Yoma 39a — the Talmud in English

and balsam

whose scent is good.

comes

the purchaser

to measure kerosene, he says to him

the seller:

Measure it for yourself.

[Because its scent is bad, the seller does not wish to touch it].

comes

the purchaser

to measure balsam, he says to him

the seller:

Wait for me until I measure it with you, so that you and I will become scented.

And similarly, one who comes to become impure is not assisted, whereas one who comes to become pure is assisted.

The Gemara brings another beraita of the tanney in the school of Rabbi Ishmael:

The tanney of the school of Rabbi Ishmael:

A transgression dulls —

closes

a person's heart

so that no wisdom may enter it.

As it is stated

[Leviticus 11], concerning the prohibition against eating creeping creatures:

“And you shall not defile yourselves through them, and you shall become defiled through them.” “And you shall become defiled” as written in the Torah is missing the letter aleph

,

therefore, do not read “and you shall become defiled,”

but rather, “and they will dull you.”

And the Gemara brings another beraita that discusses this verse:

The Sages taught:

It is stated:

“And you shall not defile yourselves through them, and you shall become defiled through them,”

and seemingly there is here a repetition of language. [For it was already stated, “And you shall not defile yourselves through them,” and it is obvious that one who becomes defiled is impure].

From here they expounded:

A person

who

defiles

himself

a little,

they defile him —

they give him the possibility of becoming impure

a great deal .

And a person who defiles himself

below

by himself,

they defile him from above

the instigators. [That is, there are many instigators to mislead him. As it is written in Zechariah 3: “And the Adversary was standing at his right hand to accuse him.” Ritva] .

And a person who defiles himself

in this world, they defile him in the World to Come.

The Sages taught:

It is stated [there, Leviticus]:

“And you shall sanctify yourselves and you shall be

holy,”

and seemingly there is here a repetition of language.

From here they expounded:

A person

who

sanctifies

himself

a little, they sanctify him a great deal

as we learned above: one who comes to become pure is assisted. [“And you shall sanctify yourselves” —

a little; “and you shall be holy” — a great deal. Rashi].

A person who sanctifies himself

below

by himself.

They sanctify him

the holy angels

from above

Ritva].

A person who sanctifies himself in this world,

they sanctify him in the World to Come.

We have returned to you, “The appointed one said to them.”

The chapter before us continues to deal with the order of the Yom Kippur service.

In the previous chapter we learned that in the east of the courtyard, north of the altar, they placed the two goats, and there was the lottery box, containing two lots.

And our Mishna explains the order of the lottery:

Mishna:

He snatched

snatched [ [A0010]]seized in his hands the two lots quickly] the two lots that were inside

the lottery box, and raised

the

two

lots

that were in his hands outside the lottery box [one lot in his one hand, and the second lot in his other hand].

One lot

had written upon it, “For the Name” [ [A0020]]the Explicit Name ],

[the explicit Divine Name ],

and

one lot

had written upon it, “For Azazel” .

.

The deputy

of the High Priest was standing

at his right

of the High Priest [

and the head of the “ancestral house” [ [A0031]]the head of the family whose turn it was to serve that day in the Temple ],

stood

to his left.

If

the lot

for the Name came up in his right hand,

the

deputy

standing at his right

would say to him: My master [ [A0043]]my lord]

[my lord],

High Priest! Raise your right hand, so that everyone would know that the lot in the right hand had come up for the Name [Meiri].

so that everyone would know that the lot in his right hand had come up for the Lord [Meiri].

And if

the lot

for the Name came up in his left hand, the head of the ancestral house

standing at his left

would say to him: My master High Priest! Raise your left hand, and everyone would know that the lot in the left hand had come up for it.

so that everyone would know that the lot in his left hand had come up for the Lord.

He placed them [ [A0053]]he placed the two lots]

[he placed the two lots]

upon the two goats.

He placed the lot in his right hand upon the goat at his right, and the lot in his left hand upon the goat at his left.

And he would say [ [A0057]]the High Priest] concerning the goat upon which the lot had come up for it:

[the High Priest] over the goat on which the lot for the Lord had come up:

“A sin-offering for the Name!”

Rabbi Ishmael says: He did not

the High Priest

need to say “

for the Name

a sin-offering,” but only “for the Name”

alone.

And they,

those who heard the Explicit Name as it emerged from the mouth of the High Priest, would prostrate themselves and

respond after it,

when they heard the Name emerge from his mouth:

“Blessed is the Name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.”

Gemara:

We learned in the Mishna that the priest snatched [seized] the lots that were in the lottery box.

And we raise an objection concerning it:

Why do I need him to snatch [the lots] in the lottery box?

Why did the High Priest not take the lots in his usual manner?

And we answer:

So that he would not intend and take—

so that he would not intend to feel with his hands and identify which was the lot for the Name, and take it with his right hand. There is concern that he might do this because, if the lot comes up in the right hand, it is a good sign for Israel. And if he deliberately takes the Name with his right hand, it turns out that he has not fulfilled the mitzva of the lottery.

And now the Gemara describes the lottery box:

Rava said:

The

lottery box was made of wood. And it was unconsecrated

unconsecrated property

it was,

and it was not made from property belonging to the Temple treasury.

And it could contain [ [A0091]]hold]

[hold]

only

the measure needed for inserting

two hands

alone.

And the Gemara continues explaining:

Ravina raised an objection

to Rava’s statement:

Granted,

this is understandable, that the lottery box

could contain only

the measure needed for inserting

two hands

alone,

so that he would not intend and take—

so that he would not be able deliberately to feel with his hands and take the Name with his right hand [since the lottery box was narrow, it was difficult to move his hands inside it].

But,

why did they make the lottery box

unconsecrated?

Let us consecrate it,

let us consecrate it!

And we answer: since the lottery box was made of wood,

if so,

if they were to consecrate it,

it would be

it would turn out that the lottery box was

a wooden service vessel. And

we,

wooden service vessels—

we do not make!

For service vessels are made only of metal. And we object:

Let it be made,

let us make the lottery box of metal

of silver! And

likewise,

let it be made [ [A0129]]let us make it]

[let them make it]

of gold

and let us consecrate it.

And we answer:

The Torah spared the property of Israel.

We learned in the Mishna: And he raised [the High Priest] two lots.

The Gemara brings a beraita that disagrees with this ruling of the Mishna:

Mishna—

not in accordance with this tanna.

Our Mishna is not in accordance with the words of this tanna in the beraita before us:

As it was taught: Rabbi Yehuda says in the name of [ [A0142]]in the name of]

[on behalf of]

Rabbi Eliezer: The deputy and the High Priest insert

each of them

his hand

the right one

into the lottery box.

If the Name comes up in the right hand of the High Priest,

the Name had come up,

the deputy says to him: My master High Priest, raise your right hand!

And if in the right hand of the

the

deputy the Name comes up,

the Name had come up,

the head of the ancestral house says to the High Priest: Speak your words [ [A0157]]your words], and say, “A sin-offering for the Name”!

And we object to the words of the beraita:

Let the deputy say to him

let the deputy say to the High Priest: Speak your words and say, “A sin-offering for the Name”! And why did the head of the ancestral house say this [since he is less important than the deputy]?

And we answer:

Since it did not come up in his hand—

since the Name did not come up in the High Priest’s hand, but rather in the deputy’s hand, if the deputy also says to him, “Say, ‘A sin-offering for the Name’!”

his mind will be weakened [ [A0166]]the High Priest’s spirits will fall].

[the High Priest would become disheartened].

And we raise an objection concerning it:

In what do they disagree,

in what did the tanna of our Mishna [who holds that the High Priest inserted both his hands] and the tanna of the beraita [who holds that the High Priest and the deputy inserted their right hands] disagree?

And we answer:

One master—

the tanna of the beraita—

holds: the right hand of the deputy is preferable,

it is more important

than the left hand of the High Priest.

And

if

the other master—

the tanna of the Mishna—

holds

that the left hand of the High Priest and the right hand of the deputy

are equal,

they are equal in their importance.

And the Gemara clarifies who the tanna was who taught our Mishna:

And we raise an objection concerning it:

And who is this tanna—

who is the tanna

who disagrees

who disputes

with Rabbi Yehuda?

And we answer:

It is Rabbi Hanina, deputy of the priests.

As it was taught: Rabbi Hanina, deputy of the priests, says: Why

did

the deputy

stand at the right of the High Priest? Because

if disqualification occurred in the priest

the

High Priest,

he would

enter,

the

deputy, and serve in his place.

It follows that before disqualification occurred in the High Priest, the deputy did not perform any service at all. From here, the High Priest himself raised both lots, whereas the deputy did not raise even one lot.

And we learned from the Gemara’s words that it was a good sign for Israel when the Name came up in the High Priest’s right hand. And the Gemara brings several beraitot concerning this:

The Sages taught:

The beraita recounts the greatness of Shimon the Righteous: during the time that he served as High Priest, five miracles occurred for Israel:

a. During those

forty years that he served

in them

Shimon the Righteous

as High Priest,

the lot

for the Name

would always come up

always

on the right.

But

from then onward,

after Shimon the Righteous died,

sometimes

the lot for the Name

would come up on the right,

and

sometimes

it would come up

on the left.

b.

And

during the years of Shimon the Righteous’s priesthood,

the strip of crimson wool

that was at the head of the scapegoat

would always turn white, and this was a sign that the Holy One, blessed is He, had forgiven Israel.

But

from then onward,

after he died,

sometimes

the strip

would turn white, and sometimes it would not turn white.

3.

And

during the years of the service of Shimon the Just

the western lamp

in the menorah

was burning

longer than the other lamps of the menorah. For the other lamps burned from evening until morning, whereas the western lamp burned from evening until the following evening [Ritva in explanation of Rashi’s words but

from then onward

after he died,

sometimes it burned, sometimes it went out

like the other lamps.

4.

And

at the time of Shimon the Just

the fire of the pyre

[which was at the top of the altar]

grew strong

and burned well all day,

and the

priests

did not need to bring wood

during the day and add it

to the pyre, apart from two logs of wood

which the priests added to the pyre between the evenings

in order to fulfill the mitzva of “

And the priest shall place upon it

wood”

[from which they learned that one must add to the burning pyre two logs of wood before the afternoon tamid offering].

But,

from then onward,

after Shimon the Just died,

sometimes

the fire

grew strong,

and sometimes

it did not grow strong.

And the

priests

did not refrain from bringing wood

and adding it

to the pyre

during

the entire day

in order to strengthen the fire.