Biat Hamikdash - Chapter 5

It is a positive commandment for a priest1 who serves [in the Temple] to sanctify his hands and feet2 and afterwards perform service,3 as [Exodus 30:19] states: "And Aaron and his sons will wash their hands and their feet from it." A priest who serves4 without having sanctified his hands and feet in the morning5 is liable for death at the hand of heaven,6 as [ibid.:20] states: "They shall wash with water and not die." Their service - whether that of a High Priest or an ordinary priest - is invalid.

Which source teaches that his service is invalid? [Ibid.:21] states: "It will be an eternal statute for him and his generations," and with regard to the Priestly garments [ibid. 25:43] also uses the expression: "An eternal statute."7 Just as [a priest] who is lacking the priestly garments invalidates his service, as we explained,8 so, too, one who did not wash his hands invalidates his service.

A priest does not have to sanctify [himself] between every service [that he performs]. Instead, he consecrates [his hands and feet] once in the morning and may continue serving throughout the day and [the subsequent] night,9 provided he does not: a) depart from the Temple;10 b) sleep;11 c) urinate;12 or divert his attention [from his hands and feet]. If he does any of the above, he must sanctify his hands and feet again.

If a priest departed from the Temple, returned and then performed service without sanctifying [his hands and feet], his service is acceptable13 if he did not divert his attention.14 This general principle was followed in the Temple: No person would enter the Temple Courtyard to perform service15 unless he immersed [in the mikveh] even though he was ritually pure.

Anyone who defecates must immerse himself [in a mikveh].16 Anyone who urinates must sanctify his hands and feet.

[The following rules apply when] one goes outside the walls of the Temple Courtyard. If he departed [with the intent of] staying outside for an extended time, he must immerse [in a mikveh].17 If [his intent] was to return immediately, when he returns, all that is necessary is that he sanctify his hands and feet. If he did not immerse, nor sanctified his hands and feet and carried out [sacrificial] service, his service is acceptable18 since he did not divert his attention, nor did he defecate or urinate. If he merely placed his hands outside the Temple Courtyard, he is not required to sanctify them again.

If [only] a person's hands become ritually impure,19 he may immerse them and they are ritually pure. He need not sanctify them again.

If his body became impure because he partook of impure foods or drank impure beverages and immersed himself, even though he does not have to wait until nightfall [to become ritually pure],20 he must sanctify [his hands and feet] after immersing himself, for everyone who immerses himself must sanctify his hands and feet [before] serving. If he did not sanctify [his hands and feet], his service is not desecrated since he did not divert his attention.

When a High Priest does not immerse himself nor sanctify his hands and feet between his changes of clothes and between his different services on Yom Kippur21 and [continues] serving, his service is acceptable.22 [The rationale is that] since those immersions and sanctifications are not applicable equally to Aaron and his sons,23 as [Exodus 30:19] states: "And Aaron and his sons will wash from it." Only an obligation that is equally applicable to all the priests is an indispensable obligation, i.e., the first sanctification of one's hands.

If a person sanctified his hands on one day, he must sanctify them again on the following day even though he did not sleep at all that night, for the hands are disqualified because of the passage of the night. [Even] if he sanctified his hands at night and offered fats on [the altar's pyre] the entire night,24 he must go back and sanctify [his hands] on the next day25 for that day's service.

If a priest sanctified his hands and his feet for the removal of the altar's ashes,26 even though he sanctifies them before sunrise,27 he does not have to sanctify them again after daybreak, because he sanctified them at the beginning of the day's service.

It is a mitzvah to sanctify [one's hands and feet] from the basin.28 If, however, one sanctifies them from a sacred utensil, the sanctification is effective. Sanctification may not, however, be performed with an ordinary utensil.29 If one sanctified [his hands and feet] with a sacred utensil outside the Temple30 or did so with an ordinary utensil within the Temple and then performed service, his service is disqualified. One does not sanctify his hands and feet inside the basin or a sacred utensil, but from them, as [implied by the verse]: "Aaron and his son's will wash from it;" ["from it"] and not "inside of it." If one sanctified [his hands and feet] in such a utensil and performed service, he did not desecrate it.

If one immerses his hands and feet in the waters of a mikveh31 or even a spring, this is not considered as sanctification. One must wash them from a utensil. One may sanctify them using any sacred utensil whether or not it contains a revi'it.32

All water is acceptable for the sanctification, whether water from a spring or water from a mikveh, provided its appearance has not changed and it is [thus] acceptable for immersion.33 Mud that can be poured, from which a cow would drink,34 can be used to fill the measure of the basin. This is the general rule: Any water that can be used to make up the measure of a mikveh can be used to make up the measure of the basin.35

How much water must there be in the basin? At least enough for four priests to sanctify [their hands and feet] from it, as [indicated by Exodus 30:19 which] mentions "Aaron and his sons." Together with him, there were Elazar, Itamar, and Pinchas, a total of four.36

The water in the basin is disqualified if left [in it] overnight, as we explained.37 What would be done [to prevent the water from being disqualified]? The basin would be submerged in a mikveh38 or a spring and on the following day, it would be raised or it would be filled each day in the morning.

The "sea" fashioned by Solomon39 had the status of a mikveh,40 because a channel of water from the Spring of Aitem41 would pass through it.42 Therefore,43 its waters were not disqualified with the passage of night like the water of the basin and [indeed,] the basin was filled from it.

How is the mitzvah of sanctification performed? [A priest would] put his right hand on his right foot and his left hand on his left foot and bend over and sanctify them.44 All the substances that are considered as intervening with regard to immersion,45 are intervening with regard to the sanctification of hands.

One may not sanctify his hands while sitting, because [the sanctification] is comparable to the Temple service and the Temple service may be performed only when standing, as [Deuteronomy 18:5] states: "To stand and to serve."46

Anyone who performs service while he is seated, desecrates his service and disqualifies it. He does not receive lashes, because the warning against doing so stems from a positive commandment.47

Similarly, anyone involved with one of the Temple services must be standing on the floor.48 If there was anything intervening between himself and the ground,49 e.g., he was standing on a utensil, an animal, or a colleague's foot, [his service] is invalid. Similarly, if there was anything intervening between his hand and the utensil with which he was performing the service, it is invalid.50

The Temple service may be performed only with one's right hand.51 If one performed service with his left hand, it is invalid. He is not liable for lashes.52

[The following laws apply when] one of [a priest's] feet are on a utensil and one is on the floor, one is on a stone [that was not embedded in the floor] and one was on the floor. We evaluate [the situation]. Whenever he would be able to stand on his one foot if the utensil or the stone were taken away, his service is acceptable.53 If not, his service is invalid.54

If he received [blood from a sacrifice] with his right hand and his left hand is supporting it, his service is acceptable, because we do not pay attention to [something that is] a [mere] support.55

When one of the stones of the Temple Courtyard has become loosened, one should not stand upon it during one's Temple service until it is affixed in the ground.56 If he performed service, his service is acceptable,57 since it is located in its place.