Yoma 30 a, b

As I do not blog on Shabbat, here's a small note to aid my own referencing system: Daf 29 includes a discussion of Queen Esther's attractiveness.  It offers a particularly flattering comment about her womb being narrow, like that of a deer, which would obviously symbolize Ahashveros's continual attraction.

Now that my mind has been cleared of that particular image, I'll move on to today's daf.   The Gemara introduces the concept of premature services.  Rabbi Zeira, the father of Rabbi Avin and others argue about whether shewbread placed after Shabbat (late) are disqualified - they would not sit on the golden table for the seven days as required.  The conversation turns toward avoiding this situation by considering services performed at night. Are these premature services?  And if so, are the shewbread consecrated?  If they are consecrated AND placed prematurely, when might the bread be disqualified?

The conversation that follows is quite revealing.  We are told about bathroom practices in the Temple.  As we have learned already, defecation is followed by immersion.  After urination, men sanctify hands and feet with water in a basin.  Why the feet? in case of drops of urine.  Why the hands? because a hand wipes off drips that are on one's legs.  Without wiping one's legs, others might assume that one's penis has been severed and that his children must be mamzerim.

And it gets more specific.  What to do when there is excrement left on one's flesh?  Of course, reciting the Shema is prohibited in such a circumstance.  The rabbis discuss whether or not the excrement is visible, still by the anus, malodorous, or dried.  When a person leaves a meal to urinate, we are taught that it is required to wash the hand that wiped urine from the legs.  However, if a conversation interrupted this process, both hands must be washed to ensure full attention is paid to cleanliness.  In fact, hands should be washed with the table jug to publicize the practice.  Rav Chisda consider whether these rules should change if someone is drinking rather than eating.  Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak says that he can skirt the rules and wash his hands in a more private setting because all people know of his fastidiousness.

A new Mishnah notes that people should not enter the Temple courtyard for services until ritually pure and immersed.  The High Priest immersies five times and sanctifies his hands and feet ten times in the Hall of Parva on Yom Kippur.  The first immersion, however, can take place in a non-sacred place.  A sheet was held up outside of the courtyard so that the High Priest could immerse and sanctify himself with privacy.

Ben Zoma and Rabbi Yehuda offer possible reasons.  They look again to the idea of 'prematurity', like at the start of today's daf.  Does it make a difference if the priest immerses at night?  They wonder whether a High Priest who does not immerse properly might be disqualified, and whether they can learn anything about their questions from the experience of a leper.  As an aside, we learn that all people may have immersed in the Chamber of the Lepers.  The rabbis consider who must immerse, how many times, when, where... and, most interestingly to me, what the differences might be between lepers, who are accustomed to ritual impurity, and others.

Again the rabbis note delineations; categories - even as they attempt to create those categories.