Parshas Pinchos 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
חולין דף ס: "שני המאורות הגדולים"
The Tanna ר' שמעון בן פזי asks: At first the Torah states that ה' created "את שני המאורות הגדולים" which implies that they (sun and moon) were both big. Then it says, "את המאור הגדול ואת המאור הקטן" calling one of them small? He explains, the ירח said before ה', "אפשר לשני מלכים שישתמשו בכתר אחד"? To which ה' replied, "לכי ומעטי עצמך". The [קול אליהו בראשית] גר"א explains: חז"ל have a קבלה that when the Torah says "שני", it means the two items being referred to should both be alike, We find this by the שני שעירי יו"כ, where because it says שני 3 times, they both must be alike in 3 characteristics: מראה, קומה, דמים. When it says "את שני המאורות", ר' שמעון בן פזי learned that they were both שוה. If so, he was bothered by why it later refers to one bigger and one smaller? Thus, he learnt his mehalech [עיין אבן עזרא]. The Gemara concludes that הקב"ה told the moon, "הביאו כפרה עלי שמיעטתי את הירח". Resh Lakish explains, this is why by all שעירי רגלים it says "שעיר עזים אחד לחטאת", but only by the שעיר של ראש חודש does it say "לה'", because it was this קרבן that ה' was referring to as the כפרה שמעטתי את הירח.
The Mishnah [שבועות ב.] quotes ר' יהודה who says, the שעיר של ר"ח is מכפר for people who entered the ביהמ"ק or ate קודש while in a state of טומאה, without any ידיעה בתחילה או בסוף. The Gemara says ר' יהודה learns this from the fact that only by this קרבן does it say לה', this refers to a atonement for a עבירה that is only known to ה', but the person had no ידיעה. The Gemara concludes that from לה' we learn 2 things: 1) Like ריש לקיש said, it’s a כפרה שמעטתי את הירח. 2) It is מכפר for טומאה that had no ידיעה בתחילה או בסוף.
The [שבועות ט] רי"ף explains the מימרא of "כפרה שמעטתי הירח" to mean that ה' is saying, this שעיר is a כפרה for כלל ישראל (not for ה'), but I was קובע that it be brought specifically on ר"ח to be מפייס the moon. The [או"ח רפא] טור explains: "קרא לשמש ויזרח אור,ראה והתקין צורת הלבנה" - when ה' called upon the sun to shine, he saw that the world would come to worship it, so "התקין צורת הלבנה" so that when the world sees there are two of them and that the moon needs to help the sun at night, they will see and understand that the sun alone is not sufficient for the world. He says some have the גירסא of "ראה והקטין צורת הלבנה", based on the above פשט of ר' שמעון בן פזי. The דרישה says ראה והקטין, doesn’t mean ה' saw the moon be מקטרג, but rather, he saw the light from both of them together and agreed with the moon, so והקטין.
The [שחרית של שבת] אבודרהם explains: "ראה והתקין צורת הלבנה" - Hashem ראה, what did he see? He saw that the moon was מקטרג on the sun as our Gemara relates, so he diminished it. Afterwards, he gave it stars to assist it and was "מתקן צורתה".