Bilga is the fifteenth of the twenty-four mishmarot. The Mishna penalises it three times: it always divides its loaves on the south side, even on the day it enters service; its slaughtering ring is fixed, so it must borrow the others'; and its knife niche is walled up. The Gemara gives two reasons. Miriam, daughter of Bilga, had renounced the Torah and married a Greek officer; when the Greeks entered the Heikhal she struck the altar with her sandal: “Lukos, lukos — wolf, wolf! How long will you devour Israel's wealth without standing by them in their hour of distress?” The Sages penalised the whole mishmar, for what a child says in the market he has heard from his father or his mother. According to the other view, Bilga's mishmar was late in coming, and Yeshevav, who precedes it, served in its place.
Dimensions
- 15th mishmar of 24
- the niche, the ring and the division of the loaves
Sources
- Sukkah 5:8“בִּלְגָּה לְעוֹלָם חוֹלֶקֶת בַּדָּרוֹם, וְטַבַּעְתָּהּ קְבוּעָה, וְחַלּוֹנָהּ סְתוּמָה”
- Sukkah 56b“מעשה במרים בת בילגה שהמירה דתה… כששמעו חכמים בדבר, קבעו את טבעתה וסתמו את חלונה”
- I Chronicles 24:14“לְבִלְגָּה חֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר”
- Bartenura on Sukkah 5:8“חַלּוֹנוֹת הָיוּ בְּלִשְׁכַּת הַחֲלִיפוֹת שֶׁשָּׁם גּוֹנְזִין אֶת סַכִּינֵיהֶם”
- Yerushalmi Sukkah 5:8“וחלונה סתומה… כהיא דתנינן תמן הוא היה נקרא בית החולפות ששם היו גונזין את הסכינין”
Project decisionTour's choice: the Mishna does not say where Bilga's niche was. The tour arranges the niches in the order of the mishmarot, the first twelve on the north: Bilga falls on the south, top row. The niche is closed with a slightly recessed stone so that it reads as walled up.