Rosh Hashanah in the Beis Hamikdash - Rabbi Yaron Yitzchok Lederman shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the “Lema’an Yishme’u” podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Shalom aleichem. Today we’re talking about Rosh Hashanah. During Elul, the King was in the field, and now He enters His royal palace. And us—what do we do? What do we do? How do we, down here in this lower world, serve Him? What do we do in His chosen House? The truth is that Rosh Hashanah is not such an exceptional day in the Beis Hamikdash. There are a few things that happen there, but Sukkos, for example, which we’ll discuss later, is something else entirely. Pesach certainly is. Rosh Hashanah is not a pilgrimage festival; it is a Yom Tov. And because it isn’t a pilgrimage festival, the number of offerings the community brings is relatively small. The main offerings are those that are obligatory for the community. There are no individual offerings, like the offering brought when appearing in the Beis Hamikdash, the festival peace offering, or the peace offerings of rejoicing. We don’t bring any of those on Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is a Yom Tov, but it isn’t a pilgrimage festival. So what does happen on Rosh Hashanah in the Beis Hamikdash? Let’s go through it a little. On Rosh Hashanah we have at least two major communal offerings. What are they? The first is the Rosh Chodesh offering, because Rosh Hashanah is also Rosh Chodesh, and the second is the offering for Rosh Hashanah itself. Rosh Hashanah is a Yom Tov, and Parshas Pinchas tells us which offerings must be brought on Rosh Hashanah. In addition, we sound the shofar and trumpets in the Beis Hamikdash on Rosh Hashanah. We do that on both days. So let’s describe things in a bit more detail. When the eve of Rosh Hashanah arrives, there are important matters connected with shemitah, there’s a pruzbul, and there are all the important things the people do, but none of that concerns the kohanim. The priestly watch has been there for some time already; it arrived at the Beis Hamikdash before Shabbos and has begun

02:22 Speaker 2 its period of service. If Rosh Hashanah also falls on Shabbos, then we have another offering: the Shabbos offering of two lambs. So let’s review the Rosh Hashanah offerings in order. We have a rule regarding offerings: when one is more frequent than another, the more frequent one comes first. Our prayers were arranged that way too. First we do what we do every day—the morning offering. Our Sages had mercy on us, and the early authorities understood our circumstances, so they often connected Shacharis with events relating to the day. Our Shacharis prayer corresponds to the morning tamid offering. Every morning, in the days of the Beis Hamikdash, they brought the morning tamid, the daily offering; Shacharis was instituted to correspond to it. So we follow the entire regular morning procedure: we inspect the courtyard and check that nothing has entered, that all the vessels are in place, and that the fire arrangements are ready to receive the day’s offerings. In other words, the altar is prepared and in order. We have three fire arrangements, as established—three places for fire on the altar—and they’re already ready. We do all this long before dealing with Rosh Hashanah at all. We do what we do every day, and then we bring the morning tamid. After that, if it’s Shabbos, the more frequent offering comes first, so the Shabbos mussaf offering is first. What is the Shabbos mussaf? Two lambs. There’s also the changing of the showbread, but we’ll talk about that another time. We’ll learn about it in the lesson on Shabbos. But the Shabbos offering is two lambs, so it’s the mussaf that comes first—if Rosh Hashanah also falls on Shabbos. After that, Rosh Hashanah is also Rosh Chodesh.

04:10 Speaker 2 Rosh Hashanah is two days. It’s the only Yom Tov that is two days in every case—not because of the later enactment for the Diaspora, but always. And only one of those two days is Rosh Chodesh. So on the day that is Rosh Chodesh, we bring the Rosh Chodesh offering. We’re familiar with that offering. Then, after bringing the Shabbos mussaf, if applicable, and certainly the Rosh Chodesh mussaf, we bring the offering for Rosh Hashanah itself. That offering is described in Parshas Pinchas. It differs from the offerings of other Yomim Tovim. On most of the other days, we bring two bulls, one ram, and seven lambs. Here, on Rosh Hashanah, we bring one bull, which alludes to the unity, the oneness, of Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah, we unite before the King. Our Sages find an allusion to this in the verse, though it is a decree of Scripture. Many details of the offerings are decrees of Scripture: that’s what the verse says, so we must fulfill it, without an explicit reason. But what does the Rambam say? Although sounding the shofar on Rosh Hashanah is a decree of Scripture, it also conveys a message: “Awake, sleepers, from your sleep; awake, sleepers, from your sleep.” So Rosh Hashanah is a time when the world has this sense of oneness. We crown the King, and accordingly we bring one offering. What is that offering? One bull. Twenty-four kohanim bring that bull, as we described regarding Rosh Chodesh. We also bring one ram, carried by eleven additional kohanim—not the same kohanim—and seven lambs, brought by the kohanim of the watch serving that day. Each lamb requires six kohanim, so that gives us eighty-four kohanim

06:07 Speaker 2 to bring the seven lambs and carry them around the altar. It’s an extraordinary sight. Most of what is done in the Beis Hamikdash is done with a great multitude, in honor of the King. It’s done with dignity, with a sense of elevation, in a way that stirs the whole courtyard, with pauses at every stage of the work. That’s the matter of the lambs. In addition, on Rosh Hashanah we have the shofar blasts. We know that when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, we don’t sound the shofar outside the Beis Hamikdash. Anywhere outside the Beis Hamikdash is called “outside its precincts.” So we don’t sound the shofar there when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos, but in the Beis Hamikdash, we sound it on Rosh Hashanah in every case. What do we sound? A shofar and two trumpets. And our Sages established a distinguishing feature. Some of the early authorities call it merely a convention, meaning that Scripture did not decree this particular distinction. As for the trumpets themselves, yes, “You shall sound the trumpets” is a decree; it’s written in the verse. But what exactly do we do? Three kohanim stand there: one holds a shofar and two hold trumpets. The two kohanim with the trumpets and the kohen with the shofar begin to sound them at the designated point. When is that? As is often the way in Torah, there are differing opinions: whether it’s before the mussaf offerings, as we do before Mussaf, or after the mussaf offerings. Either way, the blasts are not sounded during the offerings. As we said, the service stirs the courtyard. With the daily tamid offerings, at the end of the service, two kohanim would stand with two trumpets and sound them by the table for the fats. On the western side of the ramp leading up to the altar, there are two tables. One is called the table for the fats, and the other is the table on which we do the... The table for the fats was made of marble. Why was it called the table for the fats? Because marble is stone, and an expensive stone, and they wanted the meat of the offerings not to

08:23 Speaker 2 spoil, G-d forbid, because it would be disrespectful Above for the meat of the offerings to spoil. So it was called the Table of the Fats. The second was the Table of the Vessels, on which they placed ninety-three vessels brought out of the Chamber of the Vessels. Its location has not been clearly established. Some of the Rishonim suggest that it was on the western side, opposite the chamber called the Chamber of the Hearth. There was a kind of compartment there, in the wall of the Beis Hamikdash’s sanctuary, where the vessels were kept. In any case, there were ninety-three vessels, and they placed all nine—ninety-three vessels on the table. These were actually three sets of thirty-one vessels for wet and dry measures. Those thirty-one vessels were placed on the Table of the Vessels. That was the silver table, and next to it, generally speaking—because this is the view of most authorities—stood the Table of the Fats. The kohanim stood on the Table of the Fats to make their sound heard throughout the courtyard, because this was where the offerings were now being taken from. So now we stand here, draw out the blasts, and perform the mitzvah from the Torah in honor of Hashem. It is very likely that they made a blessing, since this is a mitzvah from the Torah. As we said, it is written in a verse. So they blessed, “Who has sanctified us with the holiness of Aharon and commanded us to sound the trumpets,” or “the shofar,” as appropriate—or simply “to sound,” without specifying the instrument, according to the view of some Rishonim. Then they stood and sounded the trumpets. This happened every day with the daily offering. On Rosh Hashanah, as we said, it was before Musaf or after Musaf. It seems likely that it was before Musaf, as it is today. That is how it was decided and instituted, and the practice also became established that way: we sound the shofar before Musaf so the congregation will not be tired after Musaf. That is one reason given, as in the well-known story about the Alter Rebbe, who sounded the shofar before everyone else, because, in fact, the sounding has no set time. In any case, they sounded it in the Beis

10:06 Speaker 2 Din. They sounded it beforehand, and the Beis Din was there—the Great Beis Din, in the Chamber of Hewn Stone. So they sounded the trumpets, and it could be heard throughout Jerusalem, as the accounts tell us. On Rosh Hashanah in particular, the mitzvah of the day is with the shofar. Yes, the shofar blast was prolonged. So three kohanim stood there on the Table of the Fats, if that was indeed its location according to one of the views, and they sounded their instruments. All three began together at a signal from the official in charge of the vessels or the official in charge of the times. There were two such officials; the Rambam lists the various officials in Hilchos Klei Hamikdash, as they are mentioned in Shekalim. He gave them a signal, and when he did, they sounded their instruments. Then, as long as their breath allowed, they drew out the blasts. The one with the shofar sounded a different pattern from the trumpets, which sounded one continuous blast. He sounded tekiah-teruah-tekiah, teruah, tekiah. It says that he made a great effort to sound longer than the trumpets, because the mitzvah of the day is with the shofar. That made it known that today was a day of shofar sounding. After his blast, everyone else in the country was permitted to sound the shofar. That is why it seems likely that this took place before Musaf, as we said. And with that, we have essentially finished all the service in the Beis Hamikdash. There are no more communal offerings. I mean, there are vows and voluntary offerings that people might want to bring, sin offerings, G-d forbid—someone might bring a sin offering on Rosh Hashanah—and guilt offerings as well. But none of these offerings override Yom Tov, or Shabbos when it falls then. And there are no other Yom Tov offerings, because Rosh Hashanah is not a pilgrimage festival: they do not bring an olas re’iyah or shalmei chagigah. So that was the offering we brought. The entire courtyard was full of people who wanted to watch, or they were on the Temple Mount, which, as the Chasam Sofer writes, was full of synagogues. Some came after prayers or during prayers to see the offering being brought in the Beis Hamikdash. But in principle, it

12:13 Speaker 2 was a relatively simple day in the Beis Hamikdash, because that aspect was not visible. But what could people throughout the world see? They could see the seven—the constant miracles in the Beis Hamikdash, the ten constant miracles. Yes, those they could see. And for anyone who wanted to connect with it, of course, there was a greater degree of ruach hakodesh in the Beis Hamikdash, and a greater awareness of G-dliness in the world. So it certainly affected the whole world. But in terms of the regular activities we are listing, these seem relatively simple. May it be Hashem’s will that our eyes behold this wondrous sight: to see the Creator of the world revealed, and to crown Him as King in His home, speedily. Amen, amen.