Yoma 69b (סט:) — the Talmud in English

But did we not learn in a Mishna:

There is no sitting in the Temple courtyard

because it is written: “to stand and serve,” and likewise: “those standing there before the Lord.”

And we find sitting in the Temple courtyard

only for the kings of the House of David!

As it is stated [

I Chronicles 17]

“And King David came and sat before the Lord.”

And we answer:

As Rav Ḥisda said regarding the beraita dealing with the matter of reading from the Torah scroll [as will be explained below],

the reference is

to the Women’s Courtyard

adjacent to the Temple courtyard, and not to the Temple courtyard itself.

Here too,

in our Mishna, the reference is to the High Priest sitting

in the Women’s Courtyard.

And the Gemara explains:

And where was Rav Ḥisda’s statement said? [

According to the version of the Vilna Gaon]

It was said concerning that which was taught: Where do they read from it—

in the Temple courtyard.

Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov says: On the Temple Mount.

As it is stated [

Nehemiah 8]

“And Ezra read from it

before

the square that was before the Water Gate.”

And Rav Ḥisda said:

This reading was

in the Women’s Courtyard.

And the Gemara continues, explaining the verse in Nehemiah: [

Nehemiah 8]

“And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God.”

What is the meaning of “great”?

Rav Yosef said that Rav said: That Ezra magnified Him

by blessing the Almighty

with the Explicit Name.

Rav Giddel said:

He magnified His honor through the enactment he instituted, that in the Temple, at the conclusion of every blessing, they should say

“Blessed is the Lord, God of Israel, from world to world.” [

I Chronicles 16]

Abaye

asked

Rav Dimi

about Rav Giddel’s statement:

Perhaps he magnified Him with the Explicit Name?

He said to him: The Explicit Name is not pronounced in the provinces,

outside the Temple courtyard, whereas Ezra said this outside and not in the Temple courtyard.

And we are astonished:

A

re you saying that

not

did Ezra pronounce the Explicit Name outside the Temple courtyard on another occasion?

But is it not written [

According to the version of the Vilna Gaon]: [

Nehemiah 9]

“And they cried out in a loud voice to the Lord their God”

And

concerning this,

Rav Giddel

himself said: “In a loud voice”— -

That he magnified Him

before the Almighty

with the Explicit Name!

And we answer:

It was a temporary measure

for the purpose of the outcry, to pronounce the Explicit Name outside the provinces. Therefore, when Ezra later stood to bless outside the Temple courtyard, he did not mention the Explicit Name.

And now the Gemara explains that outcry: [

Nehemiah 9]

“And they cried out to the Lord God in a loud voice.”

What did they say?

Rav said, and some say Rabbi Yoḥanan,

that the Jewish people said at that time:

“Woe, woe!”

An expression of an outcry and complaint [Rashi].

We ask You to place in our hands the evil inclination toward idolatry.

For

this one

is the one that caused

the Almighty to destroy

the

Temple and burn His Sanctuary,

and to kill all the righteous and

to exile Israel from its land.

And still,

this evil inclination

dances among us,

within our midst.

Is it conceivable—

after all, the reason that

You gave it to us

was

only so that we might receive reward through it,

by struggling against it—

We want neither it nor its reward.

We want neither it nor the reward for struggling against it!

A note fell to them

written

from Heaven, on which was written: “Truth!”

thereby affirming that the Almighty accepted their request.

Rav Ḥanina said: Learn from this that the seal of the Holy One, blessed be He, is truth.

They sat

in

a fast for three

days and three nights

.

Finally,

they handed it over

the evil inclination toward idolatry—from Heaven

to them,

into their hands.

It emerged,

that evil inclination

came

and appeared

like

a

fiery lion cub

according to Rashi, Sanhedrin 64a, as it emerged

from the Holy of Holies.

The prophet

said

Zechariah ben Iddo

to Israel: This is the evil inclination of idolatry.

As it is stated [

Zechariah 5]

“And he said: This is the wickedness.”

When they seized it,

as they seized it,

one

hair

slipped out

from

its mane,

from its mass of hair,

and it raised a cry,

and the fiery lion cub raised its voice,

and its voice went

and the sound of its roar traveled a distance of

four hundred parasangs.

The Jewish people said

:

What should we do?

For if we leave it as it is in our hands,

perhaps, Heaven forbid, they will have mercy on it from Heaven,

when they hear its pleading voice.

The prophet said to them: Cast it

into

a cauldron of lead,

inside a cauldron of lead,

and cover its opening with lead,

and cover the mouth of the cauldron with lead, because

lead

absorbs

the

sound

so that its voice will not be heard.

As it is stated [

Zechariah 5]

“And he said: This is the wickedness! And he cast her into the ephah, and he cast the lead stone upon its opening.”

They said: Since this is a time of favor, let us seek mercy

also for

the evil inclination toward transgression,

so that the evil inclination toward forbidden sexual relations would likewise be placed in our hands.

They sought mercy, and it was handed over

and delivered

into their hands.

The evil inclination

toward forbidden sexual relations

said to them:

Look,

for if you kill that one,

if you kill it [and it was referring to itself],

the world will cease,

because the world engages in procreation only through the force of this inclination, and it is impossible to distinguish between permitted and prohibited acts.

They imprisoned it for three days,

they confined it for three days.

And indeed, the power of the inclination ceased completely, and they no longer engaged in procreation.

And they requested

and sought

an egg

laid

that day,

born that day,

throughout the Land of Israel—

but none was found,

because the hens, too, had stopped laying eggs.

They said: What should we do?

If

we kill it,

this inclination—

the world will cease!

If

we seek mercy for half of it,

for half the power of the inclination, so that procreation would continue in the world only in permitted circumstances and not in prohibited ones,

this is impossible.

For

half

the inclination

in Heaven

from Heaven

is not given

they do not give.

They blinded it,

they applied a blue substance to its eyes,

and released it,

setting it free.

And it was effective,

and blinding it was effective in that

a person is not provoked by it

and does not become aroused by

his close relatives,

his female relatives.

In the West,

in the Land of Israel,

they taught

the passage above, explaining the verse [in Nehemiah 8], “And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God,”

as follows: Rav Giddel said: “Great”—

that he magnified Him

through his blessing

with the Explicit Name.

And Rav Mattana said:

He magnified Him by saying [below, in Nehemiah 9]

“the great, mighty, and awesome God.”

And that which

he

Rav Mattana said

supports [

According to the Vilna Gaon]

the words of

the words of

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi.

For Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Why were they called “the Men of the Great Assembly”?

Because

they restored the crown to its former glory,

as follows:

At first,

came

Moses

and

said: [

Deuteronomy 10]

“The great,

mighty,

and awesome

God.”

and mighty

But in a later generation,

came

the prophet

Jeremiah

and

said, when he saw Nebuchadnezzar’s officers reveling in the Temple: At a time when

gentiles are carousing in His Sanctuary,

where is

the revelation of

His awesomeness?

That is, the revelation of “awesome” is apparent when we see this, and not during a period of concealment of the Divine countenance.

He did not say

Jeremiah

“awesome,”

because that revelation was then absent.

Daniel came,

during the Babylonian exile, and

said: At a time when

gentiles oppress His children

for seventy years,

—

where is

the revelation of

His might?

He did not say

Daniel

“mighty.”

They came,

the Men of the Great Assembly, and restored the crown to its former glory,

and said: On the contrary, this is

a revelation of

the might of His might,

of the Almighty,

who subdues His inclination,

by

showing patience toward the wicked,

during such a prolonged period in which the nations oppress His children and afflict them with their decrees.

And these are His awesome acts

that were revealed at the time of the destruction:

For were it not for the awe of the Holy One, blessed be He,

how could one nation

the people of Israel,

have been able

to

survive among

all

the nations,

that had gathered there to destroy them, and yet Israel survived and continues to exist?

Therefore, they were called the Men of the Great Assembly, because they magnified the Almighty by restoring the recitation of “the mighty and the awesome.”

And we raise an objection:

But the Sages,

Jeremiah and Daniel,

how could they act in this manner and uproot the enactment instituted by Moses

to say also “the mighty and the awesome”?

Rabbi Elazar said: Since

they were

certain that the Holy One, blessed be He, is truthful, they therefore did not falsely describe Him.

We learned in the Mishna:

And he reads [the passages] “After the Death” and “On the Tenth.”

And we raise a contradiction

from the Mishna in tractate Megilla, where we learned:

One may skip in

the reading of

the Prophets

from one passage to another,

but one may not skip in

the reading of

the Torah!?

And we answer:

This is not difficult.

Here,

the reference is to a long skip,

such that the translator would have to stop

and finish

the meturgeman’s

translation of the preceding passage, while the reader would still not have enough time to reach the following passage. One may not skip in this manner, because it is not respectful of the congregation to have them sit and wait.

Here,

the reference is to a short skip, such as the skip between the passage “After the Death” and the passage “Emor,” which is

such that

the meturgeman would not have to stop

before the translator finishes his translation, since the reader can reach the next passage in time; in such a case, one may skip.

But the Gemara objects that the contradiction cannot be resolved in this manner:

But concerning it,

the same Mishna in tractate Megilla,

it is taught

in a beraita:

One may skip in the Prophets, but one may not skip in the Torah.

And how far may one skip

in the Prophets?

Such that the meturgeman would not have to stop.

As for the Torah—

not at all

may he stop!?

Abaye said: This is not difficult.

Here,

where one may skip, the reference is

to one subject.

Here,

where one may not skip, the reference is

to two subjects.

And the Gemara cites a proof for Abaye’s resolution:

And it was taught in a beraita: One may skip in the Torah when it concerns one subject, and in the Prophets when it concerns two subjects.

In both this case and that case, it must be such that the meturgeman would not have to stop.

And one may not skip from one prophetic book to another.

But in the Prophets of

the book

of the Twelve [

The Twelve]

one may skip

from one prophet to another, because they are considered a single book.