Yoma 2 a, b

Today we begin Masechet Yoma, which teaches us about the rituals of Yom Kippur. Before opening the masechet, I was looking forward to learning about rituals that are somewhat familiar to me, like some of what I learned in Pesachim.  However, our first Mishnah introduces us to the preparation of the High Priest.  As we have had no High Priest for about 2000 years, I was a little bit off in my expectations.

The High Priest is sequestered for one week before Yom Kippur.  Another person replaces him for that time.  Even his wife's status is changed somewhat as he takes another wife in case the first wife should die, leaving the prayer for the priest's family be in vain.

A discussion of the High Priest's ritual status introduces some of the tensions between the rabbis and Sadducees (who did not follow the Oral Law).  Our Sages go out of their way to induce a particular state of ritual impurity upon the High Priest while he is sequestered in the north east corner of the Temple.  He was to immerse only after the parah adumah was made impure through contact with an impure vessel.  This ritual is itself a refutation of the Sadducee assertion that the High Priest must be clear of all impurity throughout all of this ritual, as suggested by Torah law (Numbers 19:9).  

The fact that we now trust rabbinic law as 'gospel', so to speak, is an interesting development.  Not a recent development, of course, but interesting. We learn Judaism now as though there were never another way of understanding Torah; that the Oral law is necessary.  And ritually speaking, it is necessary if we are to continue to carry on the traditions of the larger Jewish community. But the rabbis not only disagreed with each other, they disagreed with other Jewish thinkers of their time.  The question of how to interpret without losing our traditions is both our ancient history and our current dilemma.

Just like the parah adumah is set aside before its ritual, the High Priest is 'set aside' before facilitating this ritual.  Underlying these words exists the weighty importance of states of purity. As Jewish ritual is often marking transitions from one state to another (the havdalah service, niddah rituals, and rituals of kashering, for example), the parah adumah seems to represent a culmination of a change from ritually impure to ritually pure.

The rabbis consider verbal analogies between Moses being 'commanded' at Sinai and other uses and forms of that same word.  With great enthusiasm, our Sages debate grammar.  Bringing their conversation back to the question at hand, they look at the idea of 'sequestering'.  Is it truly the same thing to sequester a cow and a Kohen?  They wonder about the possibility of scheduling priests and/or their families to perform specific rituals over the course of a year.

Using the same analysis of grammar, the rabbis debate this special requirement of sequestering on Yom Kippur.  Why would we sequester the High Priest before Yom Kippur but not before each of the three Festivals?  To explain, the rabbis look at the concepts of one versus three, of the ordering of the mitzvot, of whether or not we are considering a matter before which there is sanctity, and of where we are given specific directions that are not generalizable (Leviticus 8:34).

Yoma begins without the gory details found at the end of Shekalim; however, these are hinted at as we learn the first rituals relating to the parah adumah.  Our focus for today is on the Kohanim; in particular, the High Priest.   Immediately I wonder about novels or movies that could be created about these very unusual ancient rituals.  It is easy to imagine the possible intrigue that would result from the High Priest, sequestered away, while another High Priest sits in his place - and another wife is provided should the sequestered man's wife die.  Who would we cast as the High Priest locked in the Temple?  Maybe Mandy Patinkin?