Yoma

if the thought should arise in you that midnight is a time fixed by the Torah, how could it be anticipated [or postponed]?1 — 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’,2 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 sacrifices3 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’4 mean? — Rab said: The call of a man,5 R. Shila: The call of the cock. Rab came to the place of R. Shila, when there happened to be no interpreter6 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’.7 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!8 He replied: People say: If you have hired yourself away [to someone] pull his wool!9 Some say: Thus did he reply to him: One may promote a man in holy things, but not demote10 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:11 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:12 and although here there is weakness,13 and there none, and here it is day and there night;14 for R. Levi said: Why is the voice of man not heard by day as it is heard by night? Because of the revolution15 of the sun which saws in the sky like a carpenter sawing cedars. Those sunmotes are called ‘la’,16 and with reference to them Nebuchadnezzar said:17 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 voices18 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 Tosaf. retains it explaining it on the principle that ‘the zealous perform a religious duty as early as possible’.] these days. cockcrow or as soon as the man (officer) called them in the morning. Aramaic, the language of the people, as against Hebrew, more and more the language of the scholars (Rashi). ignoramus after my service, The emphasis is on the ignoramus, not on any implied self-praise. 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