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Arakhin 13 for kids: Lambs, Music, and Values

ערכין י״ג

🎵 This daf counts inspected lambs and explores the music of the Temple. It also begins a discussion about fixed valuations pledged to the Temple.

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Stories from Arakhin 13

Words to know

Rashi and Tosafot on Arakhin 13 in simple English

Rashi on Arakhin 13a, in English Tab translation (11)
  1. And likewise Harim, Pashhur, and Immer — Jehoiarib did not return with them.
  2. Rav Ashi said — The statement about the Second Temple also refers to the year after a Sabbatical Year and follows the Rabbis. The difficulty raised earlier—that the Temple was destroyed in a Sabbatical Year—is resolved by excluding the first six years after construction began, before Ezra arrived and sanctified the Land of Israel. Sabbatical and Jubilee years were not counted then. Four hundred years make eight Jubilee cycles, and fourteen years make two seven-year cycles. Year 420 was a Sabbatical Year, and the Temple was destroyed in year 421, the year after it.
  3. Then the work ceased — This shows that construction began in Darius’s second year.
  4. And this house was finished — It was completed in Darius’s sixth year, the fifth year of construction. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem the following year, the sixth year of construction, in the month of Av. Counting did not begin until Tishrei, the start of the seventh year of construction.
  5. Eighty less two — Only thirty-eight years passed between the sending of the spies and the entry into the land, not counting the year the spies were sent: they were sent in the second year after the exodus.
  6. You do not find ‘the fourteenth year after the city was struck’ — That year cannot be a Jubilee Year unless you subtract fourteen years for the conquest and division of the land.
  7. Nine harps — The reason for this number is not explained.
  8. And the cymbal alone — There was only one cymbal, and the Gemara explains why.
  9. The Gemara initially assumes — The Mishnah specifically requires six lambs for Shabbat and the two festival days of Rosh HaShana: if those days fall together and the lambs cannot be inspected then, inspected lambs will already be available.
  10. It applies generally — Six inspected lambs are required throughout the year, not specifically for Shabbat and Rosh HaShana. This follows Ben Bag Bag’s teaching, as explained shortly.
  11. Merely a memory aid — The three days are mentioned to help you remember the number six, rather than mistakenly saying four or five: they require six daily-offering lambs.
Tosafot on Arakhin 13a, in English Tab translation (5)
  1. Even if Jehoiarib’s watch comes up — Rashi explains that it never returned. But how does he know that? The wording suggests that it could return, and, as Rabbeinu Elchanan notes, many priests did return. Rabbi says that Jehoiarib may indeed have returned. The question here is whether its watch existed in the Second Temple: the twenty-four watches serving then were formed to stand in for the watches that had not returned.
  2. Those six years before Ezra ascended and sanctified the land are not counted — This needs examination. As explained above, even after the tribes were exiled, they counted Jubilee cycles to establish the Sabbatical years. Why, then, did counting begin only when Ezra arrived? One can distinguish the cases: while Israel remained on its land, the Sabbatical restrictions on plowing and sowing applied even without Jubilee, but in the Babylonian exile they did not establish Sabbatical years at all. Yet this remains difficult, since the remission of debts applies both in the land and abroad. If Sabbatical years do not depend on Jubilee, why not count them in exile too, just as they are counted when only some Israelites live in the land, although Jubilee is not counted?
  3. At that same time in the following year — Ezra left Babylonia on the third (or twenty-third) of Adar. He reached Jerusalem in the fifth month, Av, because the journey took from Adar until then.
  4. How old was Caleb? Seventy-eight — Rabbeinu Elchanan asks: How do we know Caleb was exactly forty in the year the spies were sent? He might have been near the end of his fortieth year, making him seventy-nine when Israel crossed the Jordan. How, then, does the Gemara establish seven years of conquest and seven of division? Rabbi answers that Scripture gives Caleb’s age to clarify, not obscure: it tells us that the conquest and the division each took seven years.
  5. What does ‘enough for Shabbat’ mean? Merely a mnemonic — Here the Gemara gives that explanation immediately. In Menachot, it does so only after Ravina asks Rav Ashi why the number is six rather than seven, since a lamb is also needed for Sunday morning. There, the reference to Shabbat is exact: if the two days of Rosh HaShana fall on Thursday and Friday, Thursday’s daily offering is inspected on Sunday, four days before slaughter; Friday’s is inspected on Monday; and Shabbat’s on Tuesday. But Sunday morning’s offering also needs inspection four days before slaughter. Why, then, should the number be fewer than seven?
Rashi on Arakhin 13b, in English Tab translation (24)
  1. Four days before slaughter — I was taught that six inspected lambs were always kept in reserve. At the start, six lambs inspected four days earlier were placed there. Each day, two were taken for the daily offerings and two replacements were inspected and added. On the second and third days, the remaining original lambs were taken; on the fourth day, the replacements from the first day were ready, and so on. On this account, the inspection day and slaughter day count toward the four days. But I find this difficult: the Paschal lamb was inspected on the tenth and slaughtered on the fourteenth, four days apart without counting the slaughter day. I therefore think eight lambs were placed there at the start. The Mishnah’s ‘no fewer than six’ means that even after two were taken each day, six inspected lambs remained; two more were inspected and added before nightfall, but they are not counted at the time the two are taken. Alternatively, the number is merely a mnemonic: when Shabbat and Rosh HaShana fall next to each other, the lamb for the third day of the week is inspected on Friday, since they cannot go to find and inspect a lamb on those days. This gives four days before slaughter, as is always required.
  2. The wording is also precise — Six is merely a mnemonic, not a requirement arising specifically from Shabbat and Rosh HaShana. Had the Mishnah said ‘for Shabbat and the two days,’ it would imply that the lambs were needed for those days. Instead, ‘enough for’ means a number equal to what those days require: six.
  3. From where is this derived? — That there is only one set of cymbals, and no more.
  4. And Asaph — Asaph is the name of the Levite.
  5. They perform one act — Neither cymbal works without the other: they are two broad pieces of metal struck together, called cymbals.
  6. Mishnah: A minor may not enter — A minor Levite may not enter the Temple courtyard for any service, such as sweeping it or closing its doors. But when the Levites stand on the platform singing, minor Levites may enter to sing with them.
  7. And they would not — This refers to those minors.
  8. Play the lyre or harp, but sing to add flavor to the melody — The minors’ thin voices enriched the adult Levites’ singing.
  9. And they are not counted — The minor Levites are not included in the required count of twelve Levites on the platform.
  10. Nor do they ascend — They do not stand on the raised platform; they stand on the ground.
  11. And the cadets of the Levites — They are so called because they cause the Levites distress, as the Gemara explains.
  12. Gemara: With a ten-stringed instrument — This is an instrument with ten strings. The verse speaks of the World-to-Come, as shown by its phrase ‘a new song,’ in the masculine form. As the Mekhilta says, songs of this world use a feminine form: just as a woman gives birth, these deliverances are followed by further troubles. The song of the World-to-Come uses a masculine form, for it is not followed by further troubles.
  13. Since Rabbi Yehuda derives ‘harp’ from ‘a ten-stringed lyre’ — Evidently, he holds that the harp and the lyre are the same instrument.
  14. For its sound is strong, like a lyre — A lyre is made like a blacksmith’s bellows and produces sound by means of air.
  15. And supporters — Helpers.
  16. The Levites’ voices are thick; the minors’ voices are thin — The minors have high, light voices.
  17. They make their voices thin — That is, they make the sound high and beautiful, causing the adult Levites distress because they cannot make their voices as pleasing.
  18. Mishnah: For leniency — The fixed valuation can be less than a person’s actual worth.
  19. For stringency — One who vows the fixed valuation of even the least attractive Israelite must pay fifty sela if that person is between twenty and sixty years old, even if the person is worth only five sela.
  20. In an ancestral field — This concerns someone who consecrates an ancestral field.
  21. The most attractive Israelite — Even if the person is worth one hundred maneh, the one who vows their fixed valuation pays only fifty sela.
  22. Who declared a valuation — Who said, ‘I undertake the fixed valuation of so-and-so.’
  23. Gemara: But not a gentile — If an Israelite says, ‘I undertake the fixed valuation of this gentile,’ the declaration has no effect, because a gentile cannot be the subject of a fixed valuation.
  24. Can be valued but cannot make a valuation vow — The reason is explained in the first chapter of Arakhin, page 5b.
Tosafot on Arakhin 13b, in English Tab translation (5)
  1. And one may add without limit; up to how many? Rav Huna says, and some say… — Rabbi said: Surely one can add without limit. The question is how many trumpeters enhance the mitzvah, beyond which one need not seek more priests. Rav Huna answers: Up to 120, since Scripture records that 120 priests were assembled to sound trumpets, but no more. Alternatively, it is obvious that one cannot add without limit, lest the sounds become confused. Rav Huna answers that one may add up to 120 priests, since Scripture shows no concern about confused sounds at that number.
  2. No fewer than twelve Levites stand on the platform — Each day, when they sang, two played lyres, nine played harps, and one played the cymbals: twelve in all. Priests, not Levites, sounded the two trumpets. Thus the final chapter of Tamid teaches that two priests stood by the table for the sacrificial portions, each holding a trumpet. It does not mention the harps and flutes there because Levites, not priests, played them. But it also says that Ben Arza struck the cymbal, which is difficult. The answer is that it mentions only one of them.
  3. A minor may not enter the courtyard. From where is this derived? Rabbi Yoḥanan cites, ‘Jeshua stood with his sons and brothers, Kadmiel…’ — Rabbeinu Elhanan asks: How does this show that a minor may enter the courtyard to sing when the Levites stand on the platform? Rabbi Isaac answers that Rabbi Yoḥanan derives it from a repetition in the verse. It says ‘their sons and their brothers, the Levites,’ and also names ‘Jeshua and his sons, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, the sons of Henadad.’ Why say ‘their sons’ when each man’s sons have already been mentioned? The extra wording indicates minors.
  4. In Arakhin:
  5. What is the difference between a purchased field and an ancestral field? — Another distinction could have been given: If someone consecrates an ancestral field and another person redeems it, the field is distributed to the priests at the Jubilee. If someone consecrates a purchased field and another person redeems it, the field returns to its original owners at the Jubilee. But the discussion explains only a distinction that applies when the person who consecrated the field redeems it himself.

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 13.