MISHNAH: Once every thirty days one sets the prices for the office¹⁶⁰One lets contracts to supply the Temple with wine and flour to accompany the sacrifices. This lets the Temple set the prices for these items as explained in the next Chapter.. Anyone who accepts to supply fine flour at a rate of four¹⁶¹The contract is to supply 4 seah of flour for one tetradrachma., if the going rate goes up to three he has to supply at the rate of four¹⁶⁴When at the time of use the items were found to be in good order.; if at the rate of three and the going rate went down to four he has to supply at four since the hand of the sanctuary is privileged. If the flour turned out worm-infected, it was infected in his possession¹⁶³Even if the worms were not detected at the time of delivery, only at the time of use.; and if the wine turned into vinegar it was vinegar in his possession. He is not paid until the altar did atone¹⁶⁴When at the time of use the items were found to be in good order..

HALAKHAH: It was stated in the name of Rebbi Simeon: he receives his money immediately, for the priests are quick¹⁶⁵Chapter 2, Note 33. The text there is reproduced in B and M..

MISHNAH: These are the appointees who were in the Sanctuary¹The permanent officers of the Temple who organized the service which was executed by the families of the clans of Cohanim, who came to serve in turn for one week. Different in Tosephta 2:14–15.: Joḥanan ben Phineas of the seals²As explained in Mishnah 4, a person who brings an animal as sacrifice to the Temple buys from the Temple the appropriate flour and wine offerings (as detailed in Num. 15:1–12). The “seal” (or ”signature”) is a ticket stamped with one of different stamps. The worshipper buys the ticket from the keeper of seals and delivers it to the keeper of libations who then gives him the correct amount to give to the officiating priests., Aḥiyya of the libations, Mathew ben Samuel of the lotteries³The lotteries which distribute the different duties to the priests who came to serve for one week, as explained in Yoma Chapter 2., Petaḥiah of the nests⁴He organizes the sale of “nests”, couples of pigeons or turtle doves, needed for several purification rites.. Petaḥiah is Mordecai. Why was he called Petaḥiah? For he had original ideas⁵In the interpretation of biblical verses. and explained them, and he knew seventy languages⁶In Ezra2:2 and Neḥemiah7:7 in the list of returnees from Babylonia one finds Mordecai Bilshan, where the traditional interpretation is to consider the second name not as an independent (Babylonian) name but an epithet “linguist” of Mordecai. (In modern Hebrew, by mispronunciation “linguist” is balshan.) A linguist is a person who knows the languages of all of the 70 peoples enumerated in Gen. 7..
Ben Aḥiyyah for indigestion; Onias the digger of ditches, Gabinius the herald, Ben Gever for locking the doors, Ben Bevai for the oakum. Ben Arza for the cymbal, Hugdas ben Levi for the song. The family Garmu for the shew-bread, the family Eutinos for producing the incense. Eleazar for the gobelins, and Phineas the clothier.

HALAKHAH: ⁷This text is from the end of Chapter 3 in Yoma(Notes 238,239), where all textual variants are noted.“These are the appointees who were in the Sanctuary.” Rebbi Ḥizqiah said, Rebbi Simon and the rabbis. One said, he comes to enumerate the qualified ones of every generation. But the other said, he who was in a generation enumerated what was in his generation^\. He who said, he comes to enumerate the qualified ones of every generation, about all of them he says, the remembrance of the just is for blessing⁸Prov. 10:3.. He who said, he who was in a generation enumerated what was in his generation, about all of them he says, but the name of evildoers shall rot. About whom was said, the remembrance of the just is for blessing? About Ben Qaṭin⁹As mentioned in Mishnah Yoma3:11. and his kind.

Rebbi Jonah said, it is written¹⁰Is. 53:12. The verse continues: For he offered himself to death and counted the sinners. This applies to R. Aqiba who was a martyr and organized religious tradition in a systematic corpus.: Therefore, I shall distribute to him in public, and with the powerful he shall have part in booty, that is Rebbi Aqiba who organized interpretation of Scripture, practice, and homiletics¹¹The reading of B: Mishnah, interpretation of Scripture, and practice, seems preferable since R. Aqiba had no reputation in homiletics and as a matter of principle homiletics about biblical verses is not to be systematized.. But some say, this refers to the men of the Great Assembly, who organized principles and details¹²They find in the work of the Great Assembly the essence of Second Temple and later rabbinic Judaism, the effort to turn the mostly disjointed statements of the Torah into a systematic code of laws..

Rebbi Abbahu said, it is written¹³1Chr. 2:55. The families of counters, dwellers of Yabeṣ. Why does the verse say, counters? Because they formulated the teaching numbers, numbers¹⁴In B: ciphers, ciphers.. “Five shall not lift heave.¹⁵Mishnah Terumot1:1.” “Fifteen women free their co-wives.¹⁶Mishnah Yebamot1:1.” “Thirty-six extirpations in the Torah.¹⁷Mishnah Keritut1:1.” “Thirteen matters about the carcass of a pure bird.¹⁸Mishnah Ṭehorot1:1.” “Four main categories of torts.¹⁹Mishnah Bava Qamma1:1.” “Thirty-nine categories of work.”

Rebbi Aḥa said, for Ezra the priest, the counter²⁰Ezra7:11.. But just as he was counting in the Torah so he was counting in the words of the Sages²¹The principles of mesorah, to fix the text of Scriptures by noting the number of occurrences of certain forms, is attributed to Ezra in Megillah4:1 (47d l. 49), Babli Megillah3a. Similarly, the fixation of mishnaiot by numbers is attributed to him..

Rebbi Ḥaggai in the name of Rebbi Samuel bar Naḥman. The earlier generations ploughed, and sowed, and weeded, and trimmed, and hoed, cut, made sheaves, threshed, winnowed, milled, sifted, made dough, kneaded, and baked. But we do not even have a mouth to eat²²Even though the earlier generation organized the study of religious texts in a systematic way, still we have difficulty following them.. ²³From here to the end of the next paragraph the text is from Demay1:3, Notes 131–137 (ד). Rebbi Abba bar Zemina said in the name of Rebbi Ze`ira: If the earlier generations were angels, we are men; if they were men, we are donkeys. Rebbi Mana said, at that moment²⁴When a great scholar ate ṭevel without suspecting that it was not tithed. they said, we are not even comparable to the she-ass of Rebbi Phineas ben Yair.

Robbers stole the she-ass of Rebbi Phineas ben Yair at night. She was hidden with them for three days during which she did not eat anything. After three days, they took counsel to return her. They said, remove her lest she die with us. They let her out; she returned to her master’s door and started braying. He said to them, open to that poor creature because for three days now she did not taste anything. They opened for her and she entered. He said to them, give her something to eat. They put oats before her but she did not eat. They said to him, rabbi, she does not want to eat. He asked them, did you put it in order? They said: Yes. He asked them, did you remove its demay? They said, did the rabbi not teach us: “He who buys seeds for animals, flour for tanning, oil for lighting, is free from demay”? He said to them, what can we do with this poor creature since she is very restrictive for herself? They removed the demay and she ate.

Petaḥiah of the nests⁴He organizes the sale of “nests”, couples of pigeons or turtle doves, needed for several purification rites.. Come and see how great the power of this man was, for he “had original ideas⁵In the interpretation of biblical verses. and explained them, and he knew seventy languages⁶In Ezra2:2 and Neḥemiah7:7 in the list of returnees from Babylonia one finds Mordecai Bilshan, where the traditional interpretation is to consider the second name not as an independent (Babylonian) name but an epithet “linguist” of Mordecai. (In modern Hebrew, by mispronunciation “linguist” is balshan.) A linguist is a person who knows the languages of all of the 70 peoples enumerated in Gen. 7..” It was stated: A Synhedrion of which two know how to speak²⁵As a minimum two members of the Synhedrion have to be able to interrogate any witness in his own language and the rest of them have to be able to understand the answer. The Court may not use interpreters. In the Babli, Sanhedrin17b, the reference is not to the Synhedrion as Supreme Court but to any court of criminal jurisdiction. and all of them are able to hear is acceptable²⁶As a minimal requirement. as Synhedrion. Three is average, four is wise, and in Jabneh there were four, Ben Azzai and Ben Zoma, Ben Ḥanikai and Rebbi Eleazar ben Matthew.

Rav Ḥisda said, once the Land of Israel was dry (and they collected from Gaggot-Ṣerifin²⁷Mishnah Menaḥot10:2. Ṣerifin probably is Serafand in the plain NE of Jerusalem..) [and they did not know from where to bring²⁸As spelled out in the Mishnah (and B), the problem was to find barley grain for the `omer which must be brought from the produce of the Land. Babli Menaḥot64b.. There was there a mute person who put one hand on roofs and another on a shed. They brought him before Petaḥiah, who told them, is there a place called Gaggot-Ṣerifin or Ṣerifin-Gaggot? They went there and found.] Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun said, once the entire world<sup>29</sup>In B: The Land of Israel. The Mishnah refers to wheat grain for the Two Breads. was burned and they did not know from where to bring. There was there a mute person who put one of his hands over his eyes and one hand on a door lock. They brought him before Petaḥiah, who told them, is there a place called `Ein-Sokher³⁰A place near Sichem (Nablus.) or Sokher-Ayin. They went there and found.

Three women brought their nests³¹Since Petaḥiah was in charge of these, it was his duty to instruct the officiating Cohanim in the correct way to sacrifice the birds. As obligatory offerings of a woman after prolonged menstruation as zavah, one bird is to be an elevation offering and the other a purification offering. As thanksgiving offerings both birds are elevation offerings.. One said, לְעֵינָתִי; and one said, לְיַמָּתִי, and one said, לְזִיבָתִי. About the one who said ³²Since עַיִין means both “eye” and “wellhead, spring”.לְעֵינָתִי, they wanted to say, her menstrual flow is like a well. He said, she was dangerously sick in her eye. About the one who said לְיַמָּתִי, they wanted to say, her menstrual flow is like the sea. He said, she was in danger on the sea. About the one who said לְזִיבָתִי, they wanted to say, she was really a zavah³³While in Mishnaic Hebrew זִיבָה means the state of a zavah it is asserted here that after the alef became silent it also could not carry a separate vowel. Therefore זְאֵב “wolf” became זֵאב and since the ־ֵ was pronounced as η, it sounded like זִיב. More than 70 languages, the administrator of nests had to know all local dialects.. He told them, a wolf³⁴The stone floor, which was unhealthy in winter. came to snatch her son.