Yoma 58 a, b

After discussing whether or not to mix the blood of the bull and the blood of the goat in yesterday's daf, today the rabbis wonder how to offer that blood.  Can both types of blood be held in one vessel?  If so, how would this be done?  Possibly one vessel could sit inside another; possibly the High Priest could use bast, the soft, fibrous part of some trees, to separate the two offerings in one vessel.

One note reminds us of the importance of intermediaries.  The feet of the High Priest must be touching the ground; the ritual clothing of the High Priest must be in direct contact with his skin.  Similarly, the bast must qualify as a non-intermediary.

A new Mishna teaches that the High Priest stands in one place at the golden Altar to sprinkle the blood.  First he enters and rakes away the ashes until he sees the gold of the ark.  Then, according to our halacha (but not Rabbi Eliezer) he circles the ark and sprinkles the blood on the northeast corner, then the northwest corner; the southwest corner and finally the southeast corner.  Sprinkling is done in a downward motion until the last corner, which is done in an upward motion to protect the priestly garments.  This is done seven times.  The remaining blood is collected and poured out at the outer base of the Ark, where it drains into the Kidron River.  Water from that river is bought (ie .de-consecrated) by farmers and used as irrigation.

The Gemara relates different opinions regarding the direction of the priest's entrance into the Holy of Holies, the direction and order in which he sprinkles the blood, and the allusion to this ritual in Solomon's basin.  Rabbis argue whether or not we can understand our rites inside the Holy of Holies based upon our knowledge of rites outside of the Holy of Holies.  At the conclusion of today's daf, the rabbis continue to debate about how to determine where the High Priest should choose to begin his sprinkling.

The notion of sprinkling as 'cleansing' stood out for me.  Somehow, a ritualized placement of blood is understood as changing the status of an object - for the better.  Bringing it back to neutral, or to a place of holiness or consecration from a place of 'ordinariness'.  When zavim or other people who are ritually impure are returned to states of ritual purity, I believe that water is often part of that ritual.  Water as representative of 'cleansing' feels right, intuitively.  But blood?  Blood is usually thought of as something that potentially soils or ritually defiles an object.  Hopefully I will learn more about the differences and similarities between water and blood; ritual purity and ritual impurity in this context.