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Celebration of the Water Drawing
Laws of the Calendar
Sources
A
This was the sequence of events:
At the conclusion of the first Festival
day the priests and the Levites
descended
from the Israelites’ courtyard
to the Women’s Courtyard, where they would introduce a significant repair,
as the Gemara will explain.
There were golden candelabra
atop poles
there
in the courtyard.
And
there were
four basins
made
of gold at the top
of each candelabrum.
And
there were
four ladders for each and every
pole
and
there were
four children from the priesthood trainees…
Mishnah Sukkah 5:2-4
MISHNA:
One who did not see the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing
of the Water
never saw celebration in his days.
This was the sequence of events:
At the conclusion of the first Festival
day the priests and the Levites
descended
from the Israelites’ courtyard
to the Women’s Courtyard, where they would introduce a significant repair,
as the Gemara will explain.
There were golden candelabra
atop poles
there
in the courtyard.
And
there were
four basins
made
of gold at the top
of each candelabrum…
Sukkah 51a:16-51b:1
Rebbi Joshua ben Levi said, why is it called drawing festivity? For from there one was drawing the holy spirit, following
you shall draw water in rejoycing from the fountains of salvation
. An illustration. Rebbi Levi and Jehudah bar Naḥman were taking two tetradrachmas to assemble the congregation before Rebbi Joḥanan. Rebbi Levi went and preached, Jonah ben Amittai was from the tribe of Asher, for it is written,
Asher did not disinherit the inhabitants of Acco and the inhabitants of Sidon
. And it is written,
arise and go to Sarepta which belongs to Sidon
…
Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 5:1:3
MISHNA:
The flute
is played on the festival of
Sukkot
for
five
or
six
days.
This is the flute of the Place of the Drawing
of the Water,
whose
playing
overrides neither Shabbat nor
the
Festival.
Therefore, if the first Festival day occurred on Shabbat, they would play the flute for six days that year. However, if Shabbat coincided with one of the intermediate days of the Festival, they would play the flute for only five days.
Sukkah 50a:6
And
this was the ceremony of the Water Libation:
Two priests stood at the Upper Gate that descends from the Israelites’ courtyard to the Women’s Courtyard, with two trumpets in their hands.
When
the rooster crowed
at dawn,
they sounded a
tekia
, and sounded a
terua
, and sounded a
tekia
.
When
they
who would draw the water
reached the tenth stair
the trumpeters
sounded a
tekia
, and sounded a
terua
, and sounded a
tekia
,
to indicate that the time to draw water from the Siloam pool had arrived…
Sukkah 51b:2-7
§ The mishna continues:
At the conclusion of
the first
Festival
day, etc., the priests and the Levites descended from the Israelites’ courtyard to the Women’s Courtyard, where they would introduce a significant repair. The Gemara asks:
What
is this
significant repair? Rabbi Elazar said
that
it is like that which we learned:
The walls of the Women’s Courtyard
were smooth,
without protrusions,
initially.
Subsequently, they affixed protrusions to the wall surrounding the Women’s Courtyard…
Sukkah 51b:10
It is a great mitzvah to maximize this celebration. The common people and anyone who desired would not perform [in these celebrations]; only the greatest of Israel's wise men: the
Rashei Yeshivot
, the members of the high court, the pious, the elders, and the men of stature. They were those who would dance, clap their hands, sing, and rejoice in the Temple on the days of the festival of Sukkot. However, the entire people - the men and the women - would come to see and hear.
Mishneh Torah, Shofar, Sukkah and Lulav 8:14
It is taught
in a
baraita
that
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Ḥananya said: When we would rejoice
in
the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing
of the Water,
we did not see sleep in our eyes
the entire Festival.
How so?
In the
first hour
of the day,
the daily morning offering
was sacrificed and everyone came to watch.
From there
they proceeded
to
engage in
prayer
in the synagogue;
from there, to
watch the sacrifice of
the additional offerings; from there,
to the synagogue
to
recite
the additional prayer…
Sukkah 53a:10
§
It is taught
in a
baraita
:
They said about Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel that when he would rejoice at the Celebration of the Place of the Drawing
of the Water,
he would take eight flaming torches and toss one and catch another,
juggling them,
and,
though all were in the air at the same time,
they would not touch each other. And when he would prostrate himself, he would insert his two thumbs into the ground, and bow, and kiss the floor
of the courtyard
and straighten…
Sukkah 53a:7
HALAKHAH:
“Rebbi Joshua ben Ḥanania said, all during the water-drawing festivity they did not at all taste the taste of sleep. At the start they went to sacrifice the daily morning sacrifice; from there they went to sacrifice the
musaf
sacrifices; from there they went [to sacrifice vows and voluntary offerings; from there they went] to eat and drink. From there they went to study Torah; and from there they went to sacrifice the daily evening sacrifice; and from there they went to the water-drawing festivity…
Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 5:2:2
§ The mishna continues:
The pious and the men of action
would dance before the people who attended the celebration.
The Sages taught
in the
Tosefta
that
some of them would say
in their song praising God:
Happy is our youth,
as we did not sin then,
that did not embarrass our old age. These are the pious and the men of action,
who spent all their lives engaged in Torah and mitzvot.
And some would say: Happy is our old age, that atoned for our youth
when we sinned.
These are the penitents…
Sukkah 53a:2-3
Ben Yehoṣadaq was priding himself for his vaulting. They said about Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel that he was dancing with eight golden torches and neither of them touched (the ground) [any other.] When he was bowing down to his shinbone he thrust his thumb into the ground, bowed down to his shinbone, and immediately stood up. What is bowing down to one’s shinbone and what is kneeling? The great Rebbi Ḥiyya showed bowing down to his shinbone before Rebbi, [became lame] and was healed. Levi ben Sisi showed kneeling before Rebbi, became lame and was not healed.
Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 5:4:3
“Jacob lifted his feet, and went to the land of the people of the east” (Genesis 29:1).
“Jacob lifted his feet” – Rabbi Aḥa said: “A healing heart is the life of the flesh [
besarim
]” (Proverbs 14:30) – when one is the recipient of good tidings [
shenitbaser besorot
], his heart bears his feet. That is what is said: The stomach bears the feet.
“He saw, and behold, a well in the field, and, behold, three flocks of sheep lying there alongside it, since from that well they watered the flocks and the great stone was on the mouth of the well” (Genesis 29:2)…
Bereshit Rabbah 70:8
All the divisions on duty were treated alike and divided into three lots for the bullocks, except two who were treated alike but not divided into three lots. Rabbi Eleazar ben Parata and Rabbi Eleazar ben Yacov said, “There was no balloting for the fat of the goat, but whoever offered the limbs offered also the fat.” Rabbi Haninah ben Antigonus said, “There was no balloting except for the leaders of the guards. The rest of all the guards took turns all round.” Abba Yose ben Hanin said, “There was balloting on the first day of the festival only…
Tosefta Sukkah 4:9
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