Pesachim 75 - Instructions on cooking and eating the Passover lamb

Since the Passover offering must be "roasted over fire," one must be careful when cooking. If they notice that the meat has touched the earthenware part of the oven while cooking, they need to scrape this part off. In this place, it was roasted due to the oven wall's heat, not open fire.

If some gravy dripped onto the earthenware and then splatted back onto the meat, they should remove the meat in that place, to the depth of one finger - again, since in that place, it was boiled. 

After cooking, they can smear the dry meat with liquids. If they smeared it with oil, and that oil was "terumah" (the special gift that is given to the Kohanim priest that only they are allowed to eat) - here is what they do. If the people at the Seder are all Kohanim, they can eat the meat. But if some are regular Jews, they need to clean it. If the meat in this place was raw and did not absorb the oil, they simply rinse it. However, if it was fried and absorbent, they will need to remove the meat in that place, to the depth of one finger.

Art: Still Life with Earthenware by Vincent van Gogh

Pesachim 74 - How does one prepare the Passover lamb?

The slaughtered lamb must be roasted on a spit. Here is the Torah's recipe: "Do not eat it raw or cooked in water, but only roasted over fire, including its head, its legs, and its internal organs." Now the details.

They would bring a spit of pomegranate wood and push it into the animal's mouth until the spit passes through the anus. They would then put its legs and entrails inside it to fulfill "including its legs" instruction - that is what Rabbi Yosi says. But Rabbi Akiba counters that the legs are as if cooking inside the body. Rather, the legs and the entrails should hang outside the carcass to roast directly on the fire.

Now questions. Why not use a metal spit? - Because it has to be roasted "over fire" and not over the hot spit warmed by the fire. Why pomegranate wood? - Because pomegranate is smooth and does not secrete any liquids, which would make it like roasting. How was the lamb's form called, with the legs and the entrails above its head? - the "helmeted kid" because it was in the manner of a warrior.

Art: Shepherdess with her flock grazing  by Cornelis Van Leemputten

Pesachim 73 - A destroyer on Shabbat

If people cannot eat the Passover offering's meat, and one slaughters the sheep for them, his act makes the sacrifice invalid. We had this rule earlier. If he, moreover, does this on Shabbat, he is liable for a sin-offering. However, what did he do? There is a view that one who acts destructively on Shabbat does not violate Shabbat. Only constructive acts count. If so, why is he bringing a sin-offering?

Rav Huna bar Chinana asked his son to ask Rav Zerika this question when he sees him. The answer was: here is what he accomplished, true, the sacrifice is invalid, but at least, if they mistakenly put its parts on the Altar,  the parts can stay there.

The next question: if he slaughtered a sin-offering on Shabbat, outside the Temple, and as an idolatrous offering, he did many wrong things. But why is it counted in particular as a Shabbat violation? What positive effect did he accomplish? - At least, those who will be eating it are not eating a piece cut from a live animal - which is prohibited alike for Jews and non-Jews.

Art: Shabbat by Mark Chagall

Pesachim 72 - Circumcision and Passover on Shabbat - what's the difference?

Similar to the Passover sacrifice, if the circumcision day (eighth after birth) occurs on Shabbat, the circumcision is performed even though by doing it, one creates a wound. 

Let's say one had two babies that he needed to circumcise, one on Friday and the other one on Shabbat. He messed up and circumcised the Friday baby on Shabbat. He violated Shabbat but did the mitzvah. You can say that he was negligent. So why does Rabbi Yehoshua exempt him here but obligates him in a sin-offering in the Passover offering case that we saw earlier?

The answer is in the additional details. First, he circumcised the Friday baby. So he was still preoccupied with the remaining Shabbat baby. This explains his error and exempts him from the sin-offering. In the case of Passover, he already did the mitzvah the wrong way and had no other mitzvah to distract him, so there Rabbi Yehoshua makes him liable.

Art: Two Sleeping Children by Peter Paul Rubens

Pesachim 71 - Trying to do a mitzvah but failing

One should slaughter a Passover lamb on the Passover day, even if it falls out on Shabbat - when the slaughter is usually forbidden. However, if his slaughter is invalid, he has transgressed Shabbat, albeit retroactively, and now he needs to atone for it by bringing a sin-offering after the Holidays. For example, this happens when he takes a Passover offering and brings it for the sake of peace offering, which makes it completely invalid.

However, if he takes a peace offering and slaughters it as Passover, he has done at least some sort of a mitzvah, and Rabbi Yehoshua says that he does not need to bring a sin-offering. 

If the animal had a blemish (which invalidates any offering), he should have checked it before the slaughter. That is negligence, and even Rabbi Yehoshua says that he is liable to a sin-offering. But if it is invalid due to an animal's internal defect, then everybody agrees that there is no sin-offering because it was like an unavoidable accident. The meat is not kosher and cannot be eaten, but he is not to blame.

Art: Butcher’s Stall by Pieter Aertsen

Pesachim 70 - What is the difference between a knife and a cleaver

On the previous page, we said that the Festival offering called Chagigah is different from the Passover offering: it is eaten for two days and a night in between, it can be boiled and not roasted, and so on. However, Ben Beteira thinks differently and holds that it is exactly the same as Passover offering in most respects. Even though Ben Beteira's view does not become the accepted law, the Talmud spends significant effort investigating what Ben Beteira thinks about various aspects of Passover.

An even more special situation is found in the next rule that talks about finding a knife and a cleaver right before Passover. The knife is for the Passover offering where, by the way, the bones are not allowed to be broken. The cleaver is for Chagigah, the Festival offering, where there is no such prohibition. But the only situation when the two will be treated the same is when the community was pure on the day before Passover and suddenly became impure the next day. And the only situation where that can happen is when the head of the Sanhedrin, de-facto spiritual ruler, was on the verge of death before Passover. The community was all pure, but there was an all-too-real possibility that they will all go to his funeral the next day and thus become impure. The Talmud does not comment if this combination of events ever occurred in history.

Art: Carcass of Beef by Rembrandt

Pesachim 69 - More meat for the Seder

Since the Passover offering should be eaten in a kingly manner - in abundance and not in hunger - another offering to provide more meat was often brought. This other offering is called "chagigah," or the festival offering. 

However, this chagigah had more conditions attached to it than the Passover offering. The chagigah was brought only on the Passover that fell on a weekday, not on Shabbat. Chagigah was also not brought when there was enough of the Passover lamb anyway, such as few invitees in the group.

The chagigah could be a sheep, a cow, a goat, male or female, and, unlike Passover, it could be eaten for two days and one night.

Art: Landscape with a Goat and Sheep by Philipp Peter Roos