye:

d.

And the removal of the ashes from the inner altar precedes the preparation of five lamps.

And we inquire about it:

What is the reason,

what is the reason?

Abaye said:

Indeed,

I have learned it as Gemara,

I learned this matter from the sons of the yeshiva who received it from their teachers, that this was the order of the matters.

But

the reasoning

the reason for the matter—

I do not know.

I do not know how to give a reason from my own understanding.

And Rava said

the reason for the matter,

in accordance with Reish Lakish:

For Reish Lakish said: One does not pass over—

one does not skip

the mitzvot

without doing them. Rather, if a mitzva presents itself to him, he should perform it immediately. And he should not turn to engage in another mitzva.