יומא 58:2 — Soncino English Talmud

MISHNAH. AND HE SHALL GO OUT UNTO THE ALTAR THAT IS BEFORE THE LORD, — THAT IS THE GOLDEN ALTAR. THEN HE BEGINS TO SPRINKLE DOWNWARD. WHENCE DOES HE COMMENCE? FROM THE NORTH-EAST HORN [OF THE ALTAR], THEN THE NORTH-WEST, THEN THE SOUTH-WEST, THEN THE SOUTH-EAST. WHERE HE COMMENCES [SPRINKLING] ON THE OUTER ALTAR, THERE HE COMPLETES [SPRINKLING] ON THE INNER ALTAR. R. ELIEZER SAID: HE REMAINED IN HIS PLACE AND SPRINKLED. AND HE WOULD SPRINKLE EVERY HORN FROM BELOW UPWARDS, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE HORN AT WHICH HE WAS STANDING, WHICH HE WOULD SPRINKLE FROM ABOVE DOWNWARDS. THEN HE SPRINKLED THE TOP OF THE ALTAR SEVEN TIMES AND POURED OUT THE REMAINDER OF THE BLOOD AT THE WESTERN BASE OF THE OUTER ALTAR. AND [THE REMAINDER OF THE BLOOD SPRINKLED] ON THE OUTER ALTAR HE POURED OUT AT THE SOUTHERN BASE. BOTH MINGLED IN THE CANAL AND FLOWED INTO THE BROOK KIDRON AND THEY WERE SOLD TO GARDENERS AS MANURE AND BY USING THEM ONE TRANSGRESSES THE LAW OF TRESPASS. GEMARA. Our Rabbis taught: ‘And he shall go out unto the altar’, what does that mean to teach? R. Nehemiah said: Since we find that, in connection with the bullock offered up for [the transgression in error of] ‘any of the commandments’, the priest stands outside the altar and sprinkles towards the curtain, one might have assumed that here the same would take place, therefore Scripture said: ‘And he shall go out unto the altar’, hence he must have been found before on the inner side of the altar. — Another [Baraitha] taught: ‘Before the Lord’. What does that mean to teach? R. Nehemiah said: Since we find with the bullock and he-goat of the Day of Atonement that the priest stands on the inner side of the altar and sprinkles upon the curtain, as he sprinkles one might have assumed here the same would be the case, therefore Scripture has come to teach us: The altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tent of meeting, that implies: the altar before the Lord, but not the priest before the Lord. How that? He stands outside the altar and sprinkles. HE BEGAN TO SPRINKLE DOWNWARD: Our Rabbis taught: He began to sprinkle downward. Whence did he commence? From the south-eastern horn, [proceeding to] the south-western, north-western and north-eastern horns respectively. This is the view of R. Akiba, — R. Jose the Galilean says: [He started from] the north-eastern, [proceeding to] the north-western, southwestern and south-eastern horns respectively. At the place where, according to R. Jose the Galilean, he commenced, there according to R. Akiba, he stopped. At the place where R. Akiba would have him start, there R. Jose the Galilean would have him stop. All agree at any rate that he does not start at the point he first comes to. What is the reason? Said Samuel: Scripture said: And he shall go out unto the altar, i.e., only after he has gone over the whole altar. But according to R. Akiba he ought to go around it to the right. Shall we say [then] that they are disputing a teaching of Rami b. Ezekiel? For Rami b. Ezekiel said: Concerning the sea which Solomon made, [Scripture states]: It stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; and the sea was set upon them, and all their hinder parts were inward. Hence you are taught that all the turns you make [in the Temple] must be to the right, i.e., eastward; one Master [R. Jose the Galilean] agreeing with Rami b. Ezekiel, the other Master [R. Akiba] disagreeing? — No, all agree with the view of Rami b. Ezekiel and the matter of dispute here is, rather, this: One Master holds that [the regulations] within are inferred from [those] without, the other Master holding we do not infer [the regulations] ‘within’ from [those] ‘without’. But according to R. Akiba, granted that he does not infer ‘within’ from ‘without’, let him be permitted to do it one way if he so chooses, or the other way if he so chooses? — R. Akiba will tell you: As far as de jure regulation is concerned he ought to start at the horn to which he had come first, for Resh Lakish has said: One must not forego the occasion for performing a religious act; and the reason why he does not do so is because Scripture said: ‘And he shall go out unto the altar,’ i.e., until he has gone outside the whole altar. Therefore as soon as he has sprinkled the blood on this horn, he returns to the horn with which he should have started from the beginning.23^ᵃ^ᵇ^ᶜ^ᵈ^ᵉ^ᶠ^ᵍ^ʰ^ⁱ^ʲ^ᵏ^ˡ^ᵐ^ⁿ^ᵒ^ᵖ^ᵠ^ʳ^ˢ^ᵗ^ᵘ^ᵛ^ʷ

^ᵃnote:Lev. XVI, 18.
^ᵇnote:Ex. XXX, I.
^ᶜnote:Lit.,’to cleanse from sin’.
^ᵈnote:Lit., ‘he goes down’ i.e., he applies the blood to the horn of the altar beginning at the top and leading his finger downward.
^ᵉnote:Zeb. 53a.
^ᶠnote:This word is variously interpreted in the Gemara. It may mean ‘back’, i.e., top; it has been claimed as ‘the pure, real surface’ (of gold) i.e., free from coals or ashes; as the centre of the altar front.
^ᵍnote:V. Shek. IV, 2.
^ʰnote:Lev. V, 15.
^ⁱnote:Lev. IV, 1ff.
^ʲnote:V. infra.
^ᵏnote:The text should have read: ‘He shall make atonement on the altar that is before the Lord’. ‘And he shall go out unto the altar’ has no special significance. But since we find that on the occasion of other sacrifices he was standing outside, the words ‘and he shall go out’ here indicate that in this case he was on the inner side.
^ˡnote:Lev. IV, 7. The words ‘before the Lord’ are in themselves superfluous — for obviously the altar was ‘before the Lord’ — but are to indicate that only the altar was ‘before the Lord’ but not the priest. The latter stood outside and did not interpose between the altar and the curtain either when he sprinkled the blood on the corners or against the curtains.
^ᵐnote:The dispute hinges on the question as to whether there were one or two curtains before the Holy of Holies. R. Akiba holds there were two, the outer one clasped on the south side. As the priest came from the Holy of Holies from the south in order to proceed with the sprinkling against the curtain, the first horn of the altar he meets is the south-western, however, he did not sprinkle, because of the interpretation of ‘And he shall go out unto the altar’ (v. infra) so that he begins the sprinkling on the south-eastern side and then turning to the left continues with the outer corners. R. Jose the Galilean holds, in accord with R. Jose, that there was but one curtain, clasped on the north side, so that as the priest came forth from the north he reached first the north-western horn of the altar, where, however, he did not sprinkle but at the north-eastern horn, and then turning to the right he returned to the north-western horn to continue his sprinkling.
^ⁿnote:Coming from the west, he first reaches one of the western horns of the altar (v. previous note), yet does not commence with it.
^ᵒnote:V. p. 273, n. 5.
^ᵖnote:The water reservoir in the Temple of Solomon.
^ᵠnote:I Kings VII, 25.
^ʳnote:This is derived from the order in which the sides are enumerated; the phrase ‘eastward’ does not apply here but is taken from the passage where this principle is originally quoted in connection with the ramp. v. supra 45a and Zeb. 62b.
^ˢnote:The inner altar.
^ᵗnote:The Sea of Solomon.
^ᵘnote:Either to the right or to the left.
^ᵛnote:V. supra 33a.
^ʷnote:V. p. 273. n. 5.