For the source text click/tap here: Yoma 61
To download, click/tap here: PDF
Our Daf allows us to watch the rabbis deal with the real possibility of error. When the High Priest offers/sprinkles/pours the blood of the bull and the goat, he is actively atoning for the sins of the Jewish people. This is not a metaphor. Atonement only happens when these rituals are completed properly. Thus errors are considered to be potentially fatal for huge numbers of people. From a more modern perspective, errors without the subsequent wrath of G-d might cause the community to question the efficacy of these rituals.
The rabbis re able to create contingency plans for a host of potential errors. They look to related protocols (ex. when lepers are returned to the community) and they create new rules to manage errors. Most of the discussions revolve round whether or not rites should be/can be repeated following an error. Some rabbis believe that in different cases, it is inappropriate to repeat a ritual and thus sacrifice twice, for example, when we are told specifically to sacrifice once. Others argue that since the first ritual was improper, it was not in fact the required ritual act at all.
This leads us to explore how the sa’ir atones and Reb Yoel Bin Nun’s insightful analysis.