Yoma 72b — the Talmud in English

Were it not for the priestly garments,

through which the sacrifices are offered,

none of the enemies of Israel would have remained

[in the language of saggi nahor]

a remnant or survivor.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said: It was taught in the school of Rabbi Shimon

that this is the explanation of this verse:

The garments of service are

garments that

were

cut

and cut

them

when they were

in their completed form,

made as complete garments,

from their entirety;

thus they were lowered from the weaving apparatus.

And

they would

leave something from them,

a portion of the woven material on the weaving apparatus that had not been woven together with them.

And we raised an objection concerning it:

What is it?

For what reason did they leave that small amount of woven material?

Reish Lakish said: These are the work of a needle.

They left it in order to attach it to the garment by means of needlework. And as the Gemara will now explain.

It was objected

to Reish Lakish from that which was taught in a beraita:

The priestly garments are not made by the work of a needle, but by the work of a weaver,

as it is stated

[Exodus 28]

“the work of a weaver.”

Abaye said: It was necessary

that needlework be added to them

only for a sleeve

of theirs

.

As it was taught: The sleeve of the priestly garments

is woven separately and attached to the garment

by sewing with a needle.

And it reaches

the sleeve

to the joint

of the palm of

the hand.

Raḥava said that Rav Yehuda said: Bezalel made three arks.

The middle one was of wood,

its height

nine

handbreadths.

The inner one was of gold—

its height from the outside [including the thickness of its bottom, which was one handbreadth]

eight.

And it filled the middle ark.

The outer one

of gold, its height

ten

handbreadths

and something.

And we refuted this:

But it was taught:

the outer one, its height was

eleven

handbreadths

and something!

And we answered:

This is not difficult:

This

which has a height of eleven and something

is according to the one who says that there is in the thickness

of the bottom of this outer golden ark

one handbreadth,

like the thickness of the bottom of the wooden ark.

That is according to the one who says that there is not in the thickness

of its bottom

one handbreadth,

but something.

And what is the “something”

that the latter beraita says in addition to the height of eleven?

The rim.

For it served as a rim around the cover.

Rabbi Yoḥanan said: There are three rims

in the Temple vessels;

they are,

which are signs of three crowns:

the one of the altar, the one of the ark, and the one of the table.

The rim

of the altar,

which is a sign of the crown of Torah—

Aaron merited it and took it.

The rim

of the table,

which is a sign of the crown of kingship—

David merited it and took it.

The rim

of the ark,

which is a sign of the crown of Torah—

it is still lying ready!

Anyone who wishes to take it—

let him come and take it.

Lest you say: It is lesser?

The verse says

[Proverbs 8]: The Torah said,

“Through me,

through the power of Torah, through studying its laws,

kings reign!” And one who has the power to make a king reign is greater than the king himself.

And one who has the power to make a king reign is greater than the king himself.

Rabbi Yoḥanan posed a contradiction: It is written zer, and we read zer.

If he merited

and studied Torah for its own sake,

it becomes for him a rim,

a rim that is a crown.

If he did not merit—

it becomes foreign

and is forgotten

from him.

Rabbi Yoḥanan posed a contradiction:

It is written

[Deuteronomy 10]

“And you shall make for yourself

Moses,

a wooden ark.”

And

on the other hand

it is written

[Exodus 25]

“And they shall make

the community

an ark of acacia wood.”

From here: The Torah scholar whose townspeople are obligated to do his work for him.

It is written concerning the ark [Exodus 25]

“From inside and from outside shall you overlay it

with gold.”

Rava said:

The verse teaches that

any Torah scholar whose inside is not like his outside—

is not a Torah scholar.

Abaye—and some say Rabbah bar Ulla—said: A Torah scholar whose inside is not like his outside

is

called repulsive.

As it is stated

[Job 15]:

“How much less one who is repulsive and foul,

a man who drinks iniquity like water

[Torah], in whom there is

wrongdoing!”

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that Rabbi Yonatan said: What is the meaning of that which is written

[Proverbs 17]

“Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to acquire wisdom, when he has no heart”—

woe to the enemies of the Torah scholars

[in the language of saggi nahor],

who engage in Torah, but do not possess fear of Heaven.

Rabbi Yannai proclaimed: Woe to

one who studies Torah but does not possess fear of Heaven,

for he has no dwelling,

who is compared to one who has no courtyard,

and

if he were

a gate

for

his courtyard,

he would be

made.

For Torah is the gate by which one reaches fear of Heaven, and one who studies it but does not possess fear of Heaven has nowhere to enter through the gate he makes for himself.

Rava said to the Sages: Please

I ask of you,

do not inherit a double Gehinnom.

Do not inherit a doubled Gehinnom, for if you toil in Torah without fulfilling it and without fear of Heaven, you lose both the pleasures of this world and the life of the World to Come.

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: What is the meaning of that which is written

[Deuteronomy 4]

“And this is the Torah that Moses placed”

and it is not written, “that he taught”?

If he merited,

a person,

it becomes for him a potion of life.

If he did not merit—

it becomes for him a potion of death.

And this is what Rava said: One who applies himself to it,

one who goes rightward with it, who is occupied with it with all his strength and preoccupied with knowing its secret, just as “right” is the principal hand that a person always uses, for him it is

a potion of life.

One who does not apply himself to it,

one who goes leftward with it, for whom it is not the right, but who does not toil in it, it is

a potion of death.

[According to Rashi, Shabbat 88b]

Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said: Rabbi Yonatan posed a contradiction:

It is written

[Psalms 19]

“The ordinances of the Lord are upright,

gladdening the heart.”

And

on the other hand

it is written

[Psalms 18]

“The word of the Lord is pure.”

For this implies that He purifies it through afflictions and Gehinnom.

Rather:

If he merited—

it gladdens him; if he did not merit—

it purifies him.

Reish Lakish said: From the body of the verse

“The word of the Lord is pure”

it emerges,

this matter is to be learned:

If he merited—

it purifies him

the Torah purifies him

for life.

If he did not merit—

it purifies him

through afflictions

for death.

[Psalms 19]

“The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.”

Rabbi Ḥanina said: This is one who studies Torah in purity.

What does this mean—

he marries a woman and afterward studies Torah.

“The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy.”

Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said: It is trustworthy

for the Day of Judgment

to testify concerning those who study it,

who fulfilled it and who did not.

There are things in the Tabernacle concerning which it is stated that they are made

“the work of a skillful embroiderer.”

And there are things concerning which it is stated that they are

“the work of a designer.”

Rabbi Elazar said:

It is all one matter:

They embroider

where they design!

For they would mark out the place of the design according to what they had planned, and afterward they would embroider there.

A tanna taught in the name of Rabbi Neḥemya

otherwise:

“An embroiderer”—

it is

the work of a needle

on top of existing woven material.

Therefore

only one

face

of the design comes out on

one

side of the woven material, and not on its other side.

“A designer”—

it is

the work of a weaver; therefore

there emerge from the weaving

two faces,

on the two sides of the woven material, for this can be done during the weaving.

We learned in the Mishna:

With these,

these garments, when the priest wears the eight priestly garments,

they inquire

through him

by means of the Urim ve-Tumim.

When Rav Dimi came

to Babylonia from the Land of Israel,

he said: The garments in which the High Priest serves,

also the priest

“anointed for war,”

who goes out with the people to war,

serves in them,

in these eight garments, in his service in the Temple throughout all the days of the year.

As it is stated

[Exodus 29]

“And the sacred garments that belong to Aaron—

they shall be for his sons after him!”

And the word “after him” is superfluous, and comes to teach that there is another priest who wears eight garments during his service in the Temple. And “after him” means—

for

the priest anointed for war, who is

the one who comes in

the rank of

greatness, after him,

after the High Priest.

Rav Adda bar Ahava raised an objection, and some say it was merely said

[the name of one sage], from that which was taught in a beraita:

One might have thought that the son of the priest anointed for war serves in his place, just as the son of the High Priest serves in his place,

after the death of the High Priest, if he is fit for it?