Yoma 48b — the Talmud in English

He calculated

a pigul intention

while scooping coals—what is the law

that the incense should become disqualified? [And in another wording Rashi explained: What is the law that the coals should become disqualified?]; that is to say: Is scooping the coals an “avoda” or not?

Accessories of a mitzva

are the coals, which are accessories of the incense, whose essential mitzva is the burning

are considered like the mitzva itself,

and just as an intention disqualifies through the taking of the incense in order to disqualify the incense, so an intention is effective through scooping the coals to disqualify the incense [or the coals]]

or not.

(They asked)

they asked

the members of the academy

of Rav Sheshet:

There are four rites with the blood:

a.

Slaughtering,

and it is valid even when performed by a non-koen, and all the more so with the left hand.

b.

Receiving the blood and sanctifying it in a vessel,

and it is valid only when performed by a koen, as it is stated: “And he shall slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and the sons of Aharon, the koanim, shall bring the blood”; for although the Torah said “and they shall bring,” which is an expression of carrying, the verse intends only receiving, since it was written after slaughtering, and there is no carrying unless he received the blood [Rashi, Hagiga 11a

And since an expression of “priesthood” was stated with regard to receiving, it is valid only with the right hand, for so the Sages received: Wherever it says “finger” or “priesthood,” it refers only to the right.

c.

Carrying the blood for sprinkling upon the altar,

it is valid only when performed by a koen, and this is learned from the fact that the Torah wrote the rite of receiving in the expression “and they shall bring,” which is an expression of carrying; and the law of the rite of carrying with the left hand is explained in the sugya before us.

d.

Sprinkling,

and it is valid only when performed by a koen, as it is stated: “And the sons of Aharon, the koanim, shall bring the blood and sprinkle—the koanim—the blood upon the altar around”; and since this is so, it too is valid only with the right hand, since priesthood was stated with regard to it.

Carrying

the blood—it was not explicitly stated with regard to it in the expression “priesthood,” because the principal meaning of the verse, “And the sons of Aharon, the koanim, shall bring the blood,” was stated concerning receiving the blood and not concerning carrying, although the Sages expounded it concerning carrying—which is performed

with the left hand, what is the law

that it should be valid?

Rav Sheshet said to them: You have learned it

as an answer to your question in our Mishna, for we learned:

He took the coal-pan

of coals

in his right hand, and the ladle

with the incense

in his left,

thus carrying with the left hand is valid.

And we raise an objection concerning Rav Sheshet, who resolved the doubt that they had raised concerning the blood of the sacrifice from the incense, which is not a sacrifice:

And Rav Sheshet should have resolved it for them

Rab Sheshet

from that which we learned

in tractate Tamid concerning the sacrifice itself—in the order of carrying the limbs of the daily offering to the ramp in order to burn them upon the altar:

The first one—who was privileged by the lottery to bring the limbs up to the ramp—was privileged [with] the head and the right leg; the head—he received it from the one who cut up the limbs—in his right hand, etc., and

the right leg in the left hand[

and]—

And

he carries the leg with

its place of skin

—the side that had been covered with skin before the flaying, that is to say: not at the place of the cut—

outward;

whereas the place of the cut is inward, toward the koen, for this is the proper manner.

We have thus learned: carrying is valid with the left hand; and why did Rav Sheshet not resolve the question directly from this Mishna, which speaks of a sacrifice and not of incense?!

And we answer:

If [you derive it] from there

—from the Mishna in Tamid, which speaks of carrying limbs for burning upon the altar—it is still not possible to compel the conclusion concerning carrying blood for sprinkling, that it should be valid with the left hand, because

I might have said: This applies

—that we rendered valid with the left hand—

to the carrying

of limbs

whose

burning does not prevent

atonement,

because there is atonement only through the blood, and if its limbs were not burned, the offering is valid.

But the carrying of blood, since

the sprinkling of

blood prevents atonement, it is atonement,

I might have said that

it does not.

Therefore

he teaches us

Rav Sheshet that even such carrying is valid with the left hand, for the burning of the incense on Yom Kippur is indispensable, and nevertheless its carrying is valid with the left hand.