Yoma 53b — the Talmud in English

They said to Rav Yosef, who did not see Rava’s actions because he was blind

this is how Rava acted.

“This is how Rava acted” [

this is what Rava did].

He said to him—Rav Yosef blessed Rava:

Rav Yosef blessed Rava:

“May it be the will that your head be raised over the entire district” [

may it be the will that your head be raised over the entire district], meaning: You shall be the head of the yeshiva of the district.

Rabbi Alexandri said in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: One who prays must take three steps backward, and afterward give greeting,

as we say, “He who makes peace.”

He said

he added,

Rav Mordekhai:

Once he has taken three steps backward, there he ought to remain standing [

he must stand in his place] where the steps end, and not return immediately [Rashi], but he should wait until the Kedusha [Rabbeinu Yonah; and see the Tur and the Shulchan Arukh].

This is analogous to a student taking leave of his teacher: if he returns immediately, he resembles a dog that returns to its vomit,

for the end proves concerning the beginning that he did not step backward in order to take leave of his teacher, since he returned to him immediately [Tur, section 123].

It was also taught likewise,

as Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said:

“One who prays must take three steps backward and afterward give greeting; and if he did not do so,”

he appears like one who did not request permission to take leave [Rashi],

and it would have been preferable for him not to have prayed,

it would have been better for him had he not prayed.

And because of

Rav

Bach,

Shemaiah they said: When he gives

greeting to the right,

by turning his face toward the right of the Holy One, Blessed be He, which is the worshiper's left, as will be explained, and says: “He who makes peace in His heights”;

and afterward

he turns his face

to the left

of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and says: “May He make peace” [Tur].

As it is stated,

for the right is superior:

“From His right”

of the Holy One, Blessed be He,

“a fiery law for them,”

the Tablets were given to Israel.

And it says: “A thousand may fall at your side” [

at your left]

“and ten thousand” [

ten thousand]

“at your right,”

so the right bears ten thousand harmful beings, while the left bears only a thousand.

What is the purpose of “and it says”?

Why is another verse needed to prove that the right is superior?!

And if you would say,

perhaps you will reject this and say:

“It is the way of the matter to sit on the right” [

it is customary to place something on the right], since the right is always prepared for use, and therefore the Tablets were given on the right, and not because of its importance—

therefore

come and hear,

another verse:

“A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right.”

Rava [

Rabba,

Ya’avetz]

saw Abaye giving greeting to the right first [

he saw Abaye, who was giving greeting at the end of the prayer—to his own right first]—

He said to him,

Rabba:

“Do you think [it means] to your right,

do you think that one must first give greeting to his own right?! It is not so; rather,

to your left ,

which is the right of the Holy One, Blessed be He,

for the one praying sees himself as though the Divine Presence is opposite his face, as it is stated: “I have set the Lord before me always” [Rashi].

Rav Hiyya, son of Rav Huna, said: I saw Abaye and Rava

after their prayer,

taking their three steps in one bow,

for they would bow and would not straighten up until they had finished taking the steps [Ra”l].

We learned in the Mishna:

“And he prays a short prayer in the outer chamber”:

What did he pray?

What did the High Priest pray in the outer chamber?

Rava bar Rav Adda and Ravin bar Rav Adda, both in the name of Rav—

said:

“May it be the will before You, Lord our God, that this year be rainy and hot” [

warm].

And we question: Is it that a year

being hot is an advantage [

a good thing]?!

Rather, say: If

this year was

hot, may it be rainy,

so that the Name should equalize the character of that year; and this is a great benefit encompassing man and animal, for when the air is equal in its character, it heals the bodies of sick human beings and preserves the health of the healthy [Rambam in his commentary on the Mishna].

Rav Aḥa, son of Rava, concluded it

in the prayer of the High Priest

in the name of Rav Yehuda: “May the ruler not depart” [

may the maker of government not depart]

from the house of Judah,

meaning: May sovereignty not depart from the tribe of Judah, so that the kingdom of righteousness and faithfulness may endure [Rambam, there]—

“And may Your people Israel not need to support one another,”

meaning: May the Name correct the deeds of each and every person and make his deeds and merchandise successful, so that he will not need to ask and request from another [Rambam, there] .

“And may the prayer of travelers not enter before You,”

those who pray that rains which trouble them should not fall.

Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa was walking along the road, and rain fell upon him [

he was walking on the road and rains fell upon him]—

he said: “Master of the world, the entire world is at ease, and Hanina is in distress?!”

The rain stopped [

the rains stopped].

When he came to his house [

when he arrived at his house],

he said: “Master of the world, the entire world is in distress”

from lack of rain,

and Hanina,

who has no sowing in the fields requiring rain—

is at ease?!

The rain came [

the rains began falling again].

Rav Yosef said: “What benefit did the prayer of the High Priest have,”

what benefit was there in the prayer of the High Priest, who prayed that the prayer of travelers not be accepted,

with regard to Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa,

who nullified it [Ra”l].

The Sages taught: An incident involving one High Priest

Shimon the Righteous [Jerusalem Talmud]

who prolonged his prayer

on the Day of Atonement,

and his fellow priests decided

unanimously [Ra”l] and resolved

to enter after him; they began entering, and he was going out

to meet them.

They said to him: “Why did you prolong your prayer?!”

He said to them:

But is it

difficult in your eyes that I prayed for you and for the Temple, that it should not be destroyed?!

They said to him: “Do not make a practice of doing so, for we learned

in our Mishna:

‘He would not prolong his prayer, so as not to frighten Israel.’”

Mishna:

“Once the Ark was removed”

from the Holy of Holies and exiled to Babylon at the destruction of the First Temple , and since that was so, he did not place the fire-pan between the poles [Meiri; and as the Gemara explains, according to our Mishna, the Ark was exiled and not hidden]—

Rather,

there was a stone

in the Holy of Holies, upon which the Ark had rested until it was removed [Rashi, Sanhedrin 26b], and it was revealed [Tiferet Yisrael]

from the days of the early prophets,

David and Samuel,

and it was called the Foundation Stone [

the Gemara explains why it was called this]—

And the stone

was three fingerbreadths higher than the ground, and upon it he would place

the fire-pan of coals and heap the incense into it. After the High Priest completed the incense service and prayed in the Sanctuary, the High Priest went out to the courtyard and

took the

basin containing

the blood

of the bull,

from the one who was stirring [

mixing]

it

in the courtyard until the priest completed the incense service, so that it would not congeal, as we learned in the Mishna above, 43b.

He entered,

the High Priest with the basin,

into

that

place into which he entered

for the burning of the incense—that is, the Holy of Holies,

and stood in the place where he stood

between the poles [Rashi ].

And he sprinkled from it,

from the blood of the bull, toward the cover

once upward and seven times downward,

one below the other [Rashi in several places]—

And he did not intend to sprinkle

on the cover itself,

neither upward

on the edge of the cover,

nor downward, but rather like one who lashes,

the drops fell on the ground in a row, one beneath the other—all eight sprinklings [Rashi; and he added: As for “like one who lashes,” I do not know its language].

And this is how he counted:

when he performed the first sprinkling upward, he counted (\170):

“One”—

And when he sprinkled the first of the series of seven sprinklings below, he counted:

“One and one,”

that is to say: the one that I sprinkled above and this one below that I am sprinkling now—

And when he sprinkled the second below, he counted:

“One and two;”

and so on:

“One and three, one and four, one and five, one and six, one and seven.”

He went out—

from the Holy of Holies to the Sanctuary—

and placed it

the basin containing the remainder of the bull’s blood

on the second [golden stand] in the Sanctuary,

which is a designated place for placing the basin [Meiri].

The High Priest went out from the Sanctuary to the courtyard, before performing the sprinklings from the bull upon the curtain [Meiri], and there

they brought him the goat

upon which the lot had come up “for the Lord”;

he slaughtered it, and received its blood in the basin—

He entered the place into which he entered

for the burning of the incense and the sprinkling of the bull’s blood in the Holy of Holies,

and stood in the place where he stood

between the poles—

And he sprinkled from it,

from the blood of the goat, just as he had sprinkled from the blood of the bull,

once upward and seven times downward, [

and he did not intend to sprinkle neither upward nor downward, but rather like one who lashes,

the Gaon of Vilna];

and this is how he counted: “One, one and one, one and two,”

one and three, one and four, one and five, one and six, one and seven—everything in the same manner as the blood of the bull, exactly alike [Meiri].

He went out and placed it

in the basin containing the blood of the goat

on the second golden stand in the Sanctuary.

Rabbi Yehuda says: There was only one stand there,

and when he came to place the blood of the goat,

he took

first, from the stand,

the blood of the bull, and placed

upon it

the blood of the goat.

But according to the Sages, he first placed the blood of the goat on the second stand, and afterward took the blood of the bull from the first stand [Gemara 56b]—

And he sprinkled from it,

from the blood of the bull,

upon the curtain

that was opposite the Ark

from outside

the Holy of Holies,

once upward and seven times downward, and he did not intend

to sprinkle neither upward nor downward, but rather like one who lashes;

and this is how he counted:

one, one and one, one and two, one and three, one and four, one and five, one and six, one and seven.

He took the blood of the goat

from the stand,

and placed

upon it

the blood of the bull, and sprinkled from it

of the blood of the goat

on the parochet opposite the Ark, from outside, once above and seven below;

and he did not intend to sprinkle either above or below, but as one who lashes; and thus he would count: one; one and one; one and two; one and three; one and four; one and five; one and six; one and seven.

When he finished all the sprinklings—

he poured

that is, he poured

the blood of the bull into

the vessel in which there was

the blood of the goat ,

and he again

placed [

that is, poured]

the full one

in which was all the blood

into the

empty

vessel

in order to mix them well; as it is stated: “And he shall take of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat” [of the blood of both of them together] “and place it on the horns of the altar” [the inner one] “round about.”

Gemara:

We learned in the Mishna: “Once the Ark was removed”:

And we infer:

“Once it was hidden”

the Ark

it does not teach, but rather, “Once it was removed”

the Ark; it follows that

we learned

in our Mishna

in accordance with the one who says: The Ark was exiled to Babylonia

and was not hidden.

For it was taught in a beraita: Rabbi Eliezer says:

The Ark was exiled to Babylonia, as it is stated:

“Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and so on. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia, came up against him and bound him in copper fetters, and so on. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.”

And at the return of the year [

at the end of that year in which he exiled Jehoiakim his father]

the king Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him [

King Jehoiachin]

to Babylonia, [

together]

with the precious vessels of the House of the Lord,

which is the Ark.

Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai

he too

says:

The Ark was exiled to Babylonia

and from another verse,

as it is stated:

“And Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him: What did these men say, and so on. And he said: What did they see in your house? And Hezekiah said: Everything that is in my house they saw; there was no ‘thing’ that they did not see in my treasuries” [he showed them the Torah scroll in the Ark]. “And Isaiah said to Hezekiah, and so on. Behold, days are coming, and everything that is in your house and that your fathers stored up until this day shall be carried off to Babylonia,”

not one more “thing,” said the Lord

these are the Ten “Commandments” that are in it,

that is: the “thing” that he showed them [as explained according to the Maharsha].

Rabbi Judah

disagrees and

says:

The Ark, in its place

in the Holy of Holies,

was hidden, as it is stated: “And the rods were lengthened” [

Rashi and the Dikdukei Soferim]

“and the heads of the rods could be seen from the holy place upon the face of the devir” [

the Holy of Holies, in translation]

“but they could not be seen outside.”

And since he said: “until this day,” it follows that even today it is there, hidden in its place [and in the Gemara below this is explained thus].

And it disputes

what is stated in the beraita, that the view of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai is that the Ark was exiled to Babylonia,

with Ulla—

as Ulla said:

Rabbi Mattia ben Heresh asked Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai in Rome

when he went there to annul decrees [R. A. L.]:

But since Rabbi Eliezer teaches us, once

and

a second time,

that is, from two verses:

“The Ark was exiled to Babylonia [“

you—Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai—what do you say?”].

And we first explain and afterward conclude Rabbi Mattia’s words: It is understandable, the

first

verse, the first verse from which Rabbi Eliezer learned that the Ark was exiled to Babylonia, namely,

the one we stated: “And he brought him to Babylonia with the precious vessels of the House of the Lord.”

But the

second

—the second verse—

what is it?