Gemara Clarity

Arachin 10a

ערכין י׳ ע״א

Arakhin 10a

Learn Arachin 10a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Arachin 10a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

The music of the מקדש: trumpet blasts, lyres and flutes, how the blasts are counted, and why the flute played on days of full הלל

Overview

The amud opens by finishing a calendar story. A sage shows that the year's full and short months balance out, and רבי יהודה הנשיא praises him as 'נר ישראל'. Then a new משנה sets limits for the music in the מקדש: 21 to 48 trumpet blasts a day, 2 to 6 lyres, 2 to 12 flutes, and twelve days a year when the flute played before the מזבח. It ends with a three-way dispute over who the musicians were. The גמרא shows that רבי יהודה's numbers (7 to 16) differ only in counting: he treats תקיעה–תרועה–תקיעה as one unit, while רבנן count each sound. Each side brings a פסוק from במדבר 10 and answers the other's proof. רב כהנא's rule of no pause at all between the sounds is shown to follow רבי יהודה, based on his words 'ולא כלום'. Finally the גמרא explains that the flute days are days when the full הלל is said, lists those days, and begins asking why סוכות gets full הלל every day but פסח does not. The answer comes on the next amud.

Opening lines

וְעִיבּוּר שָׁנָה שְׁלֹשִׁים

And the added month of the leap year was thirty days

(אישתקד) [וְאִישְׁתָּקַד] עָשִׂינוּ שְׁנֵיהֶם מְלֵאִין,

and last year we made both of them full,

דַּל תְּלָתָא לְבַהֲדֵי תְּלָתָא

take away three against three

וְקָם לֵיהּ בְּדוּכְתֵּיהּ.

and it stands in its place.

The steps (23)

  1. ResponseFinishing the calendar calculation
  2. Conclusionרבי confirms and praises the sage
  3. StatementMinimum and maximum trumpet blasts in the Temple
  4. StatementHow many lyres and flutes were played
  5. StatementThe twelve days the flute played before the altar
  6. StatementWhy a reed flute, and why a single flute at the end
  7. StatementWho were the Temple musicians?
  8. StatementOur משנה does not follow רבי יהודה
  9. ResponseThe argument is only about how to count
  10. Proofרבי יהודה's source: the תרועה is called a תקיעה
  11. Rejectionרבנן read the same פסוקים differently
  12. Proofרבנן's source: a תקיעה alone when gathering the people
  13. Rejectionרבי יהודה: that תקיעה was only a signal
  14. QuestionWhose view does רב כהנא follow?
  15. ResponseIt follows רבי יהודה
  16. ChallengeIsn't that obvious?
  17. ResolutionWe might have thought רב כהנא fits רבנן too
  18. ChallengeMaybe that is really what he meant
  19. ResolutionThe words 'not at all' prove it
  20. QuestionWhy the חליל on these twelve days?
  21. ResponseThese are the days of full הלל
  22. ProofThe list of days for the complete הלל
  23. QuestionWhy every day of סוכות but not of פסח