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Text Excerpt
שבעת ימים קודם יום הכפורים מפרישין כהן גדול מביתו ללשכת פרהדרין. ומתקינין לו כהן אחר תחתיו שמא יארע בו פסול.
Mishnah: 7 days prior to Yom Kippur the rabbis would remove the High Priest, who performs the entire Yom Kippur service, from his house to the Chamber of Parhedrin, a room in the Temple designated specifically for the High Priest during that period. And they would designate another priest in his stead to replace him lest a disqualification due to impurity or another circumstance beyond his control prevent him from entering the Temple on Yom Kippur.
רבי יהודה אומר: אף אשה אחרת מתקינין לו, שמא תמות אשתו, שנאמר: ״וכפר בעדו ובעד ביתו״, ״ביתו״ — זו אשתו. אמרו לו: אם כן, אין לדבר סוף.
R' Yehuda says: The rabbis would even designate another wife for him lest his wife die, as it is stated in the Torah portion of the Yom Kippur service: “And it will atone for him and for his house” (Leviticus 16:6); the rabbis interpreted the term: His house, that is his wife. The priest must be married in order to fulfill this commandment. Due to the concern lest his wife die, another wife was designated to address that possibility. The Rabbis said to R' Yehuda: If so, that this is a concern, there is no end to the matter, as what if the designated replacement wife dies? This possibility need not be a source of concern.
גמ׳ תנן התם: שבעת ימים קודם שריפת הפרה היו מפרישין כהן השורף את הפרה מביתו ללשכה שעל פני הבירה צפונה מזרחה, ולשכת בית האבן היתה נקראת. ולמה נקרא שמה לשכת בית האבן — שכל מעשיה בכלי גללים, בכלי אבנים, ובכלי אדמה.
Talmud: The halakha of sequestering the High Priest prior to his performance of the Temple service on Yom Kippur is comparable to the sequestering of the priest designated to burn the red heifer. Therefore, the Talmud cites that which we learned in a Mishnah there, in tractate Para: 7 days prior to the burning of the red heifer, the rabbis would remove the priest who burns the heifer from his house to the chamber that was before the bira at the northeast corner of the courtyard on the Temple Mount. And that chamber was called the Chamber of the Stone House. The Talmud explains: And why was it called the Chamber of the Stone House? It is because all the actions associated with the red heifer were performed in dung vessels, stone vessels, and earth vessels, which are vessels that cannot become ritually impure.