Sukkah 045

נושא: Sukkah

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

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In the Bet Mikdash they never had less than twenty-one blasts [of trumpet or shofar] and never more than forty-eight. Every day they had twenty-one blasts: three for the opening of the gates, nine for the morning daily sacrifice, and nine for the afternoon daily sacrifice. When additional sacrifices [were offered] they would have nine more. On Friday [afternoon] they would add six more: three to warn the people to stop work and three to distinguish between sacred and secular. On the Friday [afternoon] during Sukkot there were forty-eight: three for the opening of the gates, three for the upper gate, three for the lower gate, three for filling the water, three for [pouring it] on the altar, nine for the morning daily sacrifice, nine for the afternoon daily sacrifice, nine for the additional sacrifices, three to warn the people to stop work and three to distinguish between sacred and secular.

1:
The previous mishnah described how two priests would process down the length of the Women's Court while sounding trumpets in order to put an end to that night's revelries. By an association of ideas, our present mishnah gives details of the blasts on trumpets (and shofars) on most days of the year. These trumpet blasts served as warnings that something important was about to happen.

2:
During the archeological excavations that were done within the Ophel Garden after the Six Day War a large stone was discovered at the corner of the Western Wall and the Southern Wall. On the stone was engraved "To the Place of [Trumpet] Sounding". It would seem that it was at this "Place of Sounding" that the trumpets were sounded on Friday afternoons, as we shall see.

3:
On an ordinary day the trumpets were sounded twenty-one times in the Bet Mikdash. The first time was early in the morning when the gates to the Temple precinct were opened. (The gates were closed at night.) Three blasts of the trumpet heralded the opening of the gates. While the two daily sacrifices were being offered on the altar eighteen blasts of the trumpet would be sounded: nine in the morning and nine in the afternoon.

4:
On the New Moon, on Shabbat and on the biblical festivals (Passover, Pentecost, New Year, Atonement and Sukkot) additional sacrifices were offered: these, too, were heralded by nine blasts on the trumpet.

5:
On Friday afternoons there would be a special sounding of the trumpet to warn all the people in Jerusalem that Shabbat was approaching. In the Gemara [Shabbat 35b] there is a barayta which amplifies the information given in our present mishnah:

Six blasts [of the trumpet] were sounded on Friday [afternoon]. The first was to warn people to desist from work in the fields; the second was to warn people in the city and in the shops; the third, according to Rabbi Natan, was to warn people to light the [Shabbat] candles; Rabbi Yehudah the President [of the Sanhedrin] says that the third [sounding] was to warn people to remove their tefillin. [The priest] would then wait long enough to fry a small fish or to place bread into the oven; then he would sound Teki'ah, Teru'ah, Teki'ah and then stop.

6:
Finally, in the Gemara [Shabbat 35b], we are given the fullest account of how this was performed:

Six blasts were sounded on Friday. When he sounded the first time those in the fields would stop hoeing, ploughing and all other work in the fields. Those nearer [town] were not allowed to enter until those from further off joined them and they all entered [town] together. The shops were still open and the shutters laid. When he sounded a second blast the shutters were put up and the shops were closed, but food could still be placed on the range. When he sounded a third blast they would close [their food] in the oven and light the candles. He would then wait long enough to fry a small fish or to place bread into the oven; then he would sound Teki'ah, Teru'ah, Teki'ah and then stop.

7:
Calculating the number of trumpet blasts sounded on the Friday afternoon of Sukkot is a matter of simple arithmetic, because on such an occasion all the above instances apply: the daily blasts, the additional blasts and the pre-Shabbat blasts. All in all forty-eight blasts.

8:
Having mentioned in our present mishnah the additional sacrifices the next mishnah will detail the additional sacrifices for Sukkot — which were unique in the sacred year.

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