TalmuDigest

For the week ending 20 November 2010 / 12 Kislev 5771

Zevachim 9 - 15

by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach zt'l
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  • The animal designated for korban Pesach and not sacrificed
  • Slaughtering a sacrificial animal with an intention to apply its blood for another sort of sacrifice
  • Relationship of the chattat and asham atonement sacrifices
  • Blood of sacrifice which entered the kodesh sanctum
  • The korban Pesach slaughtered before the proper time
  • The sinner who temporarily becomes an apostate before offering his atonement sacrifice
  • Wrong intention while performing, receiving or applying the blood of a sacrifice
  • When the disqualification of pigul applies
  • The role of transporting the blood from reception to application

A Mini-Movement is Enough

  • Zevachim 14b

The blood of a sacrifice must be received by a kohen in a sacred vessel and brought to the altar for application, which must also be performed by a kohen.

How about the transporting of this blood from the reception stage to the application one – must it also be performed by a kohen actually walking to the altar?

This question is discussed at length in our gemara and the conclusion stated by Rabbi Yochanan is that if there is no movement made by the one transferring the blood from the receiver to the applier the sacrifice is disqualified.

A challenge to this approach is presented from a mishna in Mesechta Pesachim (64a). In describing the process of offering the korban Pesach the mishna states that after the kohen received the blood from the throat of the slaughtered animal, he passed it to a kohen standing next to him, who would then repeat this step, and this would go on from kohen to kohen until the blood reached the one who would apply it to the altar. This would seem to indicate that the blood was transported without any movement on the part of the kohen involved.

The response to this challenge was that even though there was a long line of kohanim involved in passing the blood in order to accommodate the large number of Jews offering that sacrifice, each of them made a slight movement towards his neighbor in order to fulfill the requirement of walking with the blood.

What the Sages Say

"Akiva, leaving you is like leaving life."

  • Rabbi Tarfon to Rabbi Akiva after he solved his problem - Zevachim 13a

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