Study Yoma folio 22A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
בראשונה כל מי שרוצה לתרום את המזבח — תורם. ובזמן שהן מרובין רצין ועולין בכבש, כל הקודם את חבירו בארבע אמות — זכה. ואם היו שניהן שוין, הממונה אומר להן: הצביעו.
Mishnah: Initially, the practice among the priests was that whoever wishes to remove the ashes from the altar removes them. And when there are many priests who wish to perform that task, the privilege to do so is determined by a race: The priests run and ascend on the ramp leading to the top of the altar. Any priest who precedes another and reaches within 4 cubits of the top of the altar first is privileged to remove the ashes. And if both of them were equal and neither preceded the other, the appointed priest says to all the priests: Extend your fingers, and a lottery was performed, as will be explained.
ומה הן מוציאין — אחת או שתים, ואין מוציאין אגודל במקדש.
And what fingers do they extend for the lottery? They may extend one or 2 fingers, and the priests do not extend a thumb in the Temple. The reason is that the lottery was conducted by the appointee choosing a number and counting the extended fingers of the priests standing in a circle. As the count progressed, a priest could calculate and manipulate the result in his favor by surreptitiously extending his thumb and an additional finger. Since there is separation between the thumb and the forefinger it could appear as though they belonged to two different priests, skewing the results of the lottery.
מעשה שהיו שניהם שוין, ורצין ועולין בכבש, ודחף אחד מהן את חבירו ונפל ונשברה רגלו. וכיון שראו בית דין שבאין לידי סכנה, התקינו שלא יהו תורמין את המזבח אלא בפייס. ארבע פייסות היו שם, וזה הפייס הראשון.
Initially, that was the procedure; however, an incident occurred where both of them were equal as they were running and ascending on the ramp, and one of them shoved another and he fell and his leg was broken. And once the court saw that people were coming to potential danger, they instituted that priests would remove ashes from the altar only by means of a lottery. There were 4 lotteries there, in the Temple, on a daily basis to determine the priests privileged to perform the various services, and this, determining which priest would remove the ashes, was the first lottery.