We have said that when one promises to bring a sacrifice, he must do so during the following three Holidays. He starts counting from Pesach so that he has five Holidays to fulfill his promise at the maximum. However, this was the opinion of one teacher, Rabbi Shimon. There are four more opinions, and each has its own logical explanation.
By the way, sacrifices and all other promises to the Temple are governed by the same law. The first opinion is that he has three Holidays to go, and he starts from the next one; thus, he has three Holidays at the max, and then he has transgressed the “do not delay.” The logic here is clear: since the Torah mentioned the three Holidays, Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot, one extra time – this is precisely the law it wanted to teach us.
Rabbi Shimon pays attention to the order in which the Holidays were mentioned, and comes up wit the measure of five Holiday seasons.
Rabbi Meir says that “you will come... and you will bring” teaches that he must come and bring his sacrifice on the very next Holiday.
Rabbi Eliezer says that “do it on the Holidays” teaches the minimum of plural – that is, two Holidays.
Finally, Rabbi Elazar, the son of Rabbi Shimon, says that Sukkot was mentioned an extra time to tell us that it represents the cutoff: even if one promised a sacrifice shortly before Sukkot, he must bring it no later than this Holiday.
Art: A Breach of Promise By Walter-Dendy Sadler
No comments:
Post a Comment