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Yoma 37

YOMA 36-40 have anonymously sponsored towards a REFU'AH SHELEMAH to Shmuel Yakov ben Ayala Hinda, Ilana Golda bas Chana and Klarees Marcia bas Mammie

1) "SHEM HA'MEFORASH" -- THE INEFFABLE NAME OF G-D

OPINIONS: The Gemara teaches that when the Kohen Gadol recites Viduy on Yom Kipur, he must recite it using the Shem Hashem. This requirement to utter the Shem Hashem is derived from the procedure of the Eglah Arufah, regarding which the verse says that the Name of Hashem was used in the request for atonement (Devarim 21:8).

When the Mishnah states what the Kohen Gadol would say during the Viduy, it refers to the Name of Hashem not in the usual manner with the letter "Dalet" as an abbreviation, but it says that the Kohen Gadol says in the Viduy "ha'Shem" ('Heh' 'Shin' 'Mem'). The reason for this is because this Name is different than the normal Name of Hashem. The Kohen Gadol used the Shem ha'Meforash (the "ineffable Name") on Yom Kipur. This is why the Gemara later (66a) says that everyone who would hear the Name of Hashem would bow down. The Gemara (39b) says that the Kohen Gadol uttered the Shem ha'Meforash ten times on Yom Kipur -- three times in each Viduy for three Viduyim, and one more time when he selected the Se'ir of Hashem.

What exactly is the Shem ha'Meforash that the Kohen Gadol used?

(a) The ROSH (AVODAS YOM KIPUR, TOSFOS HA'ROSH 39b, and cited by the TUR OC 621), writes that it was the four-letter Name of Hashem (the Tetragrammaton), but that it was pronounced as it is written (k'Kesivaso). It was not any of the other Names of Hashem, such as the 42-letter Name. The Rosh proves this from our Gemara that derives the requirement for the Kohen Gadol to say the Name of Hashem from the procedure of Eglah Arufah, where the verse uses the four-letter Name of Hashem. The Name used by the Kohen Gadol, then, must also have been the four-letter Name of Hashem. This is also the opinion of the RAMBAM (Hilchos Avodas Yom ha'Kipurim 2:6).

(b) RAV HAI GA'ON (cited by the Tur) argues and says that the Kohen Gadol used the 42-letter Name of Hashem and not the four-letter Name of Yud and Heh. This appears to be the opinion of the TOSFOS YESHANIM (39b) as well.

QUESTION: The Rishonim adduce a number of proofs to support the opinion of RAV HAI GA'ON, who says that the Name used by the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kipur was the 42-letter ineffable Name of Hashem. These proofs create a strong argument against the opinion of the ROSH who says that it was the four- letter Name of Hashem that the Kohen Gadol used.

(a) The Gemara says that the Kohen Gadol mentioned the Name of Hashem ten times on Yom Kipur. The TOSFOS RID (70a) asks that the Gemara in Sotah (38a) says that in the Mikdash, the Kohanim would recite Birkas Kohanim with the Name of Hashem as it is written. Since the Kohen Gadol also said Birkas Kohanim on Yom Kipur, he said the Name of Hashem more than ten times!

This is a question only on the Rosh's opinion. If, however, he said the 42- letter Name each of those ten times as Rav Hai Ga'on asserts, then it is no question, because during Birkas Kohanim he would use the four-letter Name.

(b) The TOSFOS RID asks further that the Kohen Gadol would bless the people with eight blessings after completing the Avodah on Yom Kipur (Yoma 68b). It seems that for these blessings he also used the Shem ha'Meforash. The Gemara in Berachos (63a) says that the people never said "Amen" in the Mikdash, but rather they said, "Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuso...." The reason they said "Baruch Shem" instead of "Amen" is presumably because the public blessings in the Mikdash were said with the Shem ha'Meforash, to which the proper response is "Baruch Shem" as our Mishnah says (RITVA in Ta'anis 16a, TZELACH in Berachos 63a, MAHARSHA in Sotah 41a).

Since the Gemara says that in the Mikdash the people responded to "all" public blessings with "Baruch Shem," it must be that these eight blessings recited by the Kohen Gadol were also said with Shem ha'Meforash. According to the Rosh, this is problematic, because if so the Kohen Gadol used the Shem ha'Meforash much more than ten times. It must be that these ten times the Kohen Gadol used the 42-letter Name, while for all other blessings he used the four-letter Name.

(c) The GEVURAS ARI (66a) points out that we find in the Mishnah that all the people who heard the Shem ha'Meforash bowed down. However, we do not find that they bowed down during Birkas Kohanim even though the Kohanim used the Name of Hashem k'Kesivaso (Sotah 38a)! It must be that the Name for which they bowed was the 42-letter Name, while the Name used in Birkas Kohanim was the four-letter Name.

How will the Rosh respond to these proofs against his opinion?

ANSWERS:

(a) The TOSFOS RID answers that there was no obligation for the Kohen Gadol himself to participate in the Birkas Kohanim on Yom Kipur. Other Kohanim may have performed the Birkas Kohanim, and thus the Kohen Gadol himself did not recite the Name of Hashem an additional time.

The MIKDASH DAVID (24:2) answers that perhaps the Gemara that says that the Kohen Gadol said the Name of Hashem ten times is referring to the period *after* the times of Shimon ha'Tzadik. The Gemara (39b) says that after Shimon ha'Tzadik passed away, they stopped saying the Birkas Kohanim with the Name of Hashem. (The Tosfos Rid, who did not suggest this answer, is following his own opinion on 39b that even *after* Shimon ha'Tzadik passed away the Kohanim used the four-letter name k'Kesivaso in Birkas Kohanim.)

(b) RASHI (69b, DH b'Gevulin) writes that the Shem ha'Meforash was not used for blessings except for those recited in the Azarah itself. It was not used anywhere else on Har ha'Bayis outside of the Azarah. The eight blessings said by the Kohen Gadol after the Avodah of Yom Kipur were said in the Ezras Nashim (Yoma 69b) which does not have Kedushas Azarah, and thus those blessings were not said with the Shem ha'Meforash, the four-letter Name of Hashem as it is written.

The RASHASH points out that in the Ezras Nashim the people certainly did not answer "Amen" but they answered "Baruch Shem," as the Gemara (69b) learns from Ezra. We see that even where the Shem ha'Meforash was not used, they still said "Baruch Shem!"ý

The CHONEN DA'AS explains that perhaps this point is the basis of the Machlokes Rishonim here. Rashi says that the eight blessings were recited without the Shem ha'Meforash and yet the people still answered "Baruch Shem." He maintains that responding "Baruch Shem" is not dependent upon hearing the Shem ha'Meforash in order to explain why the Kohen Gadol only said the Shem ha'Meforash ten times. The other Rishonim, who say that the Name used by the Kohen Gadol in the Viduy was the 42-letter Name, learn that the Kohen Gadol did say the four-letter Name while reciting the eight blessings in the Ezras Nashim, and that is why the people answered "Baruch Shem." Thus the argument whether "Baruch Shem" depends on hearing the Shem ha'Meforash depends on whether the Kohen Gadol said the 42-letter Name or the four-letter Name in the Viduy.

The RITVA (39a,b), though, learns that the Kohen Gadol used the four-letter name of Hashem during the Viduyim, even though he himself explains that the Kohen Gadol used the four-letter name k'Kesivaso *wherever* Baruch Shem was answered, i.e. even in the Ezras Nashim (Ritva Ta'anis 16a). How will he explain why there were only ten mentions of the Shem ha'Meforash on Yom Kipur?

The RITVA himself (Berachos 63a) and the RASHBA in Berachos quote the RA'AVAD, who asserts that Baruch Shem was not answered, and the Shem ha'Meforash not used, except in Tefilos. When making a Berachah on reading the Torah, though, the normal Shem Hashem was used. If so, perhaps the eight blessings of the Kohen Gadol, which were recited after he read from the Torah, were not considered normal Tefilos, like Shemoneh Esreh, and did not require the Shem ha'Meforash.

(c) Perhaps the people did not bow down during Birkas Kohanim not because the Kohanim didn't use the Shem ha'Meforash, but because the Kohanim were in the middle of blessing them and the blessing of Birkas Kohanim must be done face to face, "Panim k'Neged Panim" (Sotah 38a). The people had to face the Kohanim and thus they could not bow down. When the Kohen Gadol said the Viduy, though, he was not blessing the people, so they could bow down at that time.

It should be noted that according to TOSFOS Sotah 38b, the people indeed *did* bow down even during Birkas Kohanim. And according to the Girsa of the VILNA GA'ON, no proof may be adduced from the wording of the Mishnayos, since he erases from the Mishnah (66a) -- based on the Girsa in the Yerushalmi -- *any* mention of bowing down on Yom Kipur (just like the first two Mishnayos (35b, 41b) makes no mention of bowing when the Shem Hashem was recited, see Insights to Daf 66a).


37b

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