Yoma 3:3 — Immersion before the Avodah

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Mishnah 24 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
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YomaMesechtaמסכתיומא
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נושא · Topicטְבִילָה קֹדֶם הָעֲבוֹדָהImmersion before the Avodah
This Mishnah is:a casewhat does that mean?
Mishnah יומא ג׳:ג׳ · Yoma 3:3
אֵין אָדָם נִכְנָס לָעֲזָרָה לָעֲבוֹדָה, אֲפִלּוּ טָהוֹר, עַד שֶׁיִּטְבֹּל.
חָמֵשׁ טְבִילוֹת וַעֲשָׂרָה קִדּוּשִׁין טוֹבֵל כֹּהֵן גָּדוֹל וּמְקַדֵּשׁ בּוֹ בַיּוֹם,
וְכֻלָּן בַּקֹּדֶשׁ עַל בֵּית הַפַּרְוָה,
חוּץ מִזּוֹ בִלְבָד.
To enter the Azarah for the Avodah, even one who is tahor, one must first immerse.
Five immersions and ten washings the Kohein Gadol performs that day,
and all of them in the kodesh, atop the Beis HaParvah,
except this one alone.
A reading aid, not an exact translation.

This English is a clause-by-clause rendering to help you follow the Hebrew. It is not word-for-word literal, and it is not a transcript of the recorded shiur — the audio carries explanation and context the translation deliberately leaves out.

case/objectrestrictive rulingcondition
Structure
The Mishnah's Structure▾
חָמֵשׁ טְבִילוֹת וַעֲשָׂרָה קִדּוּשִׁין — בּוֹ בַיּוֹם ה הָרִאשׁוֹנָה — בְּחֹל the first alone stands outside וְכֻלָּן בַּקֹּדֶשׁ עַל בֵּית הַפַּרְוָה י עֲשָׂרָה קִדּוּשִׁין — יָדַיִם וְרַגְלַיִם five immersions, ten sanctifications — the Kohen Gadol's day, counted in water
Summary Chart
Immersion before the Avodah▾
CaseRulingReason
May one enter the Azarah to perform the Avodah without immersing?No — one must first immerse, even one who is tahor—
How many immersions and washings does the Kohein Gadol perform on Yom Kippur?Five immersions and ten washings—
Where are they performed?All in the kodesh, atop the Beis HaParvah — except the first—
Transcript
A machine transcript of the recorded shiur.

This is the shiur as spoken, transcribed automatically and left unedited — the wording is Ephraim's, and occasional transcription errors remain. It follows the audio word by word.

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Mishnah Insights
An amalgam of commentaries, including original insights.

These insights draw on the commentaries to this Mishnah and on the recorded shiur. Those commentaries often rest on earlier sources — the Gemara, the Yerushalmi, the Rishonim, and one another — without always saying so; where they do, we generally cite the one we read. Every commentary consulted is kept, verbatim, with this card.

Immersion as the act of drawing near▾

Which courtyard, and why even a tahor man immerses

Tosafos Yom Tov notes that ‘the Azarah’ here means the Ezras Yisrael specifically. Even one who is fully tahor immerses before entering it to serve — not from any suspicion of tumah, but by a kal vachomer: if the Kohein Gadol, already pure, immerses merely to pass from one holy service to another, then one coming from the ordinary world into the holy certainly must (Bartenura).

Five immersions, ten washings

The Kohein Gadol immerses five times and washes his hands and feet ten on Yom Kippur — more than the pesukim alone would give. Tosafos Yom Tov derives it from the day’s changes of garment: each change requires an immersion flanked by two washings. All are done in holiness, atop the Beis HaParvah, except the first, which stood in unconsecrated ground by the Water Gate.

עוֹלָמוֹ שֶׁל הַמִּשְׁנָה
Where the immersions were

Mishnat Eretz Yisrael sets the place. The Beis HaParvah stood in the northern corner of the Azarah; its chamber was where the hides of the kodshim were salted, and its roof held a mikveh (Middos 5:3). Four of the Kohein Gadol’s five immersions that day were taken there, in the kodesh. The first alone was in the chol — the mishnah’s ‘except this one’ — at the mikveh by the Sha’ar HaMayim, beside the chamber of Beis Avtinas where he had spent the eve of Yom Kippur (Tosefta).

Series Insights
Series context▾
← Previous
Yoma 3:2
Purity before the Avodah
Mishnah 24 of 41
Yoma 3:3
Immersion to enter the Azarah
Next →
Eduyos 8:4
Leniencies from the first of the Zugos

Where this sits

To enter the Azarah at all — even already pure — a kohein first went down into the water. That threshold, and the Kohein Gadol’s five immersions on Yom Kippur, belonged wholly to a standing Bais. What the Churban took was the place that asked for it.

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