Sotah Chapter 7, Mishnah 7. The Mishnah has already listed the things that must be said in the holy tongue, among them the blessings of the Kohen Gadol - the berachos that the Kohen Gadol would recite at the Torah reading on Yom Kippur. Now the Mishnah describes the order of the entire procedure: "Birchos kohen gadol keitzad?" - How were the blessings of the Kohen Gadol done?
The order in which the Torah scroll was passed from hand to hand:
"Chazan haknesses notel sefer Torah" - the synagogue attendant takes a Torah scroll. There was a synagogue in the Beis HaMikdash in which they read from the Torah, and the 'chazan haknesses' is the one appointed over all its needs. The word 'chazan' derives from 'chozeh', one who sees, that is, the one who oversees and looks after the needs, in our terms: the shamash. He takes the Torah scroll and brings it out of the synagogue.
"Venosno lerosh haknesses" - and gives it to the head of the synagogue. The rosh haknesses is what we call the gabbai, the person who decides who receives an aliyah and who leads.
"Verosh haknesses nosno lasegan" - and the head of the synagogue gives it to the deputy. The segan is the second to the Kohen Gadol, who stands ready to replace him should anything happen to him.
"Vehasegan nosno lekohen gadol" - and the deputy gives it to the Kohen Gadol. The whole purpose of this chain of transmission is to display the eminence of the Kohen Gadol, who has many ranks beneath him.
"Vehakohen hagadol omed umekabel vekorei omed" - and the Kohen Gadol stands and receives it and reads standing:
From the fact that the Kohen Gadol rises to receive the scroll, it is evident that he had been sitting beforehand. On this basis the Gemara concludes that the reading took place in the Women's Courtyard and not in the Israelite Courtyard, since the halachah is that no one may sit in the Courtyard except the kings of the House of David.
What the Kohen Gadol reads:
"Acharei Mos" - the portion in the Book of Vayikra that deals with the Yom Kippur service.
"Ve'ach be'asor" - the passage in Parashas Emor, in the listing of the festivals, that pertains to Yom Kippur.
"Ufarashas asor shebechumash hapekudim korei al peh" - and the passage of the tenth of the month in the Book of Numbers he reads by heart. This is the portion of the additional offerings brought on Yom Kippur, found in the Book of Bamidbar (also called Chumash HaPekudim), and it is recited from memory.
After the reading he "golel es haTorah, manichah bechieko" - rolls up the Torah and places it in his bosom, and says: "Yoser mimah shekarisi lifneichem kasuv kan" - more than what I have read before you is written here. This is so that the listeners should not think that the Torah scroll is missing the portion he is about to read by heart. The portion is indeed written here; it is only that he does not read it from the scroll, because rolling the scroll all the way to that place in the Book of Bamidbar takes a long time.
The governing rule is that one may not roll a Torah scroll in public for longer than the time it takes the translator - the one who recites the Aramaic translation - to finish translating the final verse; and this rolling would have taken longer than that. Therefore he rolls up the scroll, places it in his bosom, announces that there is more here, and reads the portion of the tenth of the month by heart.
The eight berachos:
On the Torah - the usual berachos of one who receives an aliyah: the berachah before it and the berachah after it.
On the service - parallel to the berachah in the prayers, and it concludes: "Who in His mercy chooses the service of His people Israel."
Thanksgiving - corresponding to 'Modim', to give thanks to Hashem.
On forgiveness - a special berachah parallel to the one in the Yom Kippur prayers: "Who forgives the sins of Israel in mercy."
On the Temple - a special berachah for the Beis HaMikdash, concluding with "Who dwells in Zion."
On Israel - that the Divine Presence should not depart from Israel, concluding "Who chooses Israel."
On the kohanim - that the Holy One, blessed is He, should accept their offerings favorably.
The rest of the prayer - a general berachah, concluding "Blessed are You, Hashem, Who hears prayer."
In summary: in this Mishnah we learned the order of the blessings of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur: the passing of the Torah scroll from the synagogue attendant to the head of the synagogue, from him to the deputy and from him to the Kohen Gadol - to display his eminence; his reading while standing, from which the Gemara derived that he read in the Women's Courtyard, since no one may sit in the Courtyard except the kings of the House of David; the portions he read from the text - "Acharei Mos" and "Ve'ach be'asor" - and the portion of the tenth of the month in Chumash HaPekudim, which he read by heart because of the trouble of rolling the scroll; and finally the eight berachos that he recited.
In the next section we will continue with the rest of the chapter.