Study Yoma folio 69B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אין ישיבה בעזרה אלא למלכי בית דוד בלבד. שנאמר: ״ויבא המלך דוד וישב לפני ה׳״? כדאמר רב חסדא — בעזרת נשים, הכא נמי — בעזרת נשים.
Sitting in the Temple courtyard is permitted only for kings of the House of David, as it is stated: “Then King David went in and sat before YHWH” (I Chronicles 17:16)? How, then, could the High Priest have been sitting? The Talmud explains: As Rav Ḥisda said in a similar context: This took place not in the Israelite courtyard, where the prohibition against sitting applies, but in the women’s courtyard. Here, too, the reading was in the women’s courtyard, where it is permitted to sit.
והיכא איתמר דרב חסדא? אהא. מיתיבי: דתניא, היכן קורין בו — בעזרה, רבי אליעזר בן יעקב אומר: בהר הבית, שנאמר: ״ויקרא בו לפני הרחוב אשר לפני שער המים״, ואמר רב חסדא: בעזרת נשים.
§ The Talmud clarifies: And where was this statement of Rav Ḥisda originally stated? It was stated in relation to the following: The rabbis raised an objection based on that which was taught in a baraita: Where did they read the Torah scroll in fulfillment of the mitzva of assembly, in which the Torah is publicly read on the Sukkot following the Sabbatical Year? It was read in the Temple courtyard. R' Eliezer ben Ya’akov says: It is read on the Temple Mount, as it is stated concerning the public reading performed by Ezra: “And he read from it before the wide road that was before the Gate of the Water” (Nehemiah 8:3). And Rav Ḥisda said: The courtyard referred to by the first tanna is the women’s courtyard.
״ויברך עזרא את ה׳ האלהים הגדול״. מאי ״גדול״? אמר רב יוסף אמר רב: שגדלו בשם המפורש. רב גידל אמר: ״ברוך ה׳ אלהי ישראל מן העולם ועד העולם״.
Apropos the verse in Nehemiah, the Talmud interprets an adjacent verse homiletically. It is stated: “And Ezra blessed YHWH, the great God” (Nehemiah 8:6). The Talmud asks: What is the meaning of “great” here? Rav Yosef said that Rav said: It means that he ascribed greatness to Him by enunciating God’s explicit name. Rav Giddel said: He established that one should say at the conclusion of every blessing: “Blessed be YHWH, God of Israel, from eternity to eternity” (I Chronicles 16:36).