Yoma 4a — the Talmud in English

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for the impurity of his household.

That is, one must be concerned lest he require his wife and she be found to be a menstruant, and he will thereby be impure for seven days, according to the law of one who has intercourse with a menstruant. Therefore, he must be separated from his household for seven days.

Rabbi Yohanan said to Reish Lakish: Granted according to me, who derive

separation

from the inauguration,

it is well;

this is what is taught:

Both this one—

the High Priest before Yom Kippur, and the priest who burns the cow—

are sprinkled upon every

day of

the seven

days of separation with water of purification,

from all

the water of

the purification offerings that were there.

And according to my view, the sprinkling is understandable, since

there was also sprinkling

[of blood] upon Aaron

during the inauguration.

But according to you,

Reish Lakish,

who derive

separation

from Sinai,

you will have a difficulty:

Sprinkling at Sinai—

was there such a thing?

He said to him,

Reish Lakish:

And according to your reasoning, is it satisfactory?

For

during the inauguration

there was sprinkling of

blood.

But

here,

in the separation of the High Priest or the priest who burns the cow, the sprinkling is of

water!?

Rabbi Yohanan said to Reish Lakish:

This is not difficult.

For Rabbi Hiyya taught: Water

of the red cow entered, after they were commanded concerning it and made it,

in place of

the

blood

with which they sprinkled during the seven days of the inauguration. Since the first red cow was made only on the day after the eighth day of the inauguration, on the second day of the month of Nisan, they sprinkled blood upon Aaron and his sons in place of water of the red cow.

And it is well that we learn the sprinkling of water in this separation from the sprinkling of blood in the separation of the inauguration, even though the sprinklings are not entirely alike.

But according to you,

who learned the law of separation from Sinai, you will have a difficulty: Is it the case that

there was sprinkling at Sinai

at all!?

Reish Lakish said to him:

These sprinklings are not an essential part of the law of separation; rather, they are

merely an added stringency.

For concerning the red cow it was already explained that they imposed many added stringencies in it because of the leniency they extended in rendering the priest who burns it impure; and even on Yom Kippur they imposed this added stringency, in honor of the one who enters the camp of the Divine Presence, into the innermost place.

A beraita is taught in accordance with Rabbi Yohanan,

who derives the law of separation from the inauguration.

And a beraita is taught in accordance with Reish Lakish,

who derives it from Sinai.

A beraita is taught in accordance with Rabbi Yohanan:

It is written at the beginning of the section concerning the Yom Kippur service,

“With this shall Aaron enter the Sanctuary,”

and we expound from the word “with this” that his entry into the Sanctuary is only

with what is stated in the matter,

above, in this section.

And the Gemara explains this matter:

What is it?—

The matter of the inauguration.

And what is

the law

stated in the matter of the inauguration?

And the answer is in the continuation of the beraita:

Aaron separated

from his household to the Tent of Meeting

for seven

days,

and

afterward—on the eighth day—

he served for one day.

And Moses transmitted to him

the laws of the offerings

all

those

seven

days during which he was separated,

in order to train him in the service.

And for future generations as well,

the

High

the

Priest

separates from his household to the Temple

for seven

days,

and

he shall

serve—

on Yom Kippur—

for one day.

Another matter applies to the Yom Kippur service: Since there were Sadducees in the days of the Second Temple, who did not believe in the Oral Torah transmitted to Moses at Sinai, and interpreted the Written Torah according to their will, changing it with regard to bringing the incense into the Holy of Holies,

and

therefore, they enacted that

two Torah scholars

who were

among the disciples of Moses,

for they received the Oral Torah from their teachers, and their teachers from their teachers, each man from the mouth of another, back to Moses our master—and specifically these,

to exclude the Sadducees—

would

transmit to him

the laws of the service in accordance with their true form

for all seven

days,

in order to train him in the service.

From here they said: Seven days before Yom Kippur they separate the High Priest from his household to the Chamber of the Parhedrin.

And just as they separate the High Priest

before Yom Kippur, so the Sages enacted, as merely an added stringency, that they would

separate the priest who burns the cow to the chamber facing the Temple courtyard,

at the

northeastern

corner.

And both this one and that one are sprinkled upon every

one of those

seven

days

from

the ashes of

all the purification offerings that were

stored

there.

And if you say:

From where do you derive this sprinkling? For

during the inauguration

the sprinkling was from

the

blood,

whereas here

he sprinkles

water?

You have said

[say from now on],

water entered in place of blood.

And it says,

as the verse states in the section of the inauguration:

“As he has done on this day, the Lord has commanded to do, to make atonement for you.”

And the Sages derived from this verse the law of separation for Yom Kippur.

And therefore the Sages connected their enactment to this verse, to the law of separation for the red cow, and expounded it as follows:

“‘To do’—this refers to the act of the cow; ‘to make atonement’—this refers to the act of Yom Kippur.”

And we raise an objection: How does he expound “with this,” that the verse hints to the separation stated in the matter of the inauguration?

And

this

particular

verse of

“with this” is needed for its own subject,

for he was permitted to enter only

with

the offerings, which are

a bull calf as a sin offering and a ram as a burnt offering.

And we answer:

They said: These offerings are males, and

These offerings are male animals, and

if

the verse came only

to

obligate him in

a single offering, let the verse say, “with this one,”

which would mean with this offering,

or “with these,”

which would mean with these offerings.

What is “with this,”

which is feminine in form? Rather, it necessarily follows

that you hear two things from it:

that besides the offerings he is obligated to bring, the law of separation is also hinted here, which is expressed in the feminine form.

And we inquire about it:

Why

was it necessary?

And it says,

“As he has done, to make atonement for you”? And why is the first exposition, “With this shall Aaron enter,” not sufficient for him?

And we answer: This is what the tan[n]ai says:

And if you would say

that this exposition, learned from the verse “With this shall Aaron enter,” concerning

the first Yom Kippur

[only]

is

stated to Aaron the priest,

who requires

separation

for it,

as we find

its parallel

in the inauguration,

for they too were the first;

but concerning ordinary Yom Kippur

[in other years],

not

would it require us to separate.

Alternatively,

even if it is stated regarding the other Yom Kippurs, it can still be said that it was stated only concerning

the first High Priest

[the first]—who was Aaron the priest—and

he is the one who requires separation,

but an ordinary High Priest [in subsequent generations] did not need to separate.

For this reason the tan[n]ai says:

Come and hear: “As he has done—

“He has commanded to do, to make atonement for you”—to teach us that we were commanded for future generations that all the High Priests who come after Aaron require separation before the Yom Kippur service of every year.”

A beraita is taught in accordance with Reish Lakish: Moses ascended in a cloud, was covered by a cloud, and was sanctified in a cloud, in order to receive the Torah for Israel in sanctity.

As it is stated: “And the glory of the Lord rested upon Mount Sinai.”

And the tannaim disagreed in the interpretation of the verses in the section of Mishpatim: “

And Moses ascended to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. And the glory of the Lord rested upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days, and He called to Moses on the seventh day from within the cloud.”

Is the verse speaking of Moses’ ascent to Mount Sinai before the giving of the Torah on the festival of Shavuot, or of his ascent after the giving of the Torah, at the beginning of the forty days? “

‘Six days’—these are not the six days from the beginning of the month of Sivan until the day of the giving of the Torah, during which Moses ascended and descended to warn Israel concerning their separation and their restriction from the mountain; rather,

this was an event

during the days

after the Ten Commandments,

which were said on the day of the giving of the Torah.

For they were

these days

the beginning of the forty days

during which he was in the camp of the Divine Presence on the mountain, to receive the tablets and bring them down to Israel,

the words of Rabbi Yosei the Galilean.

And according to his view, those six days are the days of Moses’ separation, from which we learn that anyone who enters the camp of the Divine Presence requires separation for six days; and this is in accordance with the view of Reish Lakish.

Rabbi Akiva says:

Those six days about which the verse said

“And the glory of the Lord rested”—

were before the Ten Commandments. And they are the six days

from the beginning of the month

of Sivan, when the Holy One, blessed is He, commanded Israel through Moses to receive the Torah, and the cloud did not cover Moses.