Study Yoma folio 22B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
או דילמא בר מאמה יסוד ואמה סובב? תיקו.
or are they perhaps calculated excluding the cubit of the base of the altar and the cubit of its ledge? The altar’s edge can be considered to be at the end of the ramp, the point at which it meets the altar, or it can be considered the point on the ramp that is directly over the external base of the altar, which is two cubits away from the point where the ramp meets the altar. Which of these two calculations is the correct one? Rav Pappa’s question remains unanswered, and the Talmud concludes: The dilemma should stand unresolved.
ואם היו שניהן שוין, הממונה אומר להם הצביעו וכו׳. תנא: הוציאו אצבעותיכם למנין. ונימנינהו לדידהו? מסייע ליה לרבי יצחק. דאמר רבי יצחק: אסור למנות את ישראל אפילו לדבר מצוה, דכתיב: ״ויפקדם בבזק״.
§ It was taught in the Mishnah that if both of them were equal and neither preceded the other, the appointed priest says to all the priests: Extend your fingers [hatzbiu], and a lottery was performed. A tanna taught the meaning of the unusual term hatzbiu: Put out your fingers for a count. The Talmud asks: Let him count the priests themselves directly, rather than counting their fingers. The Talmud answers: This is a support for a teaching of R' Yitzḥak, as R' Yitzḥak said: It is prohibited to count Jews directly, even for the purposes of a mitzva, as it is written concerning King Saul and his count of his soldiers: “And he numbered them with bezek” (I Samuel 11:8), meaning that he counted them through shards, one shard representing each man, rather than counting them directly.
מתקיף לה רב אשי: ממאי דהאי ״בזק״ לישנא דמיבזק הוא? ודילמא שמא דמתא הוא, כדכתיב: ״וימצאו אדוני בזק״. אלא מהכא: ״וישמע שאול את העם ויפקדם בטלאים״.
Rav Ashi strongly objects to this interpretation of the verse: From where do you derive that this word bezek is a term related to the verb meaning to break apart, so that it means shards? Perhaps it is the name of a town, and it means that Saul counted them in Bezek, as it is written: “And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek” (Judges 1:5), which shows that Bezek is the name of a place. The Talmud answers: Indeed, the proof is not from that verse but from here, where it says: “And Saul summoned the people and numbered them by sheep” (I Samuel 15:4), meaning that Saul tallied his soldiers by having each one take a sheep and put it aside to represent him in the count.