For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 10
To download, click/tap here: PDF
Our Daf asks what rot infests cedar? Ulla said: It is sasmagor, a type of worm. The Gemara asks: What does sasmagor have to do with the Divine Presence during the Second Temple era?
Rabbi Abba said: Just as little remains from a cedar tree infested by this worm, similarly, all that remained from the Divine Presence during the Second Temple period was a bat kol.
Since discussing the worm sasmagor and its effect in destroying the tree yet leaving the appearance on the surface of intactness and wholeness as a metaphor for the bas kol, and the lowering of the level of Schechina manifestation by the time of the second temple… we review Blakes enigmatic poem The Sick Rose…