Sukkah, Daf Mem Het, Part 5
Introduction
Today’s section explains two more pieces of the mishnah.
עלה בכבש ופנה לשמאלו כו’. תנו רבנן: כל העולים למזבח עולין דרך ימין, ומקיפין ויורדין דרך שמאל. חוץ מן העולה לשלשה דברים הללו, שעולין דרך שמאל וחוזרין על העקב, ואלו הן: ניסוך המים, וניסוך היין, ועולת העוף כשרבתה במזרח.
[The priest] went up the ascent [of the altar] and turned to his left etc.
Our Rabbis taught: All who ascend the altar turned to the right, proceeded round and descended by the left, except for those ascending for the following three purposes, who ascended by the left, turned on their heel and returned [the same way].
These are the three: the water-libation and wine-libation, and the burnt-offering of a fowl when the altar was full on [its south] east side.
This baraita notes that in most cases when the priests ascended the altar they would turn right after their ascent, make their way around, and descend on the left. The only exceptions were the water and wine libations and the bird offerings when the altar was full. The right side of the altar is where most of the sacrifices were offered and there would have been a lot of smoke. This would not have been good for the water or wine. Most bird-offerings were performed on the right side of the altar, but if there was not enough room they would offer the birds on the left side.
אלא שהיו משחירין. בשלמא דיין משחיר, דמיא אמאי משחיר? – כיון דאמר מר: עירה של מים לתוך של יין ושל יין לתוך של מים – יצא, של מים אתי לאשחורי.
[But they looked silver] because their surfaces were darkened.
It is well [as regards the flagon of the wine] since wine darkens, but how was that of the water darkened?
Since the Master has said, if one poured the flagon of water into the bowl for wine, or that of wine into that for water, he has fulfilled his obligation, the [flagon] of water may also become darkened.
According to the mishnah, the bowls into which the water and wine were poured were made of plaster but they looked silver because of the wine that had been poured into them. The Talmud notes that this makes sense with regard to the bowl into which wine would have been poured. But the other bowl only had water how would it have turned silver? The answer is that sometimes the priest would accidentally pour the wine into the one meant for water. This libation was still valid. That is how the bowl meant for water turned silver it was an accident.