Monday, February 15, 2021

Why my synagogue is especially holy and is not what you think TB Pesakhim 86 part two

The Holy of Holies was a 100 amot call building consisting of two floors. Each floor was 50 amot  high. You might think that the bottom floor is holier than the top floor. Counterintuitively, that is not the case based on today’s daf TB Pesakhim 86.

Come and hear: Abba Shaul says: The upper story of the chamber of the Holy of Holies is more stringent with regard to the prohibition to enter it than the chamber of the Holy of Holies itself. How so? With regard to the chamber of the Holy of Holies, the High Priest would enter it once a year on Yom Kippur in order to offer the incense and sprinkle the blood between the staves of the ark, whereas the upper story of the chamber of the Holy of Holies is not entered except for once in seven years; and some say twice in seven years, and some say just one time in a Jubilee, i.e., once in fifty years, to see what it needs in case there are renovations that must be done. This indicates that the sanctity of the upper story was even greater than that of the Sanctuary itself." (Sefaria.org translation)

Drawing an analogy, my synagogue must be one of the holiest synagogues in the entire world, before the pandemic close the shul for health reasons, because the vast majority of my members hardly ever set foot into the sanctuary. :)


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