One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
עֲבוֹדַת יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים · מְעִילָה
Service on the Day of Atonement 4-5, Trespass 1
Sefer Avodah · The day in exact order, what happens when the order breaks, and the perutah of benefit that no ordinary person may take from what is God's
1
Perutah of benefit makes a person a mo'el
8
Sprinklings between the staves, for bull and for goat each
2
Selaim, the value of the ram brought as the guilt offering
7
Applications on the bared gold of the inner altar
Ch 4The whole day, midnight to nightfall
- Midnight to the linen sheet. The lottery for removing the ashes is held at midnight and the morning proceeds as on any day until the continual offering, when a linen sheet is spread between the High Priest and the people so all will know the day's service is in linen. (4:1)
- He starts the cut, another finishes it. He slits the majority of the two signs on the continual offering and lets another person complete the slaughter, then receives the blood and casts it. (4:1)
- Firepan right, incense left. Left-hand carrying disqualifies, so the firepan should go in the left; but because it is heavy and hot he carries the firepan in his right hand and the kaf of incense in his left. (4:1)
- Then the blood, corner by corner. Eight sprinklings between the staves for the bull and eight for the goat, eight on the parochet for each, then the mixture on the four corners of the golden altar from northeast to southeast, upward each time except the last, seven applications on the bared gold, and the remainder poured on the west base of the outer altar. (4:2)
RememberHe offers the incense in the Holy of Holies holding the spoon in his teeth, and the Rambam calls it one of the difficult tasks in the Temple.
Ch 5When the order breaks
- Order is everything. All the white-garment services inside the Temple Building must be done in the order given; if he did one before another his acts are of no consequence, and this reaches even the courtyard acts that serve the inner service. (5:1, 5:2)
- Each set of sprinklings is its own phase. Spilled blood sends him back only to the start of the set he was in, whether the inner sprinklings, the parochet, or the applications to the altar, for each set of presentations is a separate phase of atonement. (5:5, 5:6, 5:7)
- After the altar applications, a spill costs nothing. If he had completed the applications to the golden altar and the blood then spilled, he need not bring other blood, because pouring the remainder on the outer altar is not a binding requirement. (5:8)
- His bull is not only his. He buys it from his own resources, yet God nullified his ownership in favor of all the priests, since without a share they could not be atoned; so if he dies before the slaughter his successor slaughters that same bull. (5:13)
- The Azazel goat, exactly. Even a temporary blemish disqualifies it and a treifah goat is unfit, yet if it is sick the man carries it on his shoulders, even on Shabbat, and if it becomes impure he still enters and takes it. (5:17, 5:18, 5:19, 5:21)
RememberYou never go back to midnight. A spill sends you back only to the beginning of the phase you were in.
Me'ilah Ch 1A perutah taken from what is God's
- One perutah is the whole threshold. An ordinary person may not benefit from what is sanctified to God, whether consecrated for the altar or for the improvement of the Temple; a perutah's worth of benefit makes him a mo'el. (1:1)
- Ever permitted means never me'ilah. There is no me'ilah in sacrificial items that may be eaten, such as the meat of sin and guilt offerings after the blood was cast, even if a non-priest eats them and even if they later became disqualified, since there is a time they are permitted. (1:2)
- Deliberate versus inadvertent. Knowingly, he is liable for lashes and pays the value he decreased; unknowingly, he pays the principal, adds a fifth, and brings a ram worth two selaim as the guilt offering for misappropriation. (1:3)
- Principal and ram are essential, the fifth is not. Payment of the principal and the bringing of the guilt offering are fundamental to the atonement; the added fifth is not, though the fifth is itself treated as consecrated, and one in doubt whether he benefited at all is exempt entirely. (1:4, 1:5)
- Shearing and working, with a measure. Consecrated animals may not be shorn or worked with, and the Rambam holds that liability begins only at double the width of a sit, since this should not be stricter than shearing on Shabbat; articles consecrated for Temple upkeep are forbidden only rabbinically, with stripes for rebellious conduct rather than lashes. (1:7, 1:12)
RememberHoliness here is not intensity but exclusivity: the moment a thing is permitted to anyone, me'ilah cannot apply to it again.