One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
בִּיאַת הַמִּקְדָּשׁ
Biat HaMikdash · Chapters 5–7
Sefer Avodah · Washing the hands and feet, which blemishes bar a priest, and the catalog of fifty
1×/day
One morning washing covers the whole day's service
4
Priests the basin must hold water for, at minimum
50
Blemishes that disqualify both priest and offering
0
Barriers allowed between foot and floor, hand and vessel
Ch 5Sanctifying the hands and feet
- Wash or die. A priest must sanctify his hands and feet from the basin before serving; serving unwashed is death at the hand of heaven and the service is invalid. (5:1-2)
- Once a day. One morning sanctification serves all day and night - unless he leaves the Temple, sleeps, urinates, or diverts his attention; the night itself disqualifies yesterday's washing, even if he never slept. (5:3-5, 5:8)
- From it, not in it. The washing is from the basin (or any sacred vessel, inside the Courtyard); a mikveh or spring immersion of the hands is no sanctification - it must pour from a vessel. (5:10-11)
- Direct contact. He stands (never sits), right hand on right foot and left on left, on the bare floor: anything between foot and floor, or hand and vessel, invalidates; service is with the right hand only. (5:16-18)
RememberThe hands are disqualified by the passing of the night - every dawn the service begins again at the basin.
Ch 6The blemished priest
- Past the altar, no. A blemished priest - permanent or temporary - may not enter from the altar inward; entering brings lashes even without serving, and serving invalidates. (6:1-2)
- Only the apparent. Only visible blemishes disqualify: a priest missing a kidney or spleen, even a treifah, serves and his service is acceptable - "as the broken arm and leg are apparent, so must all be." (6:7)
- The accepted past. A priest discovered to be a challal: his prior service stands, and even his future service does not desecrate - "He will find acceptable even the desecrated among them." (6:10)
- Black or white. The High Court in the Chamber of Hewn Stone examined every priest: unfit lineage dresses in black and leaves; the fit dress in white and serve; the blemished-but-pure sorts wood in the Chamber of Wood and eats a full share of the offerings. (6:11-12)
RememberThe altar judges only what can be seen - the hidden interior of a priest is God's jurisdiction alone.
Ch 7The fifty blemishes
- The full map. Fifty blemishes disqualify both man and animal: 5 in the ear, 3 in the eyelids, 8 in the eye, 3 in the nose, 6 in the mouth, 12 in the reproductive organs, 6 in the hands and feet, 4 anywhere on the body. (7:1-11)
- Fine-grained tests. An ear nick that catches a fingernail; an eyelid cracked the slightest amount; a white speck floating on the pupil counts, submerged does not - there are no blemishes in the white of the eye. (7:2-5)
- Three more. Beyond the fifty: an old man who trembles standing, a sick man shaking with weakness, and one who is foul-smelling. (7:12-13)
- Man vs animal. A treifah is acceptable among humans but disqualified among animals; likewise one born by Caesarean section. The foul-smelling priest may wash, perfume his flesh, or chew pepper or ginger - and then serve. (7:12-13)
RememberThe law walks the entire visible surface of the priest - feature by feature - because the surface is where he meets the people he serves.