Sukkah, Daf Mem Het, Part 3
Introduction
Today’s section is a mishnah. My commentary is taken from Mishnah Yomit.
Another one of the unique ceremonies performed at the Temple on Sukkot was the water libation. During the year libations, that is pouring liquid onto the altar, were always performed with wine. The water libation is unique and was vehemently opposed by the Sadducees, as we shall see at the end of the Mishnah.
The water libation functioned as a supplication to God to bring rain in the upcoming season. As I have emphasized in other places, the rainy season in Israel is from Sukkot to Pesah. If enough rain does not fall in this period people s lives would have been in serious danger. In the Temple they would pour water onto the altar to ask God to bring rain from the heavens to fill the cisterns and underground aquifers below.
משנה. ניסוך המים, כיצד?
צלוחית של זהב מחזקת שלשה לוגים היה ממלא מן השילוח,
הגיעו לשער המים תקעו והריעו ותקעו.
עלה בכבש ופנה לשמאלו. שני ספלים של כסף היו שם, רבי יהודה אומר: של סיד היו, אלא שהיו מושחרין פניהם מפני היין.
ומנוקבין כמין שני חוטמין דקין אחד מעובה ואחד דק, כדי שיהו שניהם כלין בבת אחת.
מערבו של מים, מזרחו של יין.
עירה של מים לתוך של יין, ושל יין לתוך של מים – יצא.
רבי יהודה אומר: בלוג היה מנסך כל שמונה.
ולמנסך אומר לו: הגבה ידך, שפעם אחד נסך אחד על גבי רגליו ורגמוהו כל העם באתרוגיהן.
כמעשהו בחול כך מעשהו בשבת, אלא שהיה ממלא מערב שבת חבית של זהב שאינה מקודשת מן השילוח, ומניחה בלשכה.
נשפכה נתגלתה – היה ממלא מן הכיור. שהיין והמים מגולין פסולין לגבי מזבח.
How was the water libation [performed]?
A golden flask holding three logs was filled from the Shiloah.
When they arrived at the water gate, they sounded a teki’ah [long blast], a teru’ah [a staccato note] and again a teki’ah.
[The priest then] went up the ascent [of the altar] and turned to his left where there were two silver bowls. Rabbi Judah says: they were of plaster [but they looked silver] because their surfaces were darkened from the wine.
They had each a hole like a slender snout, one being wide and the other narrow so that both emptied at the same time.
The one on the west was for water and the one on the east for wine.
If he poured the flask of water into the bowl for wine, or that of wine into that for water, he has fulfilled his obligation.
Rabbi Judah says: with one log he performed the ceremony of the water-libation all eight days.
To [the priest] who performed the libation they used to say, Raise your hand , for one time, a certain man poured out the water over his feet, and all the people pelted him with their etrogs.
As it was performed on weekdays, so was it was performed on Shabbat, save that on the eve of Shabbat he would fill a non-sanctified golden barrel from the Shiloah, and place it in the chamber.
If it was poured away or uncovered, he would refill it from the laver, for wine or water which has become uncovered is invalid for the altar.
The water libation ritual would begin with a procession from the Shiloah, the stream that empties out at the base of the Temple Mount. As we shall see when we learn the fifth chapter, this procession would begin in the morning after Simchat Bet Hashoevah (to be explained below). The people would make their way up to the Temple and enter through a designated gate called the water gate. [Made much more famous about 2,000 years later!] Just as we saw with the aravah ritual, here too they blew three shofar blasts. Again, this seems to have been a way of highlighting the event and emphasizing its importance in light of the fact that others disagreed with its fulfillment. They would then pour the water into a special bowl that had a hole in it. The water would go down to a cistern underneath the altar called shitin , where according to legend it would cause the waters of the deep to rise and nourish the earth. The wine libation was done simultaneously.
Rabbi Judah disagrees with the first opinion in the mishnah concerning two matters: 1) the libation was done with a log and not with three logs. Secondly, he holds that the water libation was for all eight days and not just on the seven days of Sukkot.
In the final story a priest, identified in the Talmud as a Sadducee, pours the water onto the floor of the Temple rather than pouring it onto the altar. In response, the people pelt him with their etrogs. There are several fascinating aspects to this story. First of all, although the Sadducean priest disagreed with the water libation, he was still working in the Temple and he ended up with the water flask in his hand. If the Sadducees controlled the Temple why did he have the water flask such that he had to cast it down? Why would they have bothered bringing the water up from the Shiloah in the first place? And if the Pharisees controlled the Temple, why would they have let a Sadducean priest perform a ritual that they surely knew he disagreed with? Another interesting point is that the people s sentiments clearly lie with the rabbis/Pharisees.
I should not that there is a very similar story in Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 13, Chapter 13:
As to Alexander, his own people were seditious against him; for at a festival which was then celebrated, when he stood upon the altar, and was going to sacrifice, the nation rose upon him, and pelted him with citrons [which they then had in their hands, because] the law of the Jews required that at the feast of tabernacles every one should have branches of the palm tree and citron tree; which thing we have elsewhere related.
This event occurred during the Hasmonean reign, meaning sometime in the early 1st century B.C.E. Alexander Yannai was king and high priest and was known to have had Sadducean leanings. However, there is nothing in Josephus about a water libation. The people pelt him with etrogs (citrons) because they oppose him as king and high priest. It is hard to know if the story in the Mishnah is related to this story from Josephus, either historically or literarily, but one thing we can know for sure if you re a Sadducee in the Temple on Sukkot, you d better watch your head!
After the description of how the water libation was performed, the mishnah emphasizes that it was performed on Shabbat just as it was performed during the week. I believe that this is frequently one of the ways in which the rabbis emphasized the importance of controversial rituals. It is as if to say that the water libation is so crucial that it is even done on Shabbat.
However, they had to make sure that the water was not carried through the public domain on Shabbat. In order to do this they would bring the water up on Friday before Shabbat and leave it in the chamber until the next morning. However, this posed another problem. Water or any other liquid left overnight in a sanctified vessel becomes unfit for use in the Temple. Therefore they would use a golden barrel that had not been consecrated.
If the water was poured away (perhaps by the Sadducean priest we met yesterday) then it obviously can t be used. Similarly, if it was left uncovered it also can t be used. Liquids left uncovered overnight are forbidden for anyone to drink for fear that a snake put venom in them. Since exposed liquids can t be drunk by people, it is also forbidden to use them on the altar. If the water that they had brought up the day before could not be used, then they would just use water from the laver that was in the Temple.