Study Yoma folio 2A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Mishnah: 7 days prior to Yom Kippur the rabbis would remove the High Priest, who performs the entire Yom Kippur service, from his house to the Chamber of Parhedrin, a room in the Temple designated specifically for the High Priest during that period. And they would designate another priest in his
R' Yehuda says: The rabbis would even designate another wife for him lest his wife die, as it is stated in the Torah portion of the Yom Kippur service: “And it will atone for him and for his house” (Leviticus 16:6); the rabbis interpreted the term: His house, that is his wife. The priest must be m
Talmud: The halakha of sequestering the High Priest prior to his performance of the Temple service on Yom Kippur is comparable to the sequestering of the priest designated to burn the red heifer. Therefore, the Talmud cites that which we learned in a Mishnah there, in tractate Para: 7 days prior t
The Talmud asks: What is the reason that they were so stringent with regard to the purity of the heifer? The Talmud explains: It is since a priest who immersed that day is fit for service and may perform the ritual of the heifer after immersion, even before sunset, as we learned in a Mishnah: They w
That Mishnah continues: Since they would intentionally render the priest who burned the heifer ritually impure, the rabbis in turn instituted the stringencies of utilizing dung vessels, stone vessels, and earth vessels, which do not have the capacity to become ritually impure, lest people come to tr