Yoma 37b — the Talmud in English

Abaye said:

The answer: our Mishna spoke

of the handles of knives,

since the knives themselves cannot be made of gold. [Because gold is not sufficiently strong to cut with it.] But other vessels in the Temple, Munbaz made even the vessels themselves of gold.

It was objected:

An objection to Abaye's words from a beraita: It was taught in a beraita:

He too

Munbaz,

made the bases of

the

vessels,

the bases of the vessels,

and the grips of the vessels [

their places of holding],

and the handles

of the

vessels, and the handles

of the

knives of Yom Kippur, of gold.

And since it was stated in the beraita, “the handles of the vessels and the handles of the knives,” it is proved that the handles of the vessels are not the handles of the knives. Rather, they are the handles of other vessels that can themselves be made of gold, and nevertheless Munbaz did not make them of gold. And this is not in accordance with Abaye's words!

He explained

He interpreted

Abaye:

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

to the handles of axes and sickles

the handles of axes and sickles, which cannot themselves be made of gold. Therefore, Munbaz made only their handles of gold .

We learned in the Mishna:

Heleni, his mother

of Munbaz,

made

a golden lamp .

A tannai

in a beraita:

When the sun shines

at the time of sunrise,

sparks

of light

would emerge from it

when the sun shone from the east upon the lamp that stood at the entrance of the Sanctuary, which was west of the altar,

and everyone would know

then

that the time for reciting the Shema had arrived,

for its time is at sunrise.

It was objected:

An objection from another beraita:

It was taught in a beraita:

One who recites the Shema

in

the morning with the men of the watch [

the priests who performed the service in the courtyard ],

and

likewise one who recites it with

the men of the standing [

the Israelites who were appointed to be present in the courtyard at the time of the offering of the daily offering ]

has not fulfilled

the mitzva of recitation properly ,

because the men of the watch rise early,

they rise early and recite it before sunrise,

and

whereas

the men of the standing delay,

and recite it after sunrise, after they have completed the service of the daily offering.

And from this beraita we learned that the men of the watch and the men of the standing who stood in the courtyard did not recite the Shema at sunrise. Yet in the earlier beraita we learned that when the sun rose, the lamp in the courtyard sparkled, and everyone knew that the time for reciting the Shema had arrived!

Abaye said

The answer: The lamp was made

for

the benefit of

the rest of the people of Jerusalem,

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

We learned in the Mishna:

And she too

Heleni

made a tablet

of gold, upon which the passage of the sotah was written.

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

And we infer from our Mishna:

Can you learn from it

whether you will learn from the words of our Mishna that

one writes a scroll

for a child to study from it?

For in our Mishna we learned that they wrote the passage of the sotah [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 of the sotah was written on the tablet

in acrostic letters,

in letters that were only the initials of the words. And all the words were not written in full.

It was objected

An objection to the words of Reish Lakish from a beraita:

It was taught in a beraita:

When he [

when the priest]

writes

the passage of the sotah,

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 what is written in Numbers 5:19–20 ] And it follows from the beraita that he would write these words in full!