“Aaron shall come into the Tent of Meeting, [and shall remove the linen vestments that he donned with his entry into the Sanctum, and he shall leave them there] (Leviticus 16:23). Rabbi Ḥiyya taught: This teaches that they require interment and are not fit for another Yom Kippur. Rabbi Dosa said: They are fit for a common priest.32Rabbi Dosa holds that although the High Priest may not wear the same linen vestments into the Holy of Holies on another Yom Kippur, the vestments could be worn by a common priest to perform the Temple service.
Common priests would serve all year in four linen vestments. “And no man shall be in the Tent of Meeting, [from his entry to atone in the Sanctum until his emergence]” (Leviticus 16:17). In the year Shimon HaTzadik died, he said to them: ‘This year, he will die.’33He was referring to himself. They said to him: ‘How do you know?’
He said to them: ‘Each and every year there has been a certain elder clothed in white and wrapped in white who would enter [the Holy of Holies] with me and emerge with me. This year, he entered with me but did not emerge with me.’ Rabbi Abahu said: ‘Who says that it was a person, was it not the Holy One blessed be He in His glory who would enter with him and emerge with him?’ Rabbi Abahu said: ‘Is the High Priest not a person?34What is the meaning of the verse that no man shall be in the Tent of Meeting when the High Priest enters the Sanctum?
What about the High Priest himself? It is, rather, as Rabbi Pinḥas said: When the Divine Spirit was resting upon him, his face was aflame like torches upon him. That is what is written: “For the lips of the priest will safeguard knowledge…[as he is a messenger [malakh]35The High Priest is called a malakh, which literally means an angel. So, there was no man in the Tent of Meeting. of the Lord of hosts]”’ (Malachi 2:7).