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Week 29 - Sunday- 11 June 2000

YOMA: CHAPTER 1 : MISHNA 4

All the seven days they would not withhold from him food and drink. Yom Kippur eve towards nightfall, they would not let him eat much, because food induces sleep.

Kehati

All the seven days - of the preparations of the High Priest for the Yom Kippur service, they would not withhold from him food and drink - he was permitted to eat and drink freely, as he wished.

Yom Kippur eve towards nightfall - i.e., during the se'udah mafseket (the concluding meal before the fast), they would not let him eat much - of any type of food, because food induces sleep - because excessive eating makes a person drowsy, and the High Priest was forbidden to sleep on the night of Yom Kippur, lest he have a nocturnal pollution and would be unfit for the service. For this same reason they would also withhold from him any kind of food which warm the body and induce nocturnal pollution (Gemara).

YOMA: CHAPTER 1 : MISHNA 5

The elders of the Court delivered him to the elders of the priesthood, and they brought him up to the upper chamber of Bet Avtinas, and they adjured him, and they took their leave and departed. They said to him, "My lord High Priest, we are delegates of the Court, we adjure you by the One Who made His Name to dwell in this House, that you shall not change anything of all that we have said to you." He turns aside and weeps, and they turn aside and weep.

Kehati

The elders of the Court delivered him to the elders of the priesthood - on the eve of Yom Kippur, and they brought him up to the upper chamber of Bet Avtinas - who were responsible for the preparation of the incense (see Shek. 5:1), in order to instruct him in the taking of the handful of incense, as it is written, "And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar...and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small" (Lev. 16:12), which was a difficult task (Yom. 47b), for which the High Priest had to train himself, and they - the elders of the Court, adjured him - that he would not change in his service from what they had instructed him, and they took their leave - from him, after they had delivered him to the elders of the priesthood, and departed. The mishnah now returns to the subject of the oath: They - the elders of the Court, said to him - before they took their leave of him,

"My lord High Priest, we are delegates of the Court, and you are our delegate and the delegate of the Court, we adjure you by the One Who made His Name to dwell in this House, that you shall not change anything of all that we have said to you" - the Gemara explains that the purpose of the oath was to ensure that he will not perform the taking of the incense in accordance with the opinion of the Sadducees, who held that Priest had to prepare the incense while outside, i.e., he put it on the coals in the censer when he was still in the heikhal, outside the curtain, and take it into the Holy of Holies, after the smoke of the incense has risen, as it is written, "that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil (curtain)...for I appear in the cloud upon the ark-cover [kaporet]" (Lev. 16:2), which the Sadducees interpreted to mean that the High Priest will come into the holy place in the cloud of the smoke of the incense, and then "I appear upon the kaporet (lid of the Holy Ark)." The Sages, however, learned from Sinaitic tradition that the High Priest does not put the incense on the censer in the heikhal, but rather in the Holy of Holies, i.e., he enters the Holy of Holies with a handful of incense and with the censer full of coals, and there he puts the incense on the censer (see below, 5:1), as it is written, "And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar...and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil; and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord" (Lev. 16:12-13). From the passage "I appear in the cloud upon the kaporet" they learned that he puts incense that gives off smoke, i.e., he puts in the incense a type of herb that produces the smoke, so that it rises straight up. Since no person can see the High Priest performing this service, for it is written, "And there shall be no man in the Tent of Meeting when he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, until he comes out" (ibid., v.17), and they feared that he might tend to follow the opinion of the Sadducees; therefore the elders of the Court adjured him that he not change anything of all that they had told him. And after they adjured him,

He turns aside and weeps - because they suspected him of being a Sadducee, and they turn aside and weep - in case they had suspected a worthy person, and whoever suspects a worthy person is himself punished, for Moses suffered punishment because he said, "But, behold, they will not believe me" (Ex. 4:1) as it is written, "his hand was leprous, as white as snow" (ibid., v.6) (Yoma 19b; Shab. 97a). Rambam writes that they turn aside and weep because they suspected someone whose attitude is unknown, and who may have no evil intentions.

Regarding the statement they make to him, "we are agents of the Court, and you are our delegate, and the delegate of the Court, we adjure you..." the Gemara explains that they mean, "In our name and in the name of the Court, we adjure you...," but not that he is their delegate and the delegate of the Court regarding the service, for we hold that the priests are the agents of Heaven, and not ours (see Ned. 4:3).

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