Zevachim 34 – Service Interruptions That Can Be Fixed

We have learned that persons disqualified for services are allowed to do the act of slaughtering the sacrifice. However, if they have continued and received the blood, then the law is as follows: if there is some lifeblood spurting from the neck of the animal, a qualified person should receive the blood and complete the service.

If a qualified person received the blood and handed it to a disqualified person, the latter should simply return the blood, and the service continues. If the kohen received the blood with his right hand, but then put the vessel in his left hand – he should return it to his right hand and continue. If the blood spilled on the floor and he gathered it – it is valid.

Resh Lakish asked Rabbi Yochanan, “What if the disqualified person not only received the blood, but also threw it on the Altar, can this be corrected?” Rabbi Yochanan answered, “Yes. Unless he intended to eat it in the wrong place or beyond the right time, because then it became rejected.”

Art: Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez - Joseph's Bloody Coat Brought to Jacob

Zevachim 33 – Partial Entry

In the name of Resh Lakish, Ulla said, “If a person who was impure puts his hand within the Courtyard, he incurs lashes.” Ulla proved this from the verse, “She may not touch anything holy, and she may not enter the Sanctuary.” By touching the Torah here meant eating. However, it used the language of touching to tell us that touching and entry have the same law: just as touching is always partial – that is, done with the fingers and not with the whole body – so too partial entry is considered an entry.

Rabbi Hoshaya challenged Ulla using the law of a leper (metzorah) who puts his fingers inside the courtyard to be anointed with special oil at the end of his purification. Although Ulla answered the challenge, Ravina rephrased Ulla's statement as talking about lashes and not, as we have assumed, about a more strict excision.

When Ravin came from Israel, he said that Resh Lakish's ruling was indeed stated about touching, not about entering the Courtyard, and in fact, the disagreement ran as follows. Resh Lakish said that an impure person who touches sacrificial food incurs lashes, while Rabbi Yochanan said he does not.

Art: Egon Schiele - Self Portrait With Black Vase And Spread Fingers

Zevachim 32 – Anybody Can Slaughter a Sacrifice

All those who were previously mentioned as disqualifying the service can do the first step – the slaughter. This is based on the phrase “He shall slaughter the bull before God and the sons of Aaron, the Kohanim, shall bring the blood to the Altar and throw it on the Altar.” From here we see only beginning from the second step of the service – receiving the blood – do we require a Kohen, but anybody can do the slaughter.

Thus, every non-Kohen, man or woman, or even an impure person is qualified to do the slaughter. Therefore, the thought of anyone who does the slaughter counts, and if they intend to eat the sacrifice beyond the allotted time, the sacrifice becomes rejected.

A ritually impure person faces a special problem: he should take care not to make the meat of the sacrifice impure. He has to either have the level of impurity that cannot be transmitted through the knife, or he has to use a sharp reed, which, as a flat wooden object, does not transmit impurity. Additionally, he has to stand outside the Courtyard and use a very long knife.

Art: Gustave Caillebotte - Garlic Cloves And Knife On The Corner Of A Table

Zevachim 31 – When do Thoughts Mix

Concerning the intent to eat an olive's volume piece of a sacrifice at the wrong time, and another piece in the wrong place, was the precise language “a piece, a piece” or “a piece and a piece?” Perhaps only in “a piece, a piece” the first thought is separate from the second, but in “a piece and a piece” the intents mix together and thus do not count?

We can learn the answer from what Levi asked of Rabbi Yehudah the Prince. Levi asked, “If one plans to eat a piece tomorrow in the wrong place, what is the law?” Previously Rabbi Yehudah taught other students two versions, with “and” and without, so they knew the answer. Levi, however, got only one version, without “and,” so he devised the question that would tell him both answers. If Rabbi Yehudah is annoyed, it means that Levi could have found the answer himself and that Levi's version was the correct one. But Rabbi Yehudah answered calmly, “It is a mixture of thoughts.” Now Levi knew both the answer to his question and that “a piece and a piece” was the correct version.

Art: Pieter Claesz - A Still Life With An Overturned Silver Tazza, A Silver Plate With A Partly Peeled Lemon And An Olive, With Walnuts And Hazelnuts

Zevachim 30 – Two Invalidations Invalidate Each Other

Here is a general rule: all the invalidations and rejections discussed before happen only when everything else was done properly. For example, if while receiving the blood, one had an intent to eat the sacrifice beyond allotted time, it becomes rejected – but only if the other services were done with the correct intent. Another condition for rejection is that one should also plan to eat those parts that are normally eaten, and burn those that are normally burned. However, if on the subsequent step of the service he had an wrong intent to continue outside the allowed place – the two intentions clash, and the invalidation does not happen.

Rabbi Yehudah disagrees and says that in the case where the more serious disqualification “outside of permitted time” occurred first, later wrong intent does not matter.

Art: Paul Cezanne - The Black Clock

Zevachim 29 – Rava Masterfully Explains a Long Verse

We have learned that when a kohen slaughters a sacrifice intending to eat it in the wrong place, it is simply invalid, but if he intends to eat it at the wrong time – it is rejected, and anyone who eats its meat deserves being cut off from the people. But why is this? Rava provides an explanation from a certain lengthy verse which starts with “If any of will be consumed on the third day...”. Unlike others before him, Rava considers the verse in its entirety and derives many additional laws from it.

“Will be consumed at all” teaches that the laws of invalidation are the same for consumption by man and by the Altar (burning on it). “On the third day” teaches the invalidation produced by intention to eat the sacrifice beyond its alloted time. “The one that offers” teaches that the invalidation occurs through the wrong intention of the one that offers, and that it does not occur, even retroactively, if the sacrifice is actually eaten on the third day. "The soul that eats it" teaches that one soul is punished, but not two souls, that is, only the intention "outside its time" leads to rejection, but not the intention "outside its place."

Art: Rembrandt Van Rijn - The Slaughtered Ox

Zevachim 28 – When is the Sacrifice Rejected

The prescribed area for all sacrificial services is the Temple Courtyard. If one slaughters a sacrifice with the intent to throw its blood outside of the prescribed area, or even if he plans to throw a small part of the blood outside the prescribed area, the sacrifice becomes invalid – even if later he applies the blood in the correct place. The same is true if he intends to eat the sacrifice outside of prescribed area.

However, if the wrong intent relates to time, that is, if he plans to throw its blood tomorrow, even a small part of the blood; if he intends to burn the sacrificial parts the next day, or to eat its meat the next day – the sacrifice becomes completely rejected (“piggul”) - and one who eats of its meat can be cut off from his people. This is true even if does not fulfill his intent and later does everything in the right time.

Art: Frans van Mieris - An Elderly Couple Eating