Avos 5:5

בס׳ד

אבות ה:ה

Ten are the miracles our ancestors saw in the Temple: No woman ever miscarried from the aroma of the holy meat; and No holy meat ever rotted; and No fly ever appeared in the slaughter pen; and No High Priest ever became impure on Yom Kippur: and No rain ever drowned the fires of the pyres; and No wind ever dispersed the pillar of smoke; and No blemish ever harmed the Sheaf, the Two Loaves, or the Bread of the Holy Presence; Worshippers stood crowded, but bowed with room to spare; and No snake or scorpion ever caused harm in Yerushalayim; and No pilgrim ever said to his friend: I have no place to sleep in Yerushalayim.

עֲשָׂרָה נִסִּים נַעֲשׂוּ לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ בְּבֵית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ. לֹא הִפִּילָה אִשָּׁה מֵרֵיחַ בְּשַׂר הַקֹּדֶשׁ, וְלֹא הִסְרִיחַ בְּשַׂר הַקֹּדֶשׁ מֵעוֹלָם, וְלֹא נִרְאָה זְבוּב בְּבֵית הַמִּטְבָּחַיִם, וְלֹא אֵרַע קֶרִי לְכֹהֵן גָּדוֹל בְּיוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים, וְלֹא כִבּוּ גְשָׁמִים אֵשׁ שֶׁל עֲצֵי הַמַּעֲרָכָה, וְלֹא נָצְחָה הָרוּחַ אֶת עַמּוּד הֶעָשָׁן, וְלֹא נִמְצָא פְסוּל בָּעֹמֶר וּבִשְׁתֵּי הַלֶּחֶם וּבְלֶחֶם הַפָּנִים, עוֹמְדִים צְפוּפִים וּמִשְׁתַּחֲוִים רְוָחִים, וְלֹא הִזִּיק נָחָשׁ וְעַקְרָב בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם מֵעוֹלָם, וְלֹא אָמַר אָדָם לַחֲבֵרוֹ צַר לִי הַמָּקוֹם שֶׁאָלִין בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם:

        We usually think of miracles on the model of those that occurred at the Sea; stunning, earth-shattering events in which the normal order of reality is suddenly overturned for the benefit of our redemption from danger.  This mishnah now asks us to think about miracles in an entirely different way.  All the miracles mentioned here are humble, everyday events that occurred regularly as long as the Temple stood. Some of them are so subtle that its hard to imagine that anyone would have noticed them until the Temple had ceased to exist and people began to realize that “hey - did you notice?  In all the centuries that the Mikdash stood, not a woman in Jerusalem was pushed into premature labor by the enticing aromas of the sacrificial meat?”

        Maybe the first thing we need to realize is that the Hebrew word we usually translate as “miracle” is nes.  In other contexts, it means “flag” or “sign”.  What a nes is, in other words, is an event in the world that serves as a sign pointing to a reality beyond the world.  A sign pointing to the presence and activity of HaShem.  What this means is that a nes, like any other sign, does not have its meaning within itself.  It has to be read or interpreted in order to be meaningful. A miracle is a miracle when it’s interpreted by someone as a sign pointing toward HaShem’s nurturing love and enormous majesty. Without the interpreter, the miracle is just a meaningless occurrence.

        From this perspective, the Mikdash was ITSELF a nes.  In its totality, it was a sign pointing beyond itself to HaShem’s everlasting love and concern for His people and for the entire world that was sustained by Israel’s sacrificial avodah. As we learn in Mishnah Yoma, it was the place on which the world was created. According to the traditions of the Sages, it was also the place from which HaShem gathered the dust for the first Adam, and the place upon which Avraham Avinu bound his son, Yitzhak, in preparation for his sacrifice.  And when Yaakov saw in his dream the descent of angels upon a ladder, the midrash teaches that the angels began their descent from a point in Heaven directly above the Temple Mount.  Clearly, the site of the Mikdash was the point at which the link between the world of Creation and the world of the Creator came into contact; a place of immense power.  What is surprising, then, is the subtlety and humbleness of the signs that our mishnah now selects as the KEY signs.  Let’s take a look at them one by one.

1. 1.  “No woman ever miscarried”: This raises two questions. First, in what way was this a sign pointing towards HaShem? Secondly, what is the specific meaning of just THIS sign?  We can shed some light on these questions by recalling the halakhic context assumed here.  The Gemara (Bavli Yoma 82a) points out that we are obliged to feed a pregnant woman who, on Yom Kippur, suddenly develops a ravenous bulmos, a frenzied need for food.  This is to protect her life and the life of the fetus.  In light of this it seems that our mishnah expresses itself a bit briefly.   He took special care that the very sacrifices offered to attract His attention did not themselves become an occasion for stumbling for His people.  In short: the fact that women did not miscarry from the smell of the sacrifices is a sign of Hashem’s desire for total reconciliation with His people.
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3. 2.  “No holy meat ever rotted”: Rotting is a sign of death.  The point is that the sacrifices ensured that HaShem, the Life of the World (Khay haOlamim), would sustain his creation.  As the means of drawing life into the world, no taint of death attached to the sacrificial limbs.  Not even something as inevitable as meat spoiling under a hot Middle Eastern sun.
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5. 3. “No fly ever appeared”: This is related to the point just noted. The slaughter pen was a place of death and filth, covered with blood and entrails, baking under the sun.  The fact that no fly appeared is a sign that, despite the appearance of death, death had no real dominion within the Mikdash.
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7. 4.  “No High Priest ever became impure”: As the first pages of Tractate Yoma point out, elaborate precautions were taken to ensure that the High Priest did not suffer physical pollution before he offered the Yom Kippur sacrifices.  The most disqualifying pollution was caused by the involuntary loss of semen in a dream.  The reason is that semen is the producer of life and its involuntary loss is a sign of death.  Our mishnah points out that this never happened to the High Priest.  HaShem reached into the most intimate recesses of a sleeping person’s subconscious in order to ensure that the atoning order of the Yom Kippur sacrifices would be undisturbed by any sign associated with death.
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9. 5.  “No rain ever drowned the fires of the pyres”: Yerushalayim is pretty wet in the winter.  Not even the most torrential downpours put out the sacrificial pyres.  HaShem permitted no natural objects to interfere with the altar fires that brought sacrificial smoke and incense heavenward.
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11. 6.  “No wind ever dispersed the smoke”: This makes the same point.  The smoke went straight up to heaven in a perfect column undisturbed by even the strongest winds.  That straight pillar of smoke recalled the original pillar of smoke that guided Israel by day in the wilderness.  In the Mikdash, it signified HaShem’s continued presence among His people.
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13. 7.  “No blemish”: The Sheaf of barley offered on the second day of Pesah, the Barley Loaves offered on Shavuos morning, and the 12 weekly loaves that were placed before the Holy of Holies, all used a gift of grain to express gratitude towards HaShem for the abundance of the Land.  The fact that none of these ever suffered a disqualifying blemish prior to being offered signified HaShem’s acceptance in advance of the gift.
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15. 8.  “Worshippers stood crowded”: At the moment that Israel prostrated itself in the Mikdash - no matter how cramped the space - each worshipper found sufficient room to express his or her submission to HaShem.  This signified that no physical limitation can stand in the way of the spiritual process of teshuvah. As the midrash says: “Teshuvah is like the ocean. Just as the ocean is always open, so the gates of teshuvah are always open” (Pesikta d’Rav Kahana, Shabbos Shuvah, 2).
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17. 9.  “No snake or scorpion”: Snakes and scorpions bring death through their bites and stings.  Yerushalayim, a place of life, was protected from their venom.
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19. 10.  “No pilgrim”: This sign is similar to the one that occurred during the prostrations in the Temple.  Millions would descend upon Yerushalayim for the three Festivals.  None of them ever had to sleep in the street. Yerushalayim expanded, as it were, to accommodate its visitors.  This served as a sign of HaShem’s desire to greet each Jewish household as it offered its Shelamim offerings and feasted before Him.  It is also, according to Avos d’Rabbi Noson (A,35), a sign pointing toward the Messianic future, when all of humanity will stream toward a rebuilt Holy City expanding to include all of humanity within its boundaries.

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