Study Yoma folio 55A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
כמנגדנא. תנא, כשהוא מזה — אינו מזה על הכפורת, אלא כנגד עוביה של כפורת. כשהוא מזה למעלה — מצדד ידו למטה. וכשהוא מזה למטה — מצדד ידו למעלה.
like one who lashes with a whip on the back of another and who occasionally strikes lower down. A Sage taught in the Tosefta: When the High Priest sprinkles the blood, he does not sprinkle on the top of the Ark cover; rather, he does so against the thickness of the Ark cover. When he sprinkles once upward, he turns his hand so that the back of his hand faces downward, and he then sprinkles upward. And when he sprinkles 7 times downward, he turns his hand so its back is upward. However, he does not sprinkle on the Ark cover or below it, so that the blood does not actually come into contact with it.
מנא הני מילי? אמר רב אחא בר יעקב, אמר רבי זירא, אמר קרא: ״והזה אותו על הכפורת ולפני הכפורת״, לא יאמר ״למטה״ בשעיר, דלא צריך, דגמר ממטה דפר,
The Talmud asks: From where are these matters, that the sprinklings do not actually touch the Ark cover, derived? Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said that R' Zeira said: The verse states with regard to the goat sacrificed as a sin-offering: “And he should do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it upon the Ark cover and before the Ark cover” (Leviticus 16:15). The verse should not say downward, i.e., “before the Ark cover,” with regard to the goat, as this is unnecessary; this requirement is derived from the term downward in connection with the bull.
למה נאמר — לאקושי ״על״ ל״לפני״: מה ״לפני״ דלאו על, אף ״על״ דלאו על.
Since the rite performed with the blood of the goat is compared to the rite of the blood of the bull, why is the requirement that the High Priest must sprinkle downward stated twice? It is to juxtapose the phrase “upon the Ark cover” to “before the Ark cover”; just as “before” means that it is not actually on the Ark cover but merely in front of it, so too, “upon” means that it is not actually on the Ark cover but in front of it, and the High Priest simply turns his hand upward.