Yoma 37b (לז:) — the Talmud in English

Abaye said:

The answer is: Our Mishna was speaking

of the handles of knives,

since the knives themselves could not be made of gold [because gold is not strong enough to cut with]. But as for the other vessels in the Temple, Munbaz made even the vessels themselves of gold.

Meytivi:

An objection to Abaye’s statement from a beraita: They taught in a beraita:

He too,

Munbaz,

made the bases of

the

vessels,

the bases of the vessels,

and the grips of the vessels

[the places by which they were held],

and the handles

of the

vessels, and the handles

of the

knives used on Yom Kippur, of gold.

And since the beraita says, “the handles of the vessels and the handles of the knives,” it is evident that the handles of the vessels are not the handles of the knives. Rather, they are the handles of the other vessels, which could themselves have been made of gold, and nevertheless Munbaz did not make them of gold. This contradicts Abaye’s statement!

Explain it:

Abaye

explained:

What are the handles of the vessels mentioned in the beraita? It is referring

to the handles of axes and hatchets,

which could not themselves be made of gold. Therefore, Munbaz made only their handles of gold.

We learned in the Mishna:

Helen, the mother

of Munbaz,

made

a golden nevreshet .

The tanna

taught in a beraita:

When the sun rises,

at sunrise,

rays

of light

would emerge from it,

as the sun rose in the east and shone upon the nevreshet, which stood at the entrance to the Sanctuary, west of the altar,

and everyone would know

then

that the time for reciting the Shema had arrived,

as its time is at sunrise.

Meytivi:

An objection from another beraita:

They taught in a beraita:

One who recites the Shema

in

the morning with the members of the priestly division

[the priests who performed the service in the Temple courtyard ],

and

likewise one who recites it with

the members of the non-priestly watch

[the Israelites who were appointed to be present in the Temple courtyard at the time the daily offering was sacrificed ],

has not fulfilled

the mitzva of reciting it properly ,

because the members of the priestly division rise early,

getting up and reciting it before sunrise,

while

those

members of the non-priestly watch recite it late,

reciting it after sunrise, once they have completed the service of the daily offering.

From this beraita we learn that the members of the priestly division and the members of the non-priestly watch who stood in the Temple courtyard did not recite the Shema at sunrise. Yet in the preceding beraita we learned that when the sun rose, the nevreshet in the Temple courtyard glittered, and everyone knew that the time for reciting the Shema had arrived!

Abaye said:

The answer is: The nevreshet was made

for

the benefit of

the rest of the people of Jerusalem,

the rest of the people of Jerusalem who came to the Temple courtyard but were not occupied with the Temple service; they were obligated to recite the Shema immediately at sunrise.

We learned in the Mishna:

And she too

Helen

made a tablet

of gold, upon which the passage concerning the sota was written.

In tractate Gittin [60a], the tannaim disagreed as to whether it is permitted to write part of the Torah on a scroll for a child, so that he can study from it.

And we infer from our Mishna:

Can you infer from it

that one should learn from the words of our Mishna that

one may write a scroll

for a child to study from it?

For in our Mishna we learned that they wrote the passage concerning the sota [which is only part of the words of the Torah] separately!

And we reject this:

Reish Lakish said in the name of Rabbi Yannai:

The passage concerning the sota was written on the tablet

by the alef-bet,

using only the letters that formed the initial letters. The words were not written out in full.

Meytivi:

An objection to Reish Lakish’s statement from a beraita:

They taught in a beraita:

When he

[the priest]

writes

the passage concerning the sota,

he sees

the passage written on the tablet.

And he writes what is written on the tablet. And what is written on the tablet?

“If a man has lain with you ... and if

he has not lain ... if you have gone astray ... if you have not gone astray ...”

[based on the text in Numbers 5:19–20 ] And it is implied from the beraita that he wrote these words out in full!