Berachos 2a - Part 3, Berachos 2b - Part 1

The mishna stated that the time for reciting the evening shma begins at the same time that the kohanim enter to eat their terumah. The gemara now asks:

Question: Let us see, what time do the kohanim begin to eat terumah? At Tzeis HaKochavim (nightfall). So why doesn't the mishna just say nightfall?


Answer: The mishna is teaching us a chiddush derech agav. The chiddush is that when, in fact, do the kohanim enter to eat their terumah? At nightfall.

The Gemara then says that the mishna also teaches us that kohanim don't need kapara in order to eat teruma. They only need nightfall. This follows the teaching in the following baraissa:

Baraissa: U'Ba HaShemesh V'Taher (and the sun will set and he will be purified) - the setting of the sun is needed for the kohen to be able to eat terumah, but the kohen's kapara isn't needed in order for him to eat terumah.

The Gemara now delves into the fashion in which the baraissa darshens the pasuk:

Question: How does the baraissa know that the bias shemesh here is nightfall and the purity is coming from the days end? Perhaps, the bias shemesh actually refers to sunrise the purity refers to the purification of the kohen (through the bringing of his korbanos, i.e. the kaparah)? In other words, maybe the pasuk of U'Ba HaShemesh is actually referring to kaparah, and not nightfall?

Rabba Bar Rav Shila answers: If the pasuk was referring to the kapara that the kohen brings it would have said "v'yitaher". The word "v'taher" implies the purification of the days end, as people say, "the sun sets and the day has cleansed".

The gemara now says that in the West they had the same basic give and take without having heard the answer of Rabba Bar Rav Shila. So there they simply asked, how do we learn the pasuk of U'ba HaShemesh V'Taher? Is it referring to the days end or to the persons purification the next day through korbanos? They then answered from a baraissa which refers to the time the kohanim eat terumah as being nightfall. Thus, it is clear that the pasuk refers to the days end and the purification of the day itself.