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Arakhin 10 for kids: Sounds of the Temple

ערכין י׳

🎶 How many trumpet blasts sounded in the Temple? This daf also explores when people say Hallel and why a reed flute sounded best.

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📖 Open Arakhin 10a in Daf QuestOpen Arakhin 10b in Daf Quest

In the app: the Gemara with Rashi and Tosafot, the printed page, games made from this daf, play coins and treasure chests.

Stories from Arakhin 10

Words to know

Rashi and Tosafot on Arakhin 10 in simple English

Rashi on Arakhin 10a, in English Tab translation (25)
  1. The intercalated month was thirty days — That gives one extra full month. Last year we also made both Marcheshvan and Iyar full, giving three more full months than usual. So when three months are made short this year to offset them, the calendar returns to its proper place.
  2. Lamp of Israel — You enlighten the eyes of the sages.
  3. Twenty-one blasts and forty-eight blasts — These counts are explained in Tractate Sukkah, in the chapter “The Flute.”
  4. No fewer than two lyres — One for each of two Levites.
  5. No more than six — The reason is not explained.
  6. No fewer than two flutes — The flute is called a chalumeau in French.
  7. No more than twelve — If they wished, they could use twelve, corresponding to the twelve days when the flute played before the altar.
  8. Played — The flute had holes, and the player moved his fingers over them to make the sound pleasant.
  9. At the slaughter of the first Paschal offering — On the fourteenth of Nisan, they recited Hallel in the Temple courtyard during the slaughter, as stated in Tractate Pesachim.
  10. A reed flute — This is the same as a flute, as the Gemara explains.
  11. And they did not conclude — They finished with just one flute: at the end of a melody, one flute continued after the other fell silent. This made a finer ending than both finishing together. “Concluding” means marking the division between melodies. During the offering, on those twelve days, the Levites sang Hallel aloud while the flutes played. On other days they used harps, cymbals, and lyres, and sang the daily psalms listed in Tractate Rosh HaShana: on Sunday, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains,” with the rest of that psalm; on Monday, “Great is the Lord and greatly praised”; and likewise for the other days.
  12. And they were slaves of priests — This refers to those who played the flutes.
  13. The house of Pegarim and the house of Tzippara — These are family names.
  14. From Emaum — This is the name of a place.
  15. And they married into the priesthood — Priests married their daughters, for these were Israelites of established lineage.
  16. The mishna — Its counts of twenty-one and forty-eight blasts do not follow Rabbi Yehuda. The mishna counts each tekia and each terua separately; every terua has a plain tekia before and after it. Rabbi Yehuda counts each sequence of tekia, terua, tekia as one. Thus the mishna’s twenty-one are seven for Rabbi Yehuda, and its forty-eight are sixteen.
  17. And you shall sound a terua — This shows that Scripture calls a terua a tekia, and uses the terms interchangeably.
  18. A plain blast before and after it — The plain blast before the terua is learned from “you shall sound” followed by “a terua”; the one after it is learned from “a terua” followed by “they shall sound.” Each blast nevertheless remains a separate mitzva.
  19. Merely a signal — It signaled the people to assemble; it was not sounded to fulfill a mitzva.
  20. No pause at all — One must not pause between the first plain tekia and the terua, or between the terua and the final plain tekia. They must be sounded together in immediate succession.
  21. In accordance with Rabbi Yehuda — He holds that the three sounds constitute one mitzva, so they must not be separated.
  22. Even in accordance with the Rabbis — “No pause” might mean not that the blasts must follow one another immediately, but only that one should not wait too long between them.
  23. And to exclude Rabbi Yoḥanan’s view — Regarding Rosh HaShana, he says that one fulfills the obligation even if one hears the nine blasts—three for Kingship, three for Remembrances, and three for Shofarot—over nine hours, with an hour between each blast.
  24. No pause at all — This implies no break whatsoever.
  25. The eight days of Hanukkah — The mishna does not count them because there is no festival offering on those days.
Tosafot on Arakhin 10a, in English Tab translation (7)
  1. No fewer than twenty-one blasts in the Temple each day — As explained in Sukkah 53b, three were sounded when the gates opened and nine during the morning daily offering. The Levites sang while the libations were poured. Their song had three sections, and at each section they sounded a tekia, a terua, and a tekia.
  2. And no more than six — Rashi says the reason for this limit on lyres is not explained. The minimum of two flutes and maximum of twelve correspond to the twelve days on which the flute was played.
  3. The house of Pegarim — Some texts spell the family name with a samekh, while others spell it with a final mem. The latter spelling also appears in the Tosefta and in the phrase “the valley of the corpses” in Jeremiah 31.
  4. One may not sound fewer than seven — Rabbi Yehuda counts only seven blasts because he counts each tekia–terua–tekia sequence as one. Shabbat 35b says that six blasts were sounded on Friday to stop people from working. By Rabbi Yehuda’s count, those would be only two units. The figure six therefore follows the Rabbis, who count each of the three sounds separately.
  5. There is no pause at all between a tekia and a terua — The Gemara concludes that this follows Rabbi Yehuda, who counts a tekia–terua–tekia sequence as one unit. Yet the Rabbis, too, prohibit a pause between the sounds. From this, it appears to Rabbi that one may not pause between the broken sounds and the other shofar sounds: because we are unsure whether the required sound is groaning, wailing, or both together, we sound the broken sounds and the terua together in one sequence and may not pause between them. If someone cannot complete the terua because he runs out of breath or is otherwise prevented, he must begin again with the broken sounds. Rabbi agreed. This also shows that one may not pause between one tekia and the next. The Friday blasts described in Shabbat are different: the first told workers in the fields to stop, the second told the town and its shops to stop, and so on. Each was established as a separate signal, so the time between them is not considered an interruption.
  6. Eighteen days — The eve of Passover is not counted, though including it would make nineteen, because its flute playing took place only in the Temple.
  7. The eighteen days on which an individual completes Hallel — This means that on other days Hallel is not required at all, not merely that an abbreviated Hallel is required. The Gemara’s questions about saying it on the New Moon and on Passover imply that there is no obligation to say it then. Likewise, when Rav saw people in Babylonia reciting Hallel on the New Moon, he considered stopping them; only when he heard them skip parts did he say that they were following their ancestors’ custom. Thus, our recitation on those days is a custom, not an obligation like recitation on the eighteen days. Nevertheless, Rabbeinu Tam says one should bless before it. Rav’s initial wish to stop them suggests that they had blessed; otherwise, he could have seen immediately that they were following a custom rather than treating Hallel as obligatory. Similarly, Berakhot 14a distinguishes between permitted interruptions during full Hallel and during Hallel that an individual does not complete. If no blessing were said over the latter, why would interruption be an issue, even for an ordinary purpose? The discussion considers interruption only out of fear or respect. Nor is this like the ruling in Sukkah 44a that one does not bless over a custom: that concerns the customary handling of the willow branch, whereas one does bless over a customary recitation. Ta’anit 28b says that an individual ‘should not begin, but if he began, he finishes.’ This means he need not begin, but if he does, he finishes the abbreviated Hallel. The public’s obligation there, too, is only by custom. It remains somewhat difficult that Rav considered stopping the public, given that teaching. Rabbeinu Ḥananel instead explains that an individual should not begin *with a blessing*, but if he has done so, he finishes. Still, hold to Rabbeinu Tam’s ruling: it is right even for an individual to bless at the start. Though he is not obligated to recite Hallel, once he chooses to do so the blessing is not in vain, just as women may bless over taking the lulav even though they are exempt from that commandment.
Rashi on Arakhin 10b, in English Tab translation (19)
  1. The days of the festival have different offerings — the number of bulls offered on Sukkot decreases each day.
  2. The New Moon is called an appointed day — as it says, “He called an appointed day against me” (Lamentations 1:15). Tractate Taanit 29a explains that Tammuz that year was made a full, thirty-day month, as this verse indicates.
  3. The song — Hallel.
  4. Sanctified — by a prohibition against doing work.
  5. Its reading — the reading of the Megilla.
  6. Because its sound is sweet — pleasant to hear.
  7. Smooth — peeled.
  8. Thin — its outer layer was thin.
  9. Cymbals — two pieces struck against each other, producing a high-pitched sound.
  10. It enhanced the spices — incense ingredients were crushed in it. Its clear sound helped bring out their fragrance. As taught in tractate Keritot 6b, the person grinding them would say, “Grind well; fine, fine; grind well,” because sound is good for the spices.
  11. Two instruments — the cymbals and the copper mortar.
  12. Flexible — thin enough to be folded.
  13. Polished — gleaming.
  14. Two — two cymbals and two mortars.
  15. As wide as an issar — the opening where the spring emerged was as wide as an issar coin.
  16. Let not the wise man boast — his wisdom only spoils things. The First Temple’s vessels were made according to divine instruction, as it says, “All this, in writing from the hand of the Lord, He made me understand—all the work of the design” (1 Chronicles 28:19).
  17. Hardavlis, tavla gurgadna — a bell and its clapper.
  18. And it disrupted the melody — as its sound came to an end.
  19. The shovel — an implement used to scoop ashes from the altar, shaped like a spoon.
Tosafot on Arakhin 10b, in English Tab translation (4)
  1. The ministering angels said: Why do the Jewish people not sing praise before You on Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur? — They did not ask, “Why do we not sing praise?” This implies that the angels do sing. Therefore, Rabbi Yitzḥak says that on Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur one should not omit the words “The living creatures will sing, and the cherubim will glorify.”
  2. And about them David said, “Burnished copper” — Rashi explains that this refers to the copper instruments used to produce sound. But the verse appears elsewhere, in Kings, and Chronicles calls the copper “polished.” Why, then, say that David spoke about them? Rabbi Yitzḥak suggests reading instead: “And about them Scripture says, ‘Burnished copper’—that is, polished copper.”
  3. Hardolis — Rashi reads the word with a samekh at the end. But it seems that it should be hardolim, with a mem. Genesis Rabbah likewise mentions ardolin; this means the same as hardolim. These are kinds of musical instruments, and mem and nun can interchange. Hardolim is the Aramaic translation of ugav.
  4. There was a magrefa in the Temple — Rashi explains that it was a shovel used to rake away ashes. But that is difficult, since the magrefa here was a musical instrument. Rather, there were two kinds of magrefa: one for ashes and one for music.

Sources

Kid summary and story cards written by Tab from the William Davidson Edition English (Sefaria, CC BY-NC 4.0).

Tab translation (machine-assisted) of Rashi and Tosafot, from the Vilna Edition Hebrew (public domain) on Sefaria. May contain mistakes.

In the app, the Gemara text comes from Sefaria (William Davidson Edition, CC BY-NC 4.0; Hebrew/Aramaic Vilna Edition). Rashi and Tosafot Hebrew: Vilna Edition (public domain) via Sefaria.

Also spelled: Arachin, Erchin 10.