Mishnah Yoma Chapter 2 Mishnah 7 Pt. 5

I gotta say, I was feeling a little surprised by our text today. This whole time that we’ve been working through Mishnah after Mishnah (loving all the gory twists and turns of the sacrificial system) I was taking something for granted—that the Mishnah understood its own context. Gurl, what? YEAH! Today our Mishnah was like, “What is the actual context of what we’re talking about here?” Ummmm…. I thought YOU, queer rabbinic ancestors, were telling US that. What do you mean that YOU don’t know???

This warrants a little bit more explanation. We were introduced to a fabulous queer rabbinic rhetorical phrase “במה דבורים אמורים / bameh debooreem amooreem / with regard to what” were these words/matters/things spoken? A question like this implies that whatever came before requires additional context that we haven’t yet explicated. So what came before? All of these requirements to have multiple priests perform the sacrifices! And our text had a major mic drop (or is it MC drop? It’s okay if that one doesn’t land lol)—multiple priests are only required for sacrifices that are for the public. Public offerings including offerings specific to Shabbats and Holidays (including Yom Kippur), as well as sacrifices specifically to atone for wrongdoings on behalf of the whole community. As it turns out, an offering for a single individual can be performed by a single individual. Wow! That’s a big distinction to add after so many Mishnayot! Why clarify this now??

Truthfully, I’m not sure why our Mishnah takes this moment to ask this particular question, but there’s another question that was brought up that I think is even more interesting—when our text says that the sacrifice for the individual can be performed by an individual, does that mean by the individual (a regular community member) themself or by an individual priest? The Mishnah Collective team interpreted it as an individual priest, because in the context of Masechet Yoma overall we are talking specifically about rituals performed by the Temple Priests. (Except in Chapter 8, where there’s a significant shift to the people as individual practitioners of Yom Kippur. No spoilers here, you’ll have to stick around in the Mishnah Collective to see how this plays out!) But it made me wonder about the spiritual and physical labor of performing rituals alone, the times when it is too much and we need a communal collective and the times when the solitary labor of it is actually emotionally or spiritually significant. Judaism is generally a religion that takes place “in public”, in community, in צבור tzeeboor, like in our text. And there are also aspects of Judaism whose life really blossoms away from the public away, such as lighting Shabbat candles, individual prayer, or mikveh (immersion in free flowing water). Maybe our text is having an introverted moment (welcome to my anxiety—sometimes I prefer a task alone so I can really be in my own headspace). And isn’t it incredible for our text to take a pause before we assume that everything might only be done one way. While it felt like a shock, I’m always grateful to the Mishnah Collective, and this wild little inheritance from our queer rabbinic ancestors, to interrupt my assumptions and get me thinking a bit deeper. Can’t wait to learn with all of you again soon!