יומא 20 — Soncino English Talmud

¹Sin coucheth at the door. — What about Satan? — He answered: Satan has no permission to act as accuser on the Day of Atonement. Whence [is that derived]? — Rama b. Hama said: Hasatan in numerical value is three hundred and sixty-four, that means: on three hundred and sixty-four days he has permission to act as accuser, but on the Day of Atonement he has no permission to act as accuser. MISHNAH. EVERY DAY ONE WOULD REMOVE [THE ASHES FROM] THE ALTAR AT KERI'ATH HA-GEBER OR ABOUT THAT TIME, EITHER BEFORE OR AFTER. BUT ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT AT MIDNIGHT, AND ON THE FEASTS AT THE FIRST WATCH, AND BEFORE THE COCKCROW APPROACHED THE TEMPLE COURT WAS FULL OF ISRAELITES. GEMARA. We have learnt elsewhere: If limbs [of animal offerings] burst off from upon the altar before midnight, they must be put back and the law of Me'ilah applies to them; if they sprang off the altar after midnight, they need not be put back and the law of Me'ilah does not apply to them. Whence do we know that? — Rab said: One scriptural verse says: All night and . . . he shall make smoke and another passage says: All night . . . and he shall take up [the ashes], how is that? Divide [the night] half of it for smoking and the other half for taking up [of the ashes]. R. Kahana raised an objection: EVERY DAY ONE WOULD REMOVE THE ASHES FROM THE ALTAR AT COCKCROW OR ABOUT THAT TIME, EITHER BEFORE OR AFTER. BUT ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT AT MIDNIGHT AND ON THE FEASTS AT THE FIRST WATCH: Now^ᵃ^ᵇ^ᶜ^ᵈ^ᵉ^ᶠ^ᵍ^ʰ^ⁱ^ʲ^ᵏ

^ᵃnote:Gen. IV, 7. Overcoming people against their better intentions.
^ᵇnote:The Satan.
^ᶜnote:Lev. VI, 3: And the priest . . . shall take up the ashes whereto the fire hath consumed the burnt-offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. In reality one did not remove all the ashes, but a handful. The rest was swept together on top of the altar and formed gradually a cone or ‘apple’, (tapuah ha-mizbeah) which was considered an ornament. It was removed only when it occupied too much room: And he . . . shall carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place (ibid. 4).
^ᵈnote:To keep the high priest busy. This part of the work need not have been done by him, as Tosaf. Zeb. 86b proves.
^ᵉnote:As to the watch, there is a diversity of opinion in Ber. 3a, some dividing the night into three, others into four such watches.
^ᶠnote:Me'ilah is the law concerning the unlawful use of sacred property; ma'al means ‘commit a trespass’ and refers to the use or appropriation of anything that belongs to the altar, to the Sanctuary, to God. If me'ilah has been committed by error, there is reparation and a guilt-offering: If one commit a trespass and sin through error, then he shall bring his forfeit to the Lord, a ram without blemish . . . for a guilt-offering, and he shall make restitution for that which he hath done amiss . . . and shall add the fifth part thereto (Lev. V, 15-16).
^ᵍnote:Zeb. 86a.
^ʰnote:That by midnight the limbs are considered consumed and treated as ashes.
^ⁱnote:Lev. VI, 2-5. It is a loose combination of passages.
^ʲnote:In reality the smoking, mentioned at the end, might be assumed to take place at the end. The argument here is from the facts back to some support in the text.
^ᵏnote:Any limb bursting off after midnight is regarded as consumed and can be removed as ashes.

²if the thought should arise in you that midnight is a time fixed by the Torah, how could it be anticipated [or postponed]? — Rather said R. Johanan: By mere logical conclusion from the text ‘All the night’ would I not know that it means until the morning, why then the teaching ‘until the morning’? Add another morning to the ‘morning of the night’, Hence every day one would remove the ashes at cockcrow, either before or after being ample [time]. On the Day of Atonement, when the high priest is weak, we do it about midnight and on the Feasts when many Israelites are present and many sacrifices are offered we do it from the first watch, as indeed the reason therefore is indicated: BEFORE THE COCKCROW APPROACHED, THE TEMPLE COURT WAS FULL OF ISRAELITES. What does ‘keri'ath ha-geber’ mean? — Rab said: The call of a man, R. Shila: The call of the cock. Rab came to the place of R. Shila, when there happened to be no interpreter to stand next to R. Shila, so Rab took the stand next to him and interpreted ‘keriath hageber’ as ‘the call of the man’. R. Shila said to him: Would you, Sir, interpret it as: Cockcrow! Rab replied: ‘A flute is musical to nobles, but give it to weavers, they will not accept it’. When I stood before R. Hiyya and interpreted ‘keriath ha-geber’ as the ‘call of the man’ he did not object to it and you say to me: Say, perhaps, the cock's crow! He said: Sir, you are Rab, would you sit down, Sir! He replied: People say: If you have hired yourself away [to someone] pull his wool! Some say: Thus did he reply to him: One may promote a man in holy things, but not demote him. There is a teaching in accordance with Rab, and there is also a teaching in accord with R. Shila. There is a teaching in accord with Rab: What does Gebini the Temple crier call out: Arise, ye priests for your service, Levites for your platform, Israel for your post! And his voice was audible for three parasangs. It happened that King Agrippa who came along travelling, heard his voice from three parasangs, and as he came home, he sent gifts to him. Nevertheless, the high priest is more excellent than even he, for the Master said: It has happened already that when he prayed ‘Oh Lord’ that his voice was heard in Jericho, and Rabbah b. Bar Hana said in the name of R. Johanan: From Jerusalem to Jericho is a distance of ten parasangs: and although here there is weakness, and there none, and here it is day and there night; for R. Levi said: Why is the voice of man not heard by day as it is heard by night? Because of the revolution of the sun which saws in the sky like a carpenter sawing cedars. Those sunmotes are called ‘la’, and with reference to them Nebuchadnezzar said: And all the inhabitants of the world are considered as ‘la’. Our Rabbis taught: Were it not for the revolution of the sun, the sound of the tumult of Rome would be heard: and were it not for the sound of the tumult of Rome, the sound of the revolution of the sun would be heard. Our Rabbis taught : There are three voices going from one end of the world to the other: The sound of the revolution of the sun; the sound of the tumult of Rome, and the sound of the soul as it leaves the body. Some say also the sound of childbirth^ˡ^ᵐ^ⁿ^ᵒ^ᵖ^ᵠ^ʳ^ˢ^ᵗ^ᵘ^ᵛ^ʷ^ˣ^ʸ^ᶻ^ᵃᵃ^ᵃᵇ^ᵃᶜ

^ˡnote:[Since before midnight it is not considered consumed. Rashi omits ‘or postponed’ which is bracketed in cur. edd. Tosaf. retains it explaining it on the principle that ‘the zealous perform a religious duty as early as possible’.]
^ᵐnote:The morning of the night’ is the dawn. The additional morning is the margin of before and after the cockcrow.
^ⁿnote:Since there were many ashes and they had all to be removed for the ‘apple’ to be imposing, they started earlier on these days.
^ᵒnote:The call of ‘geber’. That word means in Hebrew both ‘man’ and ‘cock’. Hence it may mean that the work started at cockcrow or as soon as the man (officer) called them in the morning.
^ᵖnote:The officer summoned all, priests, Levites, and Israelites, to their respective duties.
^ᵠnote:Amora (v. Glos.). The Rabbi taught in Hebrew, which he spoke to the interpreter. The latter translated the lecture into Aramaic, the language of the people, as against Hebrew, more and more the language of the scholars (Rashi).
^ʳnote:I.e., fools would criticize, where men of taste admire.
^ˢnote:Do not continue as my interpreter. You are too big to serve me.
^ᵗnote:Having undertaken the task, I will complete it, unconcerned about questions of dignity.
^ᵘnote:The next interpreter may know very little and it would be a sort of disgrace for you to have to put up with an ignoramus after my service, The emphasis is on the ignoramus, not on any implied self-praise.
^ᵛnote:Infra 39b.
^ʷnote:V. Glos.
^ˣnote:The weakness due to the Fast.
^ʸnote:The high priest prayed during the day, when his voice would be less audible because of the revolution of the sun.
^ᶻnote:Lit., ‘the wheel’, V. Otzar ha-Geonim, a.l.: ‘There is a voice heard now in Babylon, sounding from pools, and connected trenches, a harsh voice, which is ascribed to Ridya. Thus also do the Ishmaelites (Muslim Arabs) call it. It sounds from the month of Iyar through the harvest’. V. Ginzberg, Geonica, I, 345
^ᵃᵃnote:Nothing, to which is equal a mere mote, a particle.
^ᵃᵇnote:Ran. IV, 32. And ‘in the inhabitants of the world are reputed as nothing is ad hoc translated ‘as sun-motes’.
^ᵃᶜnote:Aliter: reputation.