סוכה 48:2 — Soncino English Talmud

LIKE A SLENDER SNOUT, ONE [HOLE] BEING WIDE AND THE OTHER NARROW SO THAT BOTH EMPTIED THEMSELVES TOGETHER. THE ONE ON THE WEST WAS FOR WATER AND THE ONE ON THE EAST FOR WINE. IF ONE POURED THE FLAGON OF WATER INTO THE BOWL FOR WINE, OR THAT OF WINE INTO THAT FOR WATER, HE HAS FULFILLED HIS OBLIGATION. R. JUDAH STATED, WITH ONE LOG HE PERFORMED THE CEREMONY OF THE WATER-LIBATION ALL EIGHT DAYS. TO [THE PRIEST] WHO PERFORMED THE LIBATION THEY USED TO SAY, ‘RAISE THY HAND’; FOR ON A CERTAIN OCCASION, A CERTAIN MAN POURED OUT THE WATER OVER HIS FEET, AND ALL THE PEOPLE PELTED HIM WITH THEIR ETHROGS. AS WAS ITS PERFORMANCE ON WEEKDAYS, SO WAS ITS PERFORMANCE ON THE SABBATH, SAVE THAT ON THE EVE OF THE SABBATH AN UNHALLOWED GOLDEN BARREL WAS FILLED FROM THE SILOAM, AND PLACED IN A CHAMBER. IF IT WAS POURED AWAY OR UNCOVERED, IT WAS REFILLED FROM THE LAVER, FOR WINE OR WATER WHICH HAS BECOME UNCOVERED IS INVALID FOR THE ALTAR. GEMARA. Whence do we know this? — R. Ena replied, From Scripture which says, Therefore with joy shall ye draw water [from the wells of salvation]. There were once two minim, one was called Sason and the other Simha. Said Sason to Simha, ‘I am better than you, since it is written, They shall obtain Sason and Simha’. ‘I’, said Simha to Sason, ‘am better than you, since it is written, The Jews had Simha and Sason’. ‘One day’, said Sason to Simha, ‘they will take you out and make you a runner, since it is written, For with Simha shall they go forth’. ‘One day’, said Simha to Sason, ‘they will take you out and draw with you water, for it is written, "Therefore with Sason shall ye draw water"’. A certain min whose name was Sason once said to R. Abbahu, ‘You are destined to draw water for me in the world to come, for it is written, "Therefore be-sason shall ye draw water"’. ‘If’, the other retorted, ‘it had been written, "le-sason" it would be as you say, but as it is written "be-sason" the meaning must be that a water-skin will be made of your skin, and water will be drawn with it’. [THE PRIEST] WENT UP THE ASCENT [OF THE ALTAR] AND TURNED TO HIS LEFT etc. Our Rabbis have taught, All who ascended the altar turned to the right, proceeded round and descended by the left, save those ascending for the following three purposes, who ascended by the left, turned on their heel and returned [the same way]. These [three things] are the water-libation and wine-libation, and the burnt-offering of a fowl when the altar was full on [its south] east side. [BUT THEY LOOKED SILVER] BECAUSE THEIR SURFACES WERE DARKENED. It is well [as regards the flagon of the wine] since wine darkens, but how was that of the water darkened?- Since the Master has said, IF ONE POURED THE FLAGON OF WATER INTO THE BOWL FOR WINE, OR THAT OF WINE INTO THAT FOR WATER, HE HAS FULFILLED HIS OBLIGATION, the [flagon] of water may thus become darkened. THEY HAD EACH A HOLE LIKE A SLENDER SNOUT etc. Must we say that our Mishnah agrees with R. Judah and not with the Rabbis seeing that we have learnt, R. JUDAH STATED, WITH ONE LOG HE PERFORMED THE CEREMONY OF THE WATER-LIBATION ALL EIGHT DAYS; for if it agrees with the Rabbis, could they not both pour together? — [No,] You may say that it agrees even with the Rabbis, [the reason for the different sizes of the holes being that] wine is viscous and water is fluid. It is in accordance with reason also to say so, for if [our Mishnah concurs with] R. Judah, [it should have used the terms] ‘broad’ and strait’ which he used; as it has been taught, R. Judah stated, There were two vessels there, one of water and one of wine, the mouth of the wine [vessel] was broad, and that of the water was strait, so that both should empty themselves together. This is conclusive. THE ONE ON THE WEST WAS FOR WATER. Our Rabbis taught, It once happened that a certain Sadducee poured the water libation over his feet and all the people pelted him with their ethrogs. On that day the horn of the altar became damaged, and a handful of salt was brought and it was stopped up, not because the altar was thereby rendered valid for the service, but merely in order that it should not appear damaged^ᵃ^ᵇ^ᶜ^ᵈ^ᵉ^ᶠ^ᵍ^ʰ^ⁱ^ʲ^ᵏ^ˡ^ᵐ^ⁿ^ᵒ^ᵖ^ᵠ^ʳ^ˢ^ᵗ^ᵘ^ᵛ^ʷ^ˣ^ʸ^ᶻ^ᵃᵃ^ᵃᵇ^ᵃᶜ^ᵃᵈ^ᵃᵉ^ᵃᶠ^ᵃᵍ^ᵃʰ^ᵃⁱ^ᵃʲ

^ᵃnote:Sc. each bowl had a perforated spout.
^ᵇnote:On the altar, through a hole in which the water ran down to the deep altar ditches.
^ᶜnote:This is explained in the Gemara.
^ᵈnote:Adjacent to it.
^ᵉnote:Not, as the first Tanna stated, three.
^ᶠnote:And not, as the first Tanna asserted, seven.
^ᵍnote:That all may see that the water is poured into the bowl.
^ʰnote:A Sadducee. Josephus, Ant. XIII, 13, 5, ascribes the incident to Alexander Jannai, king and High Priest 107-76 B.C.E. The Sadducees denied the validity of this precept and in this way he showed his contempt of the Pharisees.
^ⁱnote:Since anything which remains in a hallowed vessel overnight becomes invalid (cf. Men. VII, 4).
^ʲnote:Cf. Ex. XXX, 18. Though a hallowed vessel, it did not cause the water in it to be invalid because it was sunk in a cistern on the festival eve (cf. Yoma 37a).
^ᵏnote:That the shofar is sounded at the ceremony (Rashi). That the water was taken from Siloam (Tosaf.). According to Rashi, the answer is in the word ‘joy’, according to Tosaf. in the words ‘from the wells of salvation’.
^ˡnote:Isa. XII, 3.
^ᵐnote:‘Sectarians’, ‘apostates’ or ‘Jewish Christians’. V. Glos., s.v. Min.
^ⁿnote:Meaning ‘joy’.
^ᵒnote:‘Gladness’.
^ᵖnote:Isa. XXXV, 10; ‘joy’ before ‘gladness’.
^ᵠnote:Esth. VIII, 17.
^ʳnote:From heaven.
^ˢnote:Isa. LV, 12.
^ᵗnote:Cf. n. 5.
^ᵘnote:Isa. XII, 3.
^ᵛnote:‘For joy’.
^ʷnote:‘With joy’.
^ˣnote:The ascent was on the south, and on reaching the altar one turned to the right, to the south-east corner, to perform the sacrifice. Since it was obligatory to make right-hand turns one could not return by the same way but had to make a complete circuit of the altar and descend by the western side of the descent.
^ʸnote:Which took place at the south-west corner of the altar.
^ᶻnote:And (cf. prev. n.) immediately turned towards the south-west. They could not turn to the right to make a circuit round the altar for reasons explained in Zeb. 64a.
^ᵃᵃnote:Which meant turning to the right.
^ᵃᵇnote:Where normally this sacrifice was done. (Cf. Lev. I, 16, Tamid I, 4).
^ᵃᶜnote:Since wine may sometimes be poured into it.
^ᵃᵈnote:Which prescribes one hole to be wide and the other narrow.
^ᵃᵉnote:The wine was the fourth of a hin (Num. XXVIII, 7) equivalent to three logs. This would explain the necessity for having a larger aperture in the wine flagon, since there was three times as much wine.
^ᵃᶠnote:Since each was three logs.
^ᵃᵍnote:That our Mishnah is in agreement with the Rabbis.
^ᵃʰnote:cvr-rme instead of vcughn ‘WIDE’ and es ‘NARROW’. The difference between broad and strait is larger than that between wide and narrow (Rashi).
^ᵃⁱnote:V. supra p. 226, n. 15.
^ᵃʲnote:On account of some hard missiles that caught it.