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No More Waiting For The Number 1 Bus!

This post should be a zchus for Zev Eliezer ben Chaya Sheindel, a young boy who is very sick and desperately in need of a yeshuah.

Do you absolutely LOVE the Old City of Jerusalem? Yes? Then I have a job for you.

Kohen Gadol. [If your father is not a kohen or if when you were born the doctor proclaimed "It's a girl" that might be a problem.]

The Rambam [klei hamikdash 5/7] says that the Kohen Gadol is never allowed to leave the confines of the Old City. Many a torah scholar has lost sleep over that one. Where did he get that from? Nowhere in Chazal is such a halacha mentioned.

The Minchas Chinuch [136] offers a brilliant resolution to this vexing problem. The Torah [see Vayikra 6/13 and Menachos 50b] teaches that a Kohen Gadol must bring a flour offering every day, half in the morning and the second half in the afternoon. Now, the gemara in Succah [47] says that a person who brings a korban must remain overnight in Jerusalem and so rules the Rambam [Bikkurim 3/14].

Problem solved! Since the Kohen Gadol brings a korban every day we understand why he may not leave Jerusalem. Just like anybody else who brings a korban may not leave that night, so too the Kohen Gadol may NEVER leave because he brings a korban every day.

Cool!!!!

But alas, as they say in the yeshivos, it is not so pashut. This Minchas Chinuch is very problematic. Why?

I will let you think about it and with the help of The Rock of Israel and its Redeemer I will continue in the next post.

5 comments

Can the KG send a shaliach to bring his minchas chavitin and spend the day at the (separate) beach?

BBS-

It would seem from תמידין ומוספין ג:כ-כב that one certainly can.

I'm just wondering if this הלכה really applies to all קרבנות, seeing as רמב"ם doesn't mention it anywhere else in משנה תורה (to my limited knowledge).

Especially because, one might argue, this הלכה is experiential. It's not some sort of formal דין (of course it is הלכה but its character is not one of חוק), rather it's that when one treks to the בית המקדש, even if not far from ירושלים, one should not bring the קרבן and simply leave. This might be because it shows that one's other affairs are more important than the experience of the בית המקדש, or simply that the תורה wants us to remain in ירושלים and soak up the קדושה.

The point is that this may only apply to קרבנות similar to ביכורים, ones that have unique times allotted to them or are only brought once a year.

Without having seen a source I would find it hard to believe that a כהן who brings the תמיד has that דין to stay overnight if it's his family's week in the בית המקדש.

בנידון דידן, the כהן גדול is tied to the בית המקדש and isn't going anywhere. He can appoint other כהנים in his stead to bring the מנחה, but they are just that: in his stead. שלוחו שלאדם כמותו. So, לפענ"ד, vis-a-vis this הלכה I do not think his departure from ירושלים would be viewed as a violation.

BBS
In the next post your question is answered. Good point.

WWFF
Good intuition - see further.

I don't have a Rambam available for clarification (what? A house without a Rambam? I'm not miskabel!) but according to what I read --

The Rambam states that the Kohen Gadol may not LEAVE the confines of the Old City whereas the gemara in Succah states that a person is obligated to remain overnight. This is learned out from the pasuk in Devarim saying that only in the morning does one return home. The Rambam states in klei hamikdash (again, I haven't read it inside) that a kohen gadol may not leave, apparently even if he intends to return that night. The gemara in Succah does not necasserily go that far.

Yaakovp - ALMOST!!!!!! Great going! If you had a Rambam you would have gotten it 100 percent. I just don't understand how such an intelligent man such as yourself doesn't possess a Rambam.

One time Rav YB Soloveitchik was in a businessman's office [I think it was his office] and they were discussing a point of halacha. So Rav YB said "let's get a Rambam and check" the man said that he doesn't have one. Rav YB said in wonderment "How can a Yid LIVE w/o a Rambam???" [You call that living?]

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About me

  • I'm Rabbi Ally Ehrman
  • From Old City Jerusalem, Israel
  • I am a Rebbe in Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh.
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