Yoma 2: Sequestration

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Tractate Yoma deals with the Day, that unique day of the year, Yom Kippur. It is a time of special sanctity that exceeds the sanctity of all other Festivals.

Yom Kippur is the day when reality transcends standard boundaries and conventions, as it is stated in the Torah: “For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to purify you; from all your sins shall you be purified before the Lord” (Lev 16:30). It is the Festival celebrating the elimination of all flaws and transgressions and a return to the initial state of purity. The High Priest is instrumental in the rituals of expiation on behalf of the people.

We examine the sequestration of the high Priest for seven days prior to Yom Kippur. And the location of the Lishkas HaParhedrin.

Shekalim 22: Shekels and Bikkurim Post Hurban

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The final Mishna in Massekhet Shekalim returns to the rules of the shekalim, and specifically to their status in contemporary times when the Mikdash is no longer standing. Incidentally it also touches on some other halakhot that are dependent on the holiness of the Land of Israel and how they are to be kept in the absence of the Temple.In addition to Korbanos, the Mishnah identifies a number of other Mitzvos that, in the absence of the Beis HaMikdash, can no longer be fulfilled. The Mishnah/ our daf in Shekalim (8:8) mentions two, Shekalim and Bikkurim. Shekalim is obvious given that, according to the Chachomim, the entire purpose of contributing the half-shekel to the public fisc was to ensure the general public's participation and, more importantly, representation in the public Korbanos. Therefore, with no Beis Hamikdash and Korbanos, there is no longer a need to contribute the half-shekel.

The second Mitzvah is Bikkurim, the obligation to bring the first fruits up to the Beis HaMikdash and, after reading the Torah portion related to Bikkurim, leaving them behind for consumption by the Kohanim. Again, in the absence of the Beis HaMikdash this Mitzvah could no longer be performed. This leads us to end the masechta with the Nachem controversy ad Rav Goren.

Shekalim 21: Burial Tools/Dolabra

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Rabbi Yose says: They are all ritually pure, except for the basket, and the shovel, and the meritza, which are specifically used for graves, to gather up the bones of the dead. These tools must be presumed to be ritually impure, but in general, vessels are presumed to be pure.

During the Second Temple period people were buried in temporary graves and after their flesh decomposed their bones were moved to permanent family burial caves. The basket was a special one that was used to collect the bones.

The shovel had a wide head and a long handle, held in both hands; when associated with a basket, as it is here, it was used for digging as well as the collection of bones for burial. The meritza in this context was a tool similar to a pickax, also called a dolabra, with which one could extract large stones and then push them into place to close a burial cave.

Shekalim 20: Migdal Eder

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If an animal that is fit for the altar was found straying, from Jerusalem and as far as Migdal Eder, and similarly if it was found within that distance from Jerusalem in any other direction, it is presumed that the animal came from Jerusalem.

We first learned of this place from Gen 39: 19-21

כ וַיַּצֵּב יַעֲקֹב מַצֵּבָה, עַל-קְבֻרָתָהּ--הִוא מַצֶּבֶת קְבֻרַת-רָחֵל, עַד-הַיּוֹם.

20 And Jacob set up a pillar upon her grave; the same is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.

כא וַיִּסַּע, יִשְׂרָאֵל; וַיֵּט אָהֳלֹה, מֵהָלְאָה לְמִגְדַּל-עֵדֶר.

21 And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond Migdal-eder.

Targun hints at the location as being the site of the revelation of the Messiah:

which leads us to the connection between this site and the birth of the Christ, as described by Alfred Edersheim a 19th Century Jewish Christian who ended up in England.

Shekalim 19: κοχλίας כְּמיִן כּוֹכְלײִםַ

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Rabbi Avun said in the name of Rabbi Pineḥas: The contribution horns in the Temple were arranged like a circle [bukhliyar]. The horns did not stand in a straight row, but rather in a circle, such that the horn marked new shekels and the horn marked free-will offerings were adjacent to one another from the other side.

The name cochlea is derived from the Latin word for snail shell, which in turn is from the Greek κοχλίας kokhlias ("snail, screw")

from κόχλος kokhlos ("spiral shell") in reference to its coiled shape; the cochlea is coiled in mammals with the exception of monotremes.

Shekalim 18: Tzedaka Boxes

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There were thirteen containers in the Beis Hamikdosh, each resembling a shofar – narrow at the top and wide at the bottom – in order that people shouldn't stick their hands inside to steal some money. Each shofar was marked with the purpose of its money, so that no mistakes would be made. The Mishnah (see Shekalim 2:1, 4:3, 6:5, and 6:6 with Tiferes Yisrael ad loc.) records that there were 13 collection boxes, called shofaros on account of their long, curved necks which resembled a shofar, which were placed within the Courtyard. This leads us to examine the ways rabbinic Judaism valorized giving in secret and its parallels in NT attitudes to charity.

Shekalim 17: Gate of Yoachin

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The Beis HaMikdash stood for four hundred years before Yechonya ruled—did this gate have a different name all that time? If so, what was it? And if not, what could it have meant that it was called by his name even before his time? In heaven, it was decreed that Yechonya would die childless, but through sincere repentance, the decree was rescinded.

The Mishnah (Middot 2:6) says that the gate on the northern side of the Azarah (courtyard of the Beit HaMikdash), towards the western side, was called the Gate of Yechonya. This is because King Yechonya (son of Yehoyakim) departed to exile through that gate.

Who was this Yechonya, and why did he go to exile via this particular gate? In addition, why was this even so significant as to name the gate after it? We examine a midrashic story, which appears in Vayikra Rabba 19:6. The story deals with the reigns of two of the last Jewish kings in Jerusalem preceding the Babylonian Exile.

Shekalim 16: Anointing Oil

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The shemen ha-mish’ha was used to anoint kings and high priests. The Rosh points out that the need to anoint the high priest is from a clear passage in the Torah (see Ex 30:30), but there appears to be a prohibition to use the oil on any other person (see Ex 30:32). How was the decision made to use this oil on kings, as well?

According to the Gemara in Horayot (12a), kings were anointed by putting the oil around their head like a crown. The kohanim had the oil put on them ke-min key, or, as the Gemara explains, ke-min kaf yevani – like a Greek chi – what we would call the shape of the letter “X”. Since there is no Hebrew letter that is similar in shape to an “X,” many suggestions were made by the commentaries over the years about its appearance, given that Greek was no longer commonly used, and people did not know what the letter looked like.

This leads us to Reb Shaul Lieberman's thesis regarding the letter chi in greek and its appropriation by Christianity.

Shekalim 15: The Lost Ark

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According to one opinion the Ark was taken to Babylonia at the time Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and exiled King Jeconiah and the upper classes. (He then placed Jeconiah’s uncle Zedekiah on the throne for another eleven years, until the final invasion and the Temple’s destruction.) This is implied by II Chronicles 36:10 which states that King Nebuchadnezzar exiled Jeconiah to Babylonia “with the precious utensils of House of God.” (See also Isaiah 39:6.)

According to a second opinion, the righteous King Josiah, knowing that the Temple would shortly be destroyed, had the Ark hidden away. (Some of the other special items which had been kept with the Ark were also hidden – such as the jar of Manna (Exodus 16:32-34), the anointing oil (Exodus 30:22-33), and Aaron’s staff which had blossomed (Numbers 17:25).)

Where was the Ark hidden? We have no tradition that it ended up in Ethiopia (as is claimed by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church), and it certainly wasn’t placed in a warehouse in Washington D.C. Rather,our daf records the following incident:

A Priest was once in one of the side chambers of the Temple, designated for the storage of wood. He noticed a stone which had clearly been tampered with (and wasn’t aligned with the others). He suspected that the Ark had been hidden there. He ran over to tell his fellow but died suddenly before he could complete his account. (Thus, it became known roughly where the Ark was hidden but not precisely, and the people understood that its whereabouts was intended to remain secret.)

Another opinion in the Talmud states that the Ark was hidden in its place in the Holy of Holies, in the ground underneath it.

Shekalim 14: Swept Away

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Nechunia, the appointed well-digger in the Beis Hamikdosh, was an expert in determining which underground areas contained the most cold and warm water. However, since this was his specialty, and one time he wasn't so careful in his job, Hashem judged him strictly, and his son died of thirst. A similar story happened where the well-digger's daughter was swept by the river currents. Many people tried comforting the father – who was known to be a chossid – but he wouldn't accept their consolation. Which brings us to analyze the welldigger and how well were his intentions!

This leads us to Jeremy Brown's intriguing piece on Prince Leopold of Brunswick's inspiration for Sefer HaBrit

Shekalim 13: Pinchas Ben Yair’s Donkey

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Shekalim 12: Divine vs Human Ownership

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The Mishna on our daf discusses a case where someone announces that he is donating all of his possessions to the Mikdash. In such a case, the property is usually given to the Temple treasurer for general upkeep – bedek ha-bayit. But what if some of his possessions can be brought as sacrifices?

If some of the possessions are animals that can be brought as sacrifices, there is general agreement that such an animal should be sacrificed, as that was most probably the intent of the donor.

This leads us to an examination of the relative sacred spaces between divine and human and how they get blurred at times.

Shekalim 11: Leftover Ketores and the Trigger For Sectarian Schism

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The Mishnah describes what is done with leftover Ketores from theprevious year. Since the Ketores that is offered on the Mizbe'ach must bebought from the present year's collection of Shekalim, the leftover Ketoresfrom the previous year may not be offered on the Mizbe'ach. What is done withthe leftover Ketores? The Mishnah describes the procedure through which theKedushah is removed from the old Ketores and transferred to money of theTerumas ha'Lishkah in such a way that the money is then used to buy back theKetores with money from the new year's Terumas ha'Lishkah.

The Tziddukim and the Perushim weredivided as to how the incense is offered on Yom Kippur (Yoma 53a): "Heshall place the incense upon the burning coals before God – he should notarrange them in place outside [of the Holy of Holies] and then enter, exceptthe Tziddukim who say that he should arrange it outside and then bring itin." In other words, the view of the Tziddukim is that the Kohen Gadoloffers the incense while he is still outside of the Holy of Holies, and onlythen does he enter with the censer. Unquestionably, this view regards theincense as a sort of screen that protects the Kohen and separates between himand the Divine Presence (as Rashbam explains). The halakha, on the other hand,stipulates that the Kohen offers the incense only after he enters. Clearly,then, the function of the incense is not to create a barrier.

This invites a scholarly intriguing theory regarding "The Tale of the Sadducee who Incorrectly Prepared the Yom Kippur Ketoret". by Dr Yonatan Feintuch

Shekalim 10: Temple Tax

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The fourth perek of Massekhet Shekalim, which begins on our daf opens with the question of how the shekalim are spent. We have already noted that the communal sacrifices were purchased with this money, but there were other needs in the Temple and in Jerusalem that were paid for with these donations.

After the return under Nehemiah, Jews in the Diaspora continued to pay the Temple tax. Josephus reported that at the end of the 30s CE "many tens of thousands" of Babylonian Jews guarded the convoy taking the tax to Jerusalem (Ant. 18.313).

This leads us to the historical evidence regarding Pointius Pilate's looting of the temple treasury from the perspective of Josephus vs the NT.

Shekalim 9: Steps to Perfecting the Soul

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The Mesilas Yeshorim bases his thesis on the ladder of middos that Rabbi Pinchos Ben Yair presents in our daf as well as in other places in shas (Avodah Zara 20b). The rungs that the Ramchal (author of Mesilas Yeshorim) uses as chapters are somewhat different than the ones in our Gemora. (He himself states in the introduction that this statement is found in a few places in Shas, where each Gemora may have a different version of the statement.)

We will present them here with the girsa of our Gemora:

Zerizus (alertness) leads to nekiyus (cleanliness);

nekiyus leads to tahara (purity);

tahara leads to kedusha (holiness);

kedusha leads to anava (humility);

anava leads to yiras chet (fear of sin);

yiras chet leads to chassidus (piety);

chassidus leads to ruach hakodesh (divine spirit);

ruach hakodesh leads to techias hameisim (resurrection of the dead);

techias hameisim leads to the coming of Eliyahu Hanavi.

and ponder the popularity of this work in the last hundred years across the spectrum of Jewish academies of learning.

Shekalim 8: The Appearance of Impropriety

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The Mishnah teaches that great care was taken to make sure that no one would steal – or be suspected of stealing – from these monies.

No one was permitted to take the money from the Temple office if he was wearing clothing or shoes in which he could conceal money.

To support the ruling that obligates people to show care not only before God, but also before people, and ensure that they do not suspect you of wrongdoing, the Mishnah refers to passages in Num 32:22 and Prov 3:4 that clearly indicate the need to be concerned with both heavenly and this-world suspicions.

This leads us into an inquiry as the borders of impropriety in law and in a particular shaila...

Shekalim 7: Plagiarism

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There is a certain immortality that is achieved when a teaching is said in the name of a deceased person. It is as if “their lips move in the grave.”

Elsewhere the Talmud has this to say on the importance of proper attribution:

Which leads us to discuss plagiarism and the importance of proper citation.

Shekalim 6: Sale of Joseph

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Shekalim 5: HAMAN’S SHEKEL

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Shekalim 4: כמין מטבע של אש

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The Gemara cites an additional reason for the obligation to give a half-shekel: It atones for the sin of the sale of Joseph.

First, it introduces this topic. Rabbi Berekhya and Rabbi Levi said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish: Since the sons of Jacob sold Joseph, the firstborn of Rachel, for twenty silver dinar, the nation was commanded that each of them must redeem his firstborn son with twenty silver dinar, which is five sela, as there are four dinar in a sela.

This leads us eventually to the Eleh Ezkera Kina on Tisha B'Av and its connection of the 10 Martyrs as atonement for the Sale of Joseph.