Hey there. And welcome back to Take One, the podcast. That brings you just one holy page of

Tomwood each day and what could be holier than the temple. Exactly the topic on the rabbi's

minds on today's pages, Zvachim 112 and 113. Get a load of this. Until the tabernacle was established, private altars were permitted,

and the sacrificial service was performed by the firstborn. And from the time that the

tabernacle was established, private altars were prohibited, and the sacrificial service was

performed by the priests. Offerings of the most sacred order were then eaten within the curtains

surrounding the courtyard of the tabernacle and the wilderness, and offerings of lesser sanctity

were eaten throughout the camp of Israel. When the Jewish people arrived at Gilgal, private

altars were permitted. Offerings of the most sacred order were then eaten within the curtains,

and offerings of lesser sanctity

were eaten anywhere. And the Talmud goes on to discuss the things that then happened in all the

different stops of the Mishkan until we finally get to Yerushalai and we finally get to the temple,

which raises the question, what is the significance of the way the eventual temple was built

in Jerusalem? Why was there a switch from firstborn serving to priests as the one who serve?

Those are excellent questions. And you already know that there is only one person who could

answer them, right? Our great friend, our great teacher, Rabbi David Bershevkin,

how are you, my friend? Leal, what an absolute privilege and pleasure. And in this passage of

Talmud, we really see two things that are incredibly profound. The first is the central work in the

temple, all of the sacrificial work, it used to be the responsibility

of firstborns, as this passage in Talmud attest to, and then it switched to being the responsibility

of Kohanim, which is this designated class among the Jewish people that still exist today.

And then secondly, we also see how gradual the eventual establishment of the temple in Jerusalem

...