Keilim 1:8 - 1:9

לפנים מן החומה – from the wall of Jerusalem.

שאוכלים שם קדשים קלים ומעשר שני – as it is written (Deuteronomy 12:5-6): “[But only to the site that the LORD your God will choose amidst all your tribes as His habitation, to establish His name there.] There you are to go, and there you are to bring [your burnt-offerings and other sacrifices], and it is written (Deuteronomy 12:17): “You may not partake in your settlements [of the tithes of your new grain or wine or oil].” (see also Tractate Makkot, Chapter 3, Mishnah 3).

הר הבית – it was five-hundred cubits by five-hundred cubits, and in it the Temple was built, and from there begins the Levitical camp and its measurement [is] until the Nicanor Gate, from the Nicanor Gate inward is the camp of God’s presence, and from the Temple Mount towards the outside until the wall of Jerusalem is the camp of Israel (see also Tractate Middot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 12).

שאין זבים וזבות נדות ויולדות נכנסים לשם – as it is written (Numbers 5:2): “[Instruct the Israelites] to remove from camp anyone with an eruption or a discharge and anyone defiled by a corpse,” I hear that all three (i.e., a man with gonorrhea/a woman with a flux, menstruating women and women after childbirth) go out to one place, the inference teaches us regarding a leper (Leviticus 13:46): “[He shall be impure as long as the disease is on him. Being impure,] he shall dwell apart,” so we see that he is not sent to the place that the man with gonorrhea/flux and someone defiled to a corpse are sent, and just as a leper whose defilement is more severe, his banishment from the banishment of his fellow as it is written (Leviticus 13:46): “his dwelling shall be outside the camp,” therefore he is exiled outside of Jerusalem, even those men with gonorrhea or women with flux, menstruating women and women following childbirth whose defilement is graver than the defilement of coming in contact with a corpse, that make [defilement by] lying and sitting and the very heavy stone (leading to that which is beneath it becoming ritually impure) which is not the case for someone defiled through contact with a corpse, their exile is greater than the exile of their fellows. It is found that one states, that a leper is exiled outside of Jerusalem which is opposite the camp of Israel. Men with gonorrhea/flux and women with a flux and menstruating women and women after childbirth are exiled from the Temple Mount. That this is the camp of the Levites, but they are permitted in Jerusalem. A person defiled by contact with a corpse and even the corpse itself are permitted on the Temple Mount and is exiled from Nicanor Gate and within, which is the camp of the Divine Presence/Shekhina.

החיל (the rampart – a low wall surrounding the Temple courtyard and he buildings within it) – inside from the Temple Mount wall was a wall ten handbreadths high and it is called סורג/one of the approaches of the Temple fortification (see Tractate Middot, Chapter 2, Mishnah 3), and ten cubits inside from this is the rampart/חיל.

שאין נכרים וטמאי מתים נכנסים לשם – even though that the Rabbis decreed regarding the heathens that they will be like people with gonorrhea/flux for all their things, for the matter of exile from the camps, they did not decree anything upon them other than that they are like those who have been defiled through contact with a corpse. And this – that those who have been defiled through contact with a corpse they do not enter from the rampart/חיל and [further] inside, that is from the Rabbis. But according to the Torah-law, even in the Women’s Courtyard/עזרת נשים (which was the largest in the Temple, demarcated from the Israelite’s courtyard by the Gate of Nicanor – which was square: 135 cubits by 135 cubits. Men and women stood there and its sanctity was greater than that of the rampart and the Temple Mount). For all this was the Levite’s Camp until the Israelite courtyard where the Gate of Nicanor was.

עזרת נשים – inside from the rampart/חיל it was 135 cubits by 135 cubits.

שאין טבול יום נכנס לשם – Jehoshaphat and his legal court decreed (see Tractate Yevamot 7a and Tractate Pesahim 92a) on the one who immersed that day/טבול יום (but a Kohen who had just immersed following a period of impurity cannot partake of heave-offering/Terumah until after nightfall; see Tractate Berakhot, Chapter 1, Mishnah 1) that he/she should not enter into the Women’s Courtyard. As it is written (II Chronicles 20:5): “Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the House of the LORD at the front of the new court.” And they stated in the Gemara (see above): “What is the new court?” That they renewed things in it and stated, that a person who has just immersed following a period of impurity/טבול יום cannot enter into the Levite camp, but not in all of the Levite camp, but rather only [not] in the Women’s Court alone. And they decreed on the person who has just immersed following a period of impurity but did not make a decree on someone lacking atonement/מחוסר כפורים, because a person who has just immersed following a period of impurity is prohibited to [partake of] heave-offering/Terumah, but someone lacking atonement (i.e., a sacrifice) is permitted to [partake of] heave-offering/Terumah (if that individual is a Kohen or married to one). And all whose defilement is more serious than that of his fellow, his banishment/exile is more severe than that of his fellow.

עזרת ישראל – it was inside from the Women’s Courtyard, its length was one-hundred and thirty-five by a width of eleven [cubits]. And similarly, the Courtyard of the Priests had a length of one-hundred and thirty-five by a width of eleven [cubits], and the cut and polished stone block/mosaic would divide between the Israelite courtyard and the Courtyard of the Priests.

שאין מחוסר כפורים נכנס לשם – and the same law applies that it (i.e., the Mishnah) is able to teach that a ritually pure person is not able to enter there until he immerses [in a Mikveh], for this is taught [in the Mishnah] in the chapter "אמר להם הממונה"/The supervisor said to them [Tractate Yoma, Chapter 3, Mishnah 3]: “No pure person enters the Temple courtyard until he immerses [in a Mikveh” [Talmud Yoma 30a].

וחייבים עליה חטאת – the impure who entered there inadvertently.

לסמיכה – to press his hand on the head of his sacrifice (to indicate ownership) and that is impossible other than its owners, as it is written (Leviticus 3:8): “and lay his hand [upon the head of his offering], and not the hand of his agent.

לשחיטה – that slaughter can be done by a foreigner (i.e., non-Kohen), and even though that it is possible for Kohanim [to perform the slaughter], it is also possible for a “foreigner” to slaughter in the Israelite courtyard, nevertheless they did not prohibit an Israelite to enter into the Priest’s Courtyard to slaughter the sacrifice.

ולתנופה – that the Kohen places his hand under the hand of the owners and waves it.

בין אולם ולמזבח מקודש ממנו שאין פרועי ראש ובעלי מומין נכנסים לשם – In the Gemara (Tractate Menahot, Chapter 3, 27b proves that all of these gradations that are taught here, as for example, a person who enters the Priest’s Courtyard without need and similarly, those [Kohanim] with physical defects/בעלי מומין and those [Kohanim] with overgrown hair/פרועי ראש that entered between the entrance hall/אולם and the altar. All of them are the gradations of the Rabbis. And such is what I received from my Rabbis/teaches. But Maimonides holds that all of them are from the Torah, those [Kohanim]with physical defects/deformities, as it is written (Leviticus 21:21): “No man among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a defect [he shall not be qualified to offer the food of his God],” (but the way that the Bartenura commentary quotes this verse: "כי כל איש אשר בו מום לא יקרב" – the last two words – “that he shall not offer it” are NOT found in this verse – though the words, "לא יקרב" are found in verse 16). And [priests] with overgrown hair, as the All-Merciful states to Aaron and his sons who were in the Tabernacle (Leviticus 10:8): “[And Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar:] ‘Do not bare your heads/dishevel your hair’ [and do not rend your clothes, lest you die and anger strike the whole community].” But even though the language of the Tosefta (Tractate Kelim Bava Kamma, Chapter 1, Halakha 11) supports the words of Maimonides, the tradition of my Rabbis appears to me to be essential, and that the first Tanna/teacher [of the Mishnah] does not consider those [Kohanim] who are intoxicated with wine and who had not washed their hands and feet together with those with physical defects and those [Kohanim] whose hair is overgrown as Rabbi Yossi considers them in the concluding clause [of the Mishnah] because those [Kohanim] with physical defects and overgrown hair, their invalidation is in their bodies, therefore, their exile is severe, but those [Kohanim] who are intoxicated with wine and those who have not washed their hands and their feet , their invalidation is on account of another matter, therefore, he was not strict regarding their exile so much.

אלא כהן גדול ביום הכפורים – as it is written (Leviticus 16:2-3): “[Tell your brother Aaron] that he is ot to come at will into the Shrine behind the curtain [in front of the cover that is upon the ark, lest he die; for I appear in the cloud over the cover.] Thus only shall Aaron enter the Shrine.”

בשעת עבודה – for times, he (i.e., the High Priest) enters there, 1): to offer up incense; 2) to sprinkle from the blood of the bullock; 3) to sprinkle from the blood of the goat; 4) to remove the spoon and the coal-pan, but if he enters into it five times, he is liable for death (see Tosefta Kelim Bava Kamma, Chapter 1, Halakha 7).

ופורשים בין האולם ולמזבח בשעת הקטרה (and they keep distant [from the area] between the porch and the altar at the time of [offering up] the incense – whether at the time that they offer up the incense on the Golden Altar that is in the Sanctuary, or at the time that the High Priest offers up incense In the innermost part of the Temple precincts (i.e., the Holy of Holies) , all of the people keep distant from between the porch and the altar and one does not need to mention, from the Sanctuary. But the first Tanna/teacher disputes on that of Rabbi Yossi and holds that at the time that they offer up incense in the Sanctuary is only when they keep distant and not been the porch and the Altar. And the Halakha is according to the first Tanna/teacher. And the ten Holy [locations] that are taught in our Mishnah, these are [actually] eleven, the Gaonim that the Land of Israel is not from the number of Holy Places, because in the remainder of the Holy Places, there is within them honor to the place that prevents from them some of the defilements or prevents from some of the people from entering to it. And this holiness is not found merely within the Land of Israel. But the bringing of First Fruits, and the Omer and the two loaves and the shewbread are not like these Holy Things. But there are those who explain that the first Tanna/teacher that considers ten Holy Things is Rabbi Yossi, and he holds that between the porch and the Altar is equivalent to the Sanctuary in five matters, and for him, they are there weren’t any other than ten.