Sacrifice as Public Spectacle (Pompē) in the Palestinian Talmud

The Rabbis of Roman Palestine (third to fifth century ce) constructed a legal system that included a comprehensive set of laws and narrative descriptions of the lost sacrificial rituals of the Jerusalem Temple. This system is exemplified in the tractate Yoma of the Palestinian Talmud, which describes the Yom Kippur sacrifice in great detail. Although Leviticus 16 only mentions the High Priest, Yoma describes a very public ritual. This study focuses on Hebrew transliterations of the term pompē, which the Talmud uses to designate rituals that are not essential to the goals of the sacrifice, but are formulated for public perception.