Sacred Spaces #2: The Toilet

The young men of the priesthood... would not sleep dressed in the sacred clothes; rather, they would remove them and fold them up. And then they would place their vestments on the floor beneath their heads, and cover themselves with their own non-sacred garments. If a seminal emission befell one of the priests, rendering him ritually impure and unfit for service, he would leave the Chamber of the Hearth, and he would walk through the circuitous passage that extended beneath the Temple, as he could not pass through the Temple courtyard, due to his impurity. And there were lamps burning on this side and on that side of the passage. He would walk through the passage until he reached the Chamber of Immersion. And there was a fire burning there to warm the priests after they had immersed, and also a bathroom of honor [beit kisseh shel kavod], so that the priests could urinate before immersion. This was the manifestation of its honor: If one found the door closed, he would know that there was a person there; if one found the door open, it was known that there was no person there. After the priest descended and immersed in the ritual bath, he ascended and dried himself with a towel, and warmed himself opposite the fire.

Rav Safra was sitting in the bathroom when Rabbi Abba came along. Since there was no door, Rabbi Abba coughed outside to alert anyone within of his presence and thereby inquire whether he could enter. Rav Safra said to Rabbi Abba: Enter, Master, and Rabbi Abba therefore entered the bathroom. When he came out, Rabbi Abba said to Rav Safra: Until now, although you have traveled widely, you have never entered Seir, the land of the Edomites, who behave immodestly. Nevertheless, you have learned the ways of Seir. Didn’t we learn this in the mishna: "If one found the door closed, it was known that there was a person there". This serves to say that a person should not enter the bathroom while another person is inside. Therefore, Rav Safra should not have told Rabbi Abba to enter.

Rabbi Akiva said: I once entered the bathroom after my teacher Rabbi Yehoshua, and I learned three things:

1) I learned that one should not defecate while facing east and west, but rather while facing north and south;

2) I learned that one should not uncover himself while standing, but while sitting, in the interest of modesty;

3) and I learned that one should not wipe with his right hand, but with his left.

Ben Azzai, a student of Rabbi Akiva, said to him: You were impertinent to your teacher to that extent that you observed that much? He replied: It is Torah, and I must learn.

Why must one not wipe himself with his right hand, but with his left? Rava said: Because the Torah was given with the right hand, as it is stated: “At His right hand was a fiery law unto them” (Deuteronomy 33:2). Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Because the right hand is close to the mouth, i.e., people eat with the right hand. And Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: Because one ties the phylacteries onto his left hand with his right hand. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: Because one points to the cantillation notes of the Torah with his right hand.

The Gemara relates: There was a particular bathroom in the city of Tiberias, where, when two would enter it, even during the day, they would be harmed by demons. When Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi would each enter alone, they were not harmed. The Sages said to them: Aren’t you afraid? Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi said to them: We have learned through tradition: The tradition to avoid danger in the bathroom is to conduct oneself with modesty and silence. The tradition to end suffering is with silence and prayer.

Abaye’s mother raised a lamb to accompany him to the bathroom. She should have raised a goat for him! A goat could be interchanged with a goat-demon.

Before Rava became the head of the yeshiva, his wife, the daughter of Rav Ḥisda, would rattle a nut in a copper vessel for him in order to fend off demons when he was in the bathroom. After he was chosen to preside as head of the yeshiva, he required an additional degree of protection, so she constructed a window for him, opposite where he would defecate, and placed her hand upon his head.

"And does miraculous things" [is in the text] because man is compared to a sack full of air, and if man makes a hole in the sack as small as the tip of a needle, air will escape, and the fact that man has many holes in him and his spirit is still kept inside him, this is a miracle. And furthermore, some explain it as referring to [how the body] selects the good parts of food and pushes out the waste.

After urinating, one must pause for as long as it would take to walk four cubits and then one may recite the service.

So too, after the conclusion of a service, one should wait as long as it would take to walk four cubits before urinating, so that the words of prayer cease from his mouth.

Even to consider matters of Torah, is forbidden in the latrine, and in the bathhouse, and in a filthy place - and this is in a place in which there is excrement or urine. Gloss: and it is even forbidden to study the laws of the bathhouse in the bathhouse

"Even to think of a matter of Torah in the bathroom is forbidden..."

I was unsure whether it is permitted to think of the Blessed One or not. It seems that one could learn by a kal vechomer that [since it is forbidden to think of the Torah, surely] it is forbidden to think of God's reality and capability. But according to some of the mystics, one wearing the tefillin of Rabbenu Tam is permitted to speak secular speech in them, since the power of the tefillin's holiness is great and no impure thing can take hold of them, and it's possible to say that all the more so is this true here [since God's holiness is even greater than that of tefillin]! .... This is an undeniable proof that with regard to God's reality, may God be blessed, it's permitted to think about God, even in the bathroom. And it doesn't make sense here to raise a question about going to sleep, since one could answer that all dreams are just thoughts of the day, and if one thinks always of God, and also in the night one's ideas are on God, then it's appropriate to say 'always'. Thus it seems in my humble opinion, and study very well and you will find this clear.