RABBI SHALOM ROSNER
Rav Kehilla, Nofei HaShemesh Maggid Shiur, Daf Yomi, OU.org Senior Ra"M, Kerem B'Yavneh
The Inside Story
A
nd you shall not leave the entrance of the Ohel Mo’ed for seven days, until the day of the completion of your investiture days (miluim), he will inaugurate you for seven days. (Vayikra 8:33) The kohanim had to remain in the Ohel Mo’ed for a full week prior to initiating the service in the Mishkan. The Gemara derives from this verse additional laws, including that the kohen gadol had to remain within the Mikdash for the seven days prior to Yom Kippur in the chamber known as “lishkas parhedrin” in order to properly prepare himself for the holiest day of the year. As is known, each room in a house that serves as a residence requires that a mezuza be affixed to the doorpost. Rooms located in the Mikdash, however, were exempt from this requirement and therefore did not require a mezuza. The Gemara in Yoma (10b), however, cites the opinion of Rav Yehuda, who agreed that technically, the lishkas parhedrin did not require a mezuza. Nevertheless, he instructed that a mezuza should be 26
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affixed to the doorpost of the lishkas parhedrin. The reason for his decree is “so people will not say that the kohen gadol is imprisoned in the Mikdash.” In other words, the rabbis feared that as people gathered around the Mikdash the week prior to Yom Kippur and witnessed the kohen gadol entering or exiting the Mikdash, noticing that there was no mezuza on the door of his room, they would postulate that he was imprisoned in the Beis HaMikdash. Placing a mezuza on the doorpost of that room would indicate that it was indeed his “residence” for the week and that he was not at all imprisoned. In a sense, the decree was to safeguard the “image” of the kohen gadol. This is a remarkable and rare example of the concern for the opinion of the uneducated masses and their distorted impressions. Here, the kohen gadol is engaged in spiritual exercises to prepare himself for the holiest day of the year and to be able to properly seek atonement for these very individuals who might misinterpret the scene and view him as being imprisoned in the Mikdash. How does such a discrepancy come about – that someone could consider the kohen gadol as being in jail when he was in fact engaged in holy spiritual rituals?
