Yoma 4a (ד.) — the Talmud in English

because he is concerned

about impurity in his household.

That is, one must be concerned that he may need to be intimate with his wife and discover that she is a menstruant, in which case he would be impure for seven days, as is the law concerning one who has intercourse with a menstruant. Therefore, he must be separated from his home for seven days.

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

separation

from the inauguration,

it works out well;

this is what is taught:

Both this one—

the High Priest before Yom Kippur and the priest who burns the red heifer—

are sprinkled upon every

day of the

seven

days of separation with the water of purification,

from all

the water of

the purification offerings that were there.

According to my approach, the sprinkling is understandable, since

there was also a sprinkling

[of blood] upon Aaron

during the inauguration.

But according to you,

Reish Lakish,

who derive

separation

from Sinai,

there is a difficulty:

Was there sprinkling at Sinai—

was there such a thing?

He said to him,

Reish Lakish:

And according to your approach, is it satisfactory?

After all,

during the inauguration

there was sprinkling of

blood.

But

here,

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

water!?

Rabbi Yohanan said to Reish Lakish:

This is not difficult.

For Rabbi Hiyya taught: The water

of the red heifer, after the Jewish people had been commanded concerning it and had prepared it,

entered in place of

the

blood

that was sprinkled during the seven days of the inauguration. For the first red heifer was prepared only on the day after the eighth day of the inauguration, on the second day of the month of Nisan; therefore, blood was sprinkled upon Aaron and his sons in place of the water of the red heifer.

And it is therefore proper to derive the sprinkling of water in this separation from the sprinkling of blood during the separation of the inauguration, even though the sprinklings are not entirely alike.

But according to you,

who derived the law of separation from Sinai, there is a difficulty: Is it the case that

there was any 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 it was already explained concerning the red heifer that many added stringencies were imposed in its observance because they were lenient in declaring the priest who burns it impure; and on Yom Kippur as well, they imposed this added stringency in honor of the one who enters the Divine Presence, into the innermost part of the Sanctuary.

A beraita was taught in accordance with the view of Rabbi Yohanan,

who derives the law of separation from the inauguration.

And a beraita was taught in accordance with the view of Reish Lakish,

who derives it from Sinai.

A beraita was taught in accordance with the view of 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 derive from the word “with this” that his entry into the Sanctuary is only

with what is stated in the passage,

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 passage concerning the inauguration?

The answer is found in the continuation of the beraita:

Aaron separated

from his home to the Tent of Meeting for

seven

days,

and

afterward—on the eighth day—

he performed the service for one day.

And Moses transmitted to him

the laws of the offerings

throughout

those

seven

days during which he was separated,

in order to train him in the service.

And for all generations as well,

the

priest

the

High

separates from his home to the Temple for

seven

days,

and

he shall

perform the service—

on

one day,

on Yom Kippur.

And there is another matter practiced in the Yom Kippur service: Since there were Sadducees during the Second Temple period who did not believe in the Oral Torah transmitted to Moses at Sinai, and interpreted the Written Torah according to their own wishes, altering the procedure concerning bringing the incense into the Holy of Holies, and

therefore the Sages enacted that

two Torah scholars,

who were

among the disciples of Moses—

for they had received the Oral Torah from their teachers, and their teachers from their teachers, each man from his predecessor, all the way back to Moses our teacher—and specifically these men,

to exclude the Sadducees,

would

transmit to him

the laws of the service accurately

throughout the 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 home to the Chamber of the Parhedrin.

And just as they separate the High Priest

before Yom Kippur, so too the Sages enacted, as a mere added stringency, that they should

separate the priest who burns the red heifer to the chamber facing the Temple,

at the

northeastern corner.

corner.

And both this one and that one are sprinkled upon every

one of those

seven

days

with

the ashes of

all the purification offerings that were

stored

there.

And if you say:

From where do we derive this sprinkling? After all,

during the inauguration

the sprinkling was from

the

blood, while

here

he sprinkles

water?

You must say [that is, infer from this]:

Say from now on,

the water entered in place of the blood.

And it says

the verse in the section of the inauguration:

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

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

Therefore, the Sages associated their enactment concerning the law of separation for the red heifer with this verse, and expounded it as follows:

“To do”—this refers to the preparation of the red heifer; “to make atonement”—this refers to the Yom Kippur service.

And we raise a difficulty: How does he derive from “with this” that the verse alludes to the separation stated in the passage concerning the inauguration?

And

this,

this

verse of

“with this” is needed for its own matter,

to teach that he was permitted to enter only

with

offerings, namely

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

And we answer:

They said: These offerings are male animals, and

These offerings are male animals, and

if

the verse came only

to

obligate him to bring

an offering alone, the verse should have said, “with this,”

which would mean with this offering,

or with these

offerings, which would mean with these offerings.

What is the meaning of “with this,”

which is feminine in form? Rather, it necessarily follows that

you learn two things,

that in addition to the offerings he is obligated to bring, a law of separation is also alluded to here, as separation is feminine in form.

And we inquire:

Why

was it necessary to state

“And it says”

“As he did, to make atonement for you”? Why is the first exposition from “With this shall Aaron enter” not sufficient?

And we answer: This is what the tanna is saying:

And if you would say

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

the first Yom Kippur

[alone]

is

stated for Aaron the priest,

who requires

separation

in it,

as we find

a similar case

during the inauguration,

since that too was the first occurrence.

But concerning ordinary Yom Kippur

[in subsequent years],

not

should we require him to separate.

Alternatively,

even if it is stated with regard to the other Yom Kippurs as well, it can still be said that it was stated only concerning

the first High Priest

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

he requires separation,

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

For this reason, the tanna says:

Come and hear: “As he did”—“the Lord commanded to do, to make atonement for you,” teaching us that we were commanded for all generations that all High Priests who come after Aaron require separation before the Yom Kippur service of every year.

—“He has commanded to do, to make atonement for you”—to teach us that for all generations we are commanded that every High Priest who succeeds Aaron must undergo separation before performing the Yom Kippur service each year.

A beraita was taught in accordance with the view of 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 disputed the interpretation of the verses in the section of Mishpatim:

“Moses ascended 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.”

The question is whether the verse refers to Moses’ ascent of Mount Sinai before the giving of the Torah on the festival of Shavuot, or to 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 about their separation and their boundary around the mountain. Rather,

this was an event

during the days

after the Ten Commandments,

which were given 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 Divine Presence’s camp on the mountain, to receive the Tablets and bring them down to Israel.

These are the words of Rabbi Yosei the Galilean.

According to his view, those six days were Moses’ days of separation, from which we derive that anyone who enters the Divine Presence’s camp requires six days of separation; this is therefore in accordance with the view of Reish Lakish.

Rabbi Akiva says:

Those six days about which the verse says

“And the glory of the Lord rested”—

were before the Ten Commandments. They were the six days

from the beginning of the month

of Sivan, during which the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded Israel through Moses to receive the Torah; and the cloud did not cover Moses.