Yoma 11: Liminal Spaces and Thresholds

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Since the Torah said, " Write the words about God on the doorposts of your house and on your gates ," we understand that just as the gates of your house are included, so too the gates of your courtyards, provinces and cities. However, just as a house, it should be inhabited. For example, strictly speaking a synagogue requires a mezuzah only of the sexton lives there.

What about such a gate that is straight at the bottom but oval at the top? Rabbi Meir says that it still needs a mezuzah, while the Sages say that it does not.

All these discussions leads us to an exploration of thresholds and liminal spaces in hilchot mezuzah (and in TS Eliot)

Yoma 10: Sasmagor Worm and Bas Kol

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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…

Yoma 9: Churban Bayis I vs II

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The Gemara on our daf discusses the destruction of two Temples, as well as the Mishkan that stood in Shiloh for a period of time after the Jewish people entered the Land of Israel.

Aside from the wars that brought about the physical destruction of the house of God in each of these cases, the Gemara quotes a well-known tosefta that explains the underlying reasons for their destruction. According to the tosefta, the First Temple was destroyed because of the three cardinal sins of idol worship, forbidden sexual relations, and bloodshed that existed during that period.

The Second Temple, however, was destroyed during a period when the people were involved in Torah study and fulfillment of the commandments. In that case, the tosefta explains, the underlying cause for its destruction was the sin’at hinam – wanton hatred – that existed between the people. This leads us to a critical examination of the difference between the two temples.

Yoma 8: Degeneration of Priesthood

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The Mishna said that the kohen was sequestered into the Parhedrin chamber. The Gemora cites a braisa in which Rabbi Yehuda says that the original name of the chamber was the chamber of balvati – nobility. However, in later generations, when people would buy the position of kohen gadol, each year a new kohen gadol would arrive and rebuild this chamber. They therefore called it the Parhedrin chamber, in reference to the parhedrin, appointees of the king, who would serve 12 month terms. The term parhedrin referred to a Roman official who was appointed to a position for a single year term. This was commonplace whether the individual was elected by the Senate or if he acquired the position by paying off the right people. Among the officials appointed by this method were those who were responsible for controlling prices on a variety of goods and services. It was not uncommon for people in this position to try to acquire significant wealth by collecting exorbitant taxes during their short terms, well beyond the amount prescribed by Roman law. Since the occupants of the position of Kohen Gadol were more interested in their honor than in the spiritual importance of the position, each of them tore down the office and rebuilt it to show off their wealth and position of authority.

Yoma 7: Tzitz and Tefillin

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Ex 29:38

38 And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, and Aaron shall bear the iniquity committed in the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow, even in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.

Reb Yehuda holds "always" /Tamid means that while he wears it he must constantly be cognizant of its presence and its kedusha. Reb Shimon holds it means that the Tzitz brings Ratzon - appeasement of the Ribono shel Olam" -constantly, even if it is not being worn at that moment.

The Gemara at the end of our daf says that "if we learn like Reb Yehuda, then if the Tzitz, which has the written name of Hashem only once, mandates constant respectful awareness, how much more so this is true for Tefillin which have Hashem's name written twenty one times."

Which leads us to examine the relationship between the two and the influence of "hesech hadaas" prevents us from wearing tefillin all day.

Yoma 6: Scholars vs Talmidei Chachamim

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As we learned in the Mishna (2a) the High Priest is kept in one of the Temple offices for the week prior to Yom Kippur. Aside from training for the service that he is to perform on the Day of Atonement, this also keeps him away from his house, where there is a possibility that he may become ritually defiled by contact with others. The sequestration leads us to a discussion of leadership, the difference between scholars and Torah scholars and the critique of Gershom Scholem by Norman Lamm.

Yoma 5: דָּרֹשׁ דָּרַשׁ מֹשֶׁׁה

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As we learned in the Mishna (2a) the High Priest is kept in one of the Temple offices for the week prior to Yom Kippur. Aside from training for the service that he is to perform on the Day of Atonement, this also keeps him away from his house, where there is a possibility that he may become ritually defiled by contact with others.

The sequestration leads us to a discussion of leadership, the public image of the KG and the difference between scholars and Talmidei Chachamim and the critique of Gershom Scholem by Norman Lamm.

Yoma 4: Access to the Divine, the Paradox

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As we learned previously, the Sages of the Talmud derived the need for a seven-day preparation for the Yom Kippur service from the Torah’s description of the Tabernacle in the desert. An alternative source is suggested by Reish Lakish, who proposes that this rule is derived from the story of Moshe receiving the commandments on Mount Sinai. The Torah describes Moshe as being enveloped by a cloud for six days and entering God’s presence on the seventh day (see Shemot 24:16). This teaches that someone who is about to enter mahaneh shekhinah – the “encampment of God” – needs a week of preparation to do so. The access to the divine then became a mystical trope for Rebbe Nachman in a dazzling commentary to the mist/fog of the cloud. he suggests that it was ONLY the dark impenetrable areas of the self/life and the world where God hides and is to be found accessible...typical of the Rebbe's paradoxical notion of the divine.

The cloud looks like a place lacking clarity. However for the Chassidic Masters the "cloud" is not negative at all. Rebbe Nachman directs our attention to the contradiction of the cloud. On one hand it keeps us away, because we don't see that God is there. It seems that He is not. It is only when we enter the cloud of unknowing that we realize that not only is Hashem "behind" the cloud, but that the cloud itself is a revelation of His love for us, the cloud itself is Torah. The Me'or Eynayim takes it further forcing us to see the divine hand even when we are alienated from Him.

Yoma 3: Kivyachol

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There is an argument (Yoma 3b)on our daf regarding howwe are to understand the pesukim in the Torah when Moshe is told by Hashem“kach lecha.” Rebbe Yoshiya understands the directive to mean that MosheRabbeinu should use his own funds to purchase whatever items were mentioned inthe pasuk. Therefore, when Moshe Rabbeinu was told to take the spices that areused for the ketores, he was to purchase them from his own funds. The Rashashexplains that generally the spices are purchased from communal funds, but theketores used during the inauguration of the Mishkan was paid for by MosheRabbeinu.Rebbe Yonason disagrees and says that even the spicesused for the ketores during the Mishkan’s inauguration had to be purchased withcommunal funds. The use of the phrase “kach lecha” was meant to convey amessage. “K’vayachol, I want yours more than theirs.” Rashi’s first explanationof the word “Kivyachol” is that the word means “if it were possible.” Hashemtold Moshe “If it were possible for the funds for the ketores to come from anindividual, I would prefer that they come from you instead of from KlalYisrael.” However, it is not possible since the funds for the ketores have tocome from communal sources. It is interesting to note that according to thisunderstanding, the word “Kivyachol” was said by Hashem. 

We examine Rashi's use of the term and extend it to theological implications of the term as a metaphor for A THEOLOGICAL PARADOX: DIVINE POWER AND HUMAN INITIATIVE

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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