A little spatzir TB Yoma 45

 I don’t have to tell anybody that Yom Kippur is qualitatively different from every other day of the year. The Mishnah on daf TB Yoma 43b delineates many of the differences between the Yom Kippur service and a regular weekday service in the Temple. Today’s daf TB Yoma 45 explains the differences. Here is one example:

“On every other day, priests ascend on the eastern side of the ramp. A baraita explains the reason for this: As the Master said: All the turns that you turn should be only to the right, which, after ascending the altar, means one will turn to the east and will mean one will circulate the altar in a counter-clockwise fashion. When they descended, they again turned to the right, which is to the west of the ramp.

“The mishna continues: But on this day the priests ascend in the middle of the ramp and descend in the middle. What is the reason? Due to the eminence of the High Priest he should not walk on the side but in the middle.” (Sefaria.org translation)

On a normal day a priest wanted to take the shortest route possible to accomplish all of his tasks. He didn’t want to start in the middle of the altar and then have to walk all the way to the eastern corner. In other words the priests did not want to take a shpatzir, a Yiddish word that means to walk, to take a stroll, to meander without any real purpose in mind. We treat the altar with great respect; consequently, a shpatzir is inappropriate.

There are a couple reasons why the High Priest walked in the center of the ramp. According to one version, walking up the ramp with him were the Segan (the next priest up if something should happen to disqualify the High Priest) and the head of the court (אב בית דין). One was on the right and one was on the left so the High Priest walked in the middle. Escorting the High Priest was also an act of giving him respect (כבוד) and was not considered part and parcel of the Avodah.

Secondly, the High Priest felt at home in his duties. As the ba’al habayit (בעל הבית), master of his domain, he was afforded a little spatzir.