Yoma 57a — the Talmud in English

Now surely you are impure

now you are certainly impure, and therefore the Divine Presence does not dwell among you

for

this

is written: “Her impurity”—

of the Congregation of Israel—

“in her skirts”

at her end, that is to say: now

explained Maharsha: His intention is to say: even though you had been pure, now, in the exile, you have become certainly impure, for it is written: “Her impurity is in her skirts,” and He separates Himself from you as one who separates from a menstruant woman ; and he said to him: What is written concerning them? “Who dwells with them,” and so forth—that He does not separate completely, but rather as one who separates from his menstruant wife, who lives with her in one house; so too, the Holy One, blessed be He, dwells with us even now in exile, as it is said: “I am with him in distress.” He said to him

Rabbi Hanina to that sectarian:

Come see

come and see

what is written concerning them

concerning Israel:

“Who dwells with them within their impurities”

even when they are impure, the Divine Presence dwells among them.

And here the Gemara returns to the beraita that it brought, for we learned from “And so shall he do to the Tent of Meeting” concerning all the sprinklings of the bull and the goat inside, that he shall perform them also in the Tent of Meeting; and we wondered:

And does a matter learned by a hekesh

that is, the number of sprinklings above concerning the bull, which is not written in it itself and is learned by a hekesh from the goat, and the number of sprinklings below concerning the goat, which is not written in it itself and is learned from the bull by a hekesh

return and teach

concerning the number of sprinklings in the Sanctuary

by a hekesh

of “And so shall he do to the Tent of Meeting”?!

But we hold as an established principle concerning sacrificial matters: a matter learned by a hekesh does not return and teach by a hekesh.

And we answer:

this

the teaching by which we learned the bull and the goat from one another, since it does not teach the essential law of the sprinklings—for these are written each in its own body—but rather the number of the sprinklings; this teaching is called

“from it”

it is learned from itself

and

with the assistance of a hekesh from

“another matter”

the body of the sprinkling is from itself, while its number is from another place by a hekesh

and

this teaching

is not a “hekesh

,” and it therefore returns and teaches by a hekesh.

And still we wonder:

This works according to the one who says

“from it and another matter”

is not a hekesh; but according to the one who says: it is a hekesh, what is there to say?!

And we answer:

It is “places” that are learned from one another—

That is to say: the first hekesh, concerning the number of the sprinklings, compares the bodies of the bull and the goat to one another, so that the law of one shall be like the law of the other; whereas the second hekesh compares the places—that is, the Holy of Holies and the Sanctuary—so that the sprinklings in one place shall be like those of the second place. Therefore, since the place of the Holy of Holies did not learn any matter from the hekesh, it can teach by a hekesh concerning another “place,” whose law shall be like its own.

Alternatively, if you wish, say:

the sprinklings performed in

“outside”

in the Sanctuary

from “inside”

in the Holy of Holies

in one instance

in one time and at once

are learned—

That is to say: since you can learn “outside” from “inside” concerning those sprinklings that are explicitly written for the inside—seven below concerning the bull and one above concerning the goat—you can then automatically learn from it at once also the sprinklings that were learned for the inside from the hekesh.

The tanna taught: When he sprinkles

in the Sanctuary

he does not sprinkle upon the curtain

itself, and this is the wording of the Mishna

but opposite the curtain.

Rabbi Eleazar son of Rabbi Yosei said

He sprinkles upon the curtain itself, for

I saw it

the curtain

in Rome, and there were upon it many drops of blood of the bull and goat of Yom Kippur.

And we wonder:

And

how did he know that those drops of blood that he saw were the blood of the bull and goat of Yom Kippur

perhaps

the blood of

the bull for the communal unwitting sin and

the blood of

the goats for idolatry

it was that

they were?!

And we answer:

that he saw

Rabbi Eleazar

that they had been made in their order

eight sprinklings, one beneath the other; and necessarily they were those of the bull and goat of Yom Kippur.

And it was also taught concerning the bull for the communal unwitting sin

and the goats for idolatry

according to the manuscript of Dikdukei Soferim

in this same manner: When he sprinkles, they would not touch the curtain; and if they touched it, they touched it.

Rabbi Eleazar son of Rabbi Yosei said:

But

I saw it

the curtain

in Rome,

and there were upon it many

drops of blood of the bull for the communal unwitting sin and the goats for idolatry.

And we wonder:

Perhaps they were those of the bull and goat of Yom Kippur?!

And we answer:

that he saw them

Rabbi Eleazar

that they had been made not in their order.

And now the Gemara discusses cases of mixed blood: a. If

there became mixed for him

for the High Priest, in one basin,

blood

of the bull

with blood

of the goat before he had given any of it inside, how does he act:

Rava said: He gives

from the mixture one sprinkling

one above and seven

sprinklings

below, and it counts for him for this one and for that one, for the blood of both of them was in the sprinklings that he performed.

for the blood of both of them was present in the sprinklings he performed.

They stated

the words of Rava, who was from the people of Babylonia,

before Rabbi Jeremiah

who was from the people of the Land of Israel.

He said

Rabbi Jeremiah recited over him:

“Foolish Babylonians! Because they dwell in a dark land, they state dark teachings”

[Foolish Babylonians: because they live in a dark land, within a valley, they state dark teachings]!

For

here

it is found that he

is giving

the sprinkling

above of the goat before

before

the sprinkling

below of the bull; and

the Torah said: “And he shall finish atoning for the Holy Place”,

which implies: “He shall finish the atonements as they are stated in the passage” [Rashi], teaching you:

He shall finish the blood of the bull, and afterward finish the blood of the goat,

and according to the order written in the Torah, [see note

].

Rabbi Yirmeya did not say

that this is what he should do. Rather:

He gives

from the mixture one sprinkling

upward and seven

sprinklings

downward in the name of the bull, and then gives again

from the mixture

one upward and seven downward in the name of the goat.

b. If

there became mixed for him

in one basin

blood with blood in the final gifts,

that is: they became mixed after he had already given one gift above from the bull, how does he act:

Rav Pappa considered saying before Rava:

He

gives

from the mixture

seven below in the name of the bull and in the name of the goat, and again gives

from the mixture one sprinkling

one above in the name of the goat.

Rava said to him: Until now they called us

the people of the Land of Israel:

“Fools,”

and now

they will call us:

“Fools of fools,”

for

indeed

we are teaching them

we are teaching them

and

nevertheless

they do not learn

they do not learn!

For even this solution is not a correct solution, because

here he is giving

a sprinkling of

the goat below before

a sprinkling of

the goat above, and

behold, the

Torah said: “Give

sprinklings

above and afterward

give

below,”

and the Torah said: “And he shall finish atoning for the Holy Place,” to do it according to the order stated in the Torah.