Mishnah Yoma Chapter 1 Mishnah 8 Pt. 1
by Laynie Soloman, Associate Rosh Yeshiva
בְּכָל יוֹם תּוֹרְמִין אֶת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ
Every day the priests would remove the ashes from the altar…
Today’s mishnaic phrase starts Mishnah Yoma 1:8, the final mishnah of this chapter. So far in this tractate, we’ve been learning all about how the Cohanim prep (and are prepped!) leading up to Yom Kippur. We started with a week before Yom Kippur begins, and today’s mishnah takes us to the morning of. We’re told that each day that isn’t Yom Kippur, the Cohanim remove the ashes that have accumulated on the altar.
The word our mishnah uses for “remove,” תּוֹרְמִין, means “to lift,” or “to remove” and has two specific meanings related to Cohanim: 1) to remove ashes and clear the altar 2) to separate the priestly gift. That’s it! The definitions Jastrow offers (p. 1699) are all Cohen-specific. But following a bit of a journey in Jastrow takes us to תְּרוּמָה, the noun form of תּוֹרְמִין, which means “removal” or “lifting,” from the root רום. This root (p. 1460) carries so many meanings: “to swing,” “to be high,” “to raise,” and “to elevate,” are all part of this word and its root. This phrase seems so simple: the Cohanim would remove the ash from the altar after the fats and the sinews of the korbanot were burning through the night. But this removal isn’t simply wiping away the ash; there’s something elevating, uplifting about these elements being swiftly carried from the altar. To me, it feels like a sacred cleaning!
With all of this lifting and elevation, it’s hard not to be struck by the hierarchies here as they relate to caste status and the Cohanim. There is something special here, at least to me (and some of y’all in Mishnah Collective today!) about the way in which the Cohanim—the presumed elevated tribe—are doing the work of removing the ashes, tasked with elevating the literal burnt dirt that gathers on the mizbeach. This isn’t cute, public work that is seen or recognized; this is the invisible labor behind the scenes that prepares the space for holy work. I appreciate this subversion of the Cohen’s role here!