[Avodah] Behaalosekha es haneiros

[Yitzhak Grossman]

On Wed, 5 Dec 2007 10:23:09 -0500 (EST)
"Micha Berger" <micha at aishdas.org> wrote:

[snip]

> Second, how can it be mutar for a zar to light the menorah if he was
> already chayav misah for entering the bayis to light it?

A zar may only enter the ezras ko'hanim for his 'needs' [0], and it is
not clear whether the prohibition is min ha'torah [1], but there's
certainly no death penalty for entering even the bayis [2]:

---  Begin Quote ---

t'horim who enter within their m'hizah, into the entire Heichal, forty
[lashes], inside the paroches and before the kapores, death.  Rabbi
Yehudah says the entire Heichal and inside the paroches, forty, before
the kapores, death.

--- End Quote ---

But your question still remains, since entry to the Bayis is definitely
prohibited.  The Rambam indeed writes [3]:

--- Begin Quote ---

Kindling the neiros is also acceptable if done by zarim, therefore if
the Kohen was meitiv the neiros and then brought them outside, the zar
is permitted to kindle them.

--- End Quote ---

The Hasdei Dovid [4] apparently says that from here we can infer that a
zar is indeed prohibited to enter the Heichal, a law which the Rambam
apparently doesn't ever mention explicitly.

[0] Keilim 1:8, Rambam Beis Ha'bchirah 7:19
[1] see sources cited in the Sefer Ha'mafte'ah ibid.
[2] M'nahos 27b
[3] Bi'as Mikdash 9:7
[4] cited by Sefer Ha'mafte'ah ibid.

> SheTir'u baTov!
> -micha

Yitzhak
--
Bein Din Ledin - bdl.freehostia.com
An advanced discussion of Hoshen Mishpat