Question
What does it mean by: "Between the evenings" - ’Bein Ha’arbayim’?
Answer
In the Torah “Bein Ha’arbayim” is used for the time of the second daily Tamid offering (the first is in the morning), the time of the slaughter of the Pesach sacrifice, and other functions in the Temple. Commonly it is translated as “between the evenings”, or “between the settings”, when the first setting of the Sun is the beginning of its descent after noon, and the second is sundown. Hence, the phrase means “the afternoon”.
Another phrase “bein ha’shemoshot” refers to the time period after sundown which is not clearly day or night because of a doubt concerning the halachic definition of sundown.
