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Week 142 - Tuesday - 13 August 2002

ZEVAHIM: CHAPTER 5: MISHNAH 1

Which is the place for the sacrifices? The most holy - their slaughtering is at the north. The bullock and the he-goat of the Day of Atonement - their slaughtering is at the north, the collection of their blood is in a service vessel at the north, and their blood must be sprinkled between the staves and on the veil and on the golden altar, a single application invalidates. The remainder of the blood he poured out over the western base of the outer altar. If he did not pour out, he did not invalidate.

Kehati

As mentioned in the Introduction to this Tractate, this chapter deals with the rites of the sacrifices and the differences between them. Since this chapter contains the essential laws of all the sacrifices, it was introduced into the Prayer Book in order that one may learn them daily. Thus our Sages interpreted (Men. 2:11) the Torah's statement: "this is the teaching (torah) of the sin-offering," "this is the teaching of the guilt-offering" as implying that he who studies the law of the sin-offering is regarded as if he had offered up a sin-offering, and he who studies the laws of the guilt-offering, as if he had offered up a guilt-offering. The Gemara (Meg. 31b) states it thus: “Our forefather Abraham spoke to the Lord: "Should Israel, Heaven forefend, sin before You, will You castigate them as you did the generation of the Deluge or of the Dispersion? No, answered the Almighty. Said he to Him - O Master of the universe! "By what shall I know (Gen. 15:8)? Said He to him: "Take Me a heifer three years old" (ibid.ibid. 9, i.e., the sacrifices will bring atonement for them). Said he to Him: O Master of the universe! This is very well as long as there is a Temple, but what will be their fate when there is no Temple? Said He to him: Indeed I have set out for them the order of the sacrifices, so that when they read it over, I shall reckon it as if they had offered up the sacrifices on the altar and I shall forgive them all their sins."

Which is the place for the sacrifices – where they are slaughtered, their blood is collected and sprinkled and where they are eaten?

The most holy sacrifices, i.e., the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, the guilt-offering and the public peace-offerings (the lambs offered up on the Feast of Shavuot), as will be explained below - their slaughtering is at the north side of the Temple Court, thus (Lev. 1:11): "And he shall slaughter it on the side of the altar northward," and regarding the sin-offering (Lev. 6:18) "in the place where the burnt-offering is slaughtered shall the sin-offering be slaughtered," and regarding the guilt-offering (ibid. 7:2): "in the place where they slaughter the burnt-offering shall they slaughter the guilt-offering"; the public peace-offerings are derived from the burnt-offering, thus (Num. 10:10): "...you shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt-offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace-offerings" - i.e., just as the burnt-offering is most holy, so are the sacrifices of public peace-offerings most holy; just as the burnt-offering is due in the north, so also are the peace-offering sacrifices due in the north (Zev. 55a) –

The bullock and the he-goat of the Day of Atonement - at this point the mishnah elaborates the sacrificial rites, beginning with the sin-offering since the bullock and the he-goat of the Day of Atonement are sin-offerings, thus (Lev. 16:6): "And Aaron shall offer the bullock of the sin-offering, which is for himself' and (ibid. ibid.) "And Aaron shall bring the he-goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer it for a sin-offering" - their slaughtering is at the north side of the Temple Court - the collection of their blood is in a service vessel at the north - thus regarding the burnt-offering on Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:6) "And Moses took half of the blood, "and put it in basins," whence it is learned that all the sacrifices require holy service vessels; furthermore (Lev. 4:29) "...and shall slaughter the sin-offering in the place of the burnt-offering. And the priest shall take of its blood with his finger"; the Sages derived from the connection of "in the place of the burnt-offering" with "And the priest shall take of its blood with his finger" that the collection of the blood must be executed at the place where the burnt-offering is slaughtered.

and their blood must be sprinkled between the staves of the Holy Ark, thus (Lev. 16:14-15): "and he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the covering (kaporet - the lid of the Holy Ark) eastward; and before the covering he shall sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. And he shall slaughter the goat of the sin-offering...and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock." I.e., the High Priest stood between the two staves of the Holy Ark and sprinkled against the thickness of the cover (kaporet) - lid of the Ark), once above and seven times below and on the veil in the heikhal (Inner Sanctuary), thus, (ibid. ibid.) "and so shall he do for the Tent of Meeting," from which the Sages derived that ahe does in the innermost Sanctuary (Holy of Holies) so must he do in the heikhal, i.e., sprinkle of the blood of the bullock and of the he-goat once above and seven times below against the veil and on the golden altar in the heikhal, thus (ibid. ibid. 18): "And he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord, and make atonement for it, and he shall take of the blood of the bullock and of the blood of the he-goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel," i.e., he mixed the blood of the bullock and of the he-goat and from the two he sprinkled four sprinklings from outside on the four horns of the altar in the following order: north-east, north-west, south-west and south-east; this was followed by seven sprinklings on the top of the golden altar,

a single application invalidates - the omission of a single sprinkling withholds the atonement. This is derived in the Gemara (Zev. 36b) from the par he'alem davar - the community's bullock for an erroneous decision. The remainder of the blood he poured out over the western base of the outer altar - thus (Lev. 4:7): "...and he shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt-offering, which is at the door of the Tent of Meeting," which was located west of the altar.

If he did not pour out the remainder of the blood over the base he did not invalidate the atonement, for after reference to the sprinklings and the application of the blood in the Inner Sanctuary it is written (Lev. 16:20): "'And when he has concluded the atonement for the holy place" - which teaches that the process of atonement has been completed (Zev. 52a).

ZEVAHIM: CHAPTER 5: MISHNAH 2

The bullocks that are burnt and the he-goats that are burnt – their slaughtering is at the north, and the collection of their blood is in a service vessel at the north, and their blood must be sprinkled on the veil on the golden altar. One application invalidates. The remainder of the blood he poured out over the western base of the outer altar. If he did not pour out, be did not invalidate. These and those are burnt in the place of the ashes.

The bullocks that are burnt par he'alem davar - the community's bullock for erroneous decisions and the par kohen mashiah - the bullock of the High Priest (see Hor. 1:1; 2:1) and the he-goats that are burnt - the sin-offering for committing idolatry (see 4:4 above) to which the same laws apply as to the community's bullock for erroneous decisions –

their slaughtering is at the north side of the Temple Court and the collection of their blood is in a service vessel at the north - as explained in the preceding mishnah - and their blood must be sprinkled on the veil - as stated regarding the community's bullock for erroneous decisions (Lev. 4:17) "And the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord, before the veil"; and likewise regarding the bullock of the High Priest (Lev. 4:6): "And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the Sanctuary." The reference to the "Sanctuary" (hakodesh) implies that this was done in the direction of the staves, even though "between the staves" is not specified - and on the golden altar - four applications on its four horns, as with the bullock of the High Priest, (ibid. ibid. 7): "And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense," and with the community's bullock for erroneous decisions (ibid. ibid. 18): "And he shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar which is before the Lord, that is in the Tent of Meeting."

One application invalidates - thus (ibid.ibid. 20): "And he shall do with the bullock as he did with the bullock of the sin-offering, so shall he do with this, and the priest shall make atonement for them"; this verse being redundant, teaches that if a single application was omitted his action is pointless (Zev. 39a). The remainder of the blood he poured out over the western base of the outer altar - as explained in the preceding mishnah.

If he did not pour out the remainder of the blood over the base of the altar he did not invalidate the atonement since it is written regarding the High Priest's bullock (ibid. ibid. 20): "and the priest shall make atonement for them, and they shall be forgiven," which implies that atonement is effected even without pouring the remainder of the blood on the altar base (Zev. 39a).

These and those - the bullock and the he-goat of the Day of Atonement and the bullocks and he-goats that were to be burnt - are burnt in the place of the ashes - located outside Jerusalem where the ashes of the outer altar were deposited, thus (Lev. 6:4) "And he shall take out the ashes outside the camp to a clean place," and concerning the High Priest's bullock it is written (Lev. 4:12): "where the ashes are poured out, shall it be burnt," where also the community's bullock for an erroneous decision, the he-goats for idolatry and the bullock and he-goats of the Day of Atonement were burnt; all these are likened to one another, as the Gemara learns from the relevant Torah texts.

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