Yoma 4 a, b

The High Priest must have had contact with menstrual blood - inadvertently, of course - in order to require both sequestering for at least seven days/nights and being in the Parhedrin chamber.  And that is how we begin daf 4.

Our Sages continue their comparisons between the High Priest before Yom Kippur and the behaviour of Moses and Aaron with the Mishkan and on Sinai.  An example is the sprinkling of blood and the sprinkling of water.  Rabbi Yochanan and Reish Lakish share contradictory and also possibly connected baraitot.  The Gemara contrasts slight differences in grammar to help us understand the rituals of the High Priest.  At the end of amid (b), we learn that Rabbi Yochanan is credited with a halacha regarding the High Priest: the High Priest must perform all duties as required in the inauguration lest all of the related rituals be void.

Amud (b) begins with further comparisons between Moses on Sinai and the High Priest sequestered in the Temple.  Rav Adda bar Mattana shares a commentary on why one would experience joy and trembling at the same time (Psalms 2:11).  Without validating the experience of speaking in tongues or quaking or shaking, he suggests a Jewish interpretation: when we feel joy at fulfilling a mitzvah, we tremble at the presence of Heaven that opens to us in that moment.

The Gemara shares an argument between Rabbi Yosei HaGelili and Rabbi Akiva.  Rabbi HaGelili believes that the revelation of the ten commandments occurred on the seventh day, after Moses had been on Sinai under a cloud for six days.  Rabbi Akiva agrees with this interpretation, adding that Moses spent forty days on the mountain - 24 days of Sivan and 17 days of Tammuz, which is the date that he smashed the tablets upon witnessing G-d's people worshipping the golden calf.  Rabbi Yosei HaGelili disputes this last point, suggesting that Moses' first six clouded days were included in his time on the mountain on Sivan, and that in fact the Tablets were not broken until the 23rd of Tammuz.

Other rabbis argue about Moses.  Did G-d speak exclusively to Moses or did all Jewish people hear G-d's words at Sinai?  Did Moses enter the mystical clouds on his own or did G-d pull him into those clouds?  The rabbis look at specific parts of speech to analyze and better understand the words of the Torah as they describe these incidents.

The concept of lashon hare is suggested as we learn about interpretations of Leviticus 1:1, "and the Lord spoke to him from within the Tent of Meeting, saying..." The word saying, l'emor, could be a contraction of 'lo emor', do not say.  From this the rabbis understand that we should not speak until spoken to (Rabbi Musya the Great).  Further, we should not repeat what we have been told unless the speaker has told us explicitly to 'go and tell others'.

It never ceases to surprise me, these incredible seeds of wisdom in fields of halacha.  We learn to simply practice halacha; it does not matter whether or not we understand why we are doing these things.  For people like me, it was never possible to trust that someone or something else understood better than me what were the right things to do.  So when I read the fields with regard to the High Priest's ritual, for example, I am not expecting the golden seed regarding speaking opening about what someone has told us.

One of the amazing things about Talmud is that it offers me the opportunity to step into another world; one that is so tremendously different from my own - and yet, one that has significant offerings of wisdom and brilliance to share.