Sotah 7:7-8

Sotah 7:7

The blessings of the High Priest on Yom Kippur were performed as follows: the gabbai of the Temple synagogue took a sefer Torah and handed it to the synagogue president, who gave it to Deputy High Priest, who gave it to the High Priest. The High Priest stood to receive it and read it standing. He read from Acharei Mos (Leviticus 16) and “On the tenth day” (Leviticus 23). He then rolled the Torah and held it in his embrace. He called out, “There is more written here than I have read to you.” He would then recite “On the tenth” from Numbers (chapter 29) by heart, followed by eight blessings: for the Torah, for the Temple service, a blessing of thanks, for forgiving sin, for the Temple itself, for choosing the nation of Israel, for the kohanim and that God heeds our prayers.

Sotah 7:8

The portion read by the king (Hakhel) was as follows: After the first day of Succos in the eighth year, at the end of the seventh year (i.e., at the start of the Sabbatical cycle), they would erect a wooden platform in the Temple courtyard upon which the king would sit, as per Deuteronomy 31:10, “At the end of seven years, at the designated time.” The gabbai of the Temple synagogue took a sefer Torah and handed it to the synagogue president, who gave it to Deputy High Priest, who gave it to the High Priest, who gave it to the king. The king received the Torah standing and read it sitting; King Agripas received it standing and read it standing, for which the Sages praised him. When he reached the verse “do not appoint a foreigner over you” (Deut. 17:15), he started to cry. (Agripas was descended from Herod.) The people called out, “Don’t worry, Agripas! You are our brother! You are our brother!” (Authorities differ as to whether the people were sincere or whether they were merely trying to appease Agripas.) The king would read from the beginning of Deuteronomy until the Shema (in chapter 6). He would then read Shema with the sections of “It will come to pass if you listen” (ibid., chapter 11), “You shall tithe” (chapter 14), “When you finish tithing” (chapter 26), the section about the king (chapter 17) and the blessings and curses through the end of that section (chapter 28). The king recites the same blessings that the High Priest recites except that he recites a blessing for the Festivals in lieu of the blessing for forgiving sin.