Pesachim 88a

פסחים פ״ח ע״א

Learn Pesachim 88a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Aggadah on גלות בבל and the future redemption; then the משנה's rules on who is included in a household's קרבן פסח (orphans, wives, dependents, a partners' slave, a half-slave).

Overview

The amud opens with the end of a teaching: גלות בבל was a kindness, because cheap dates let the Jews there learn Torah. עולא visits פומבדיתא and complains that with food so cheap the בבלאי should learn more. Then the dates make him sick, and he praises them instead. רבי אלעזר explains that ישעיהו calls the future מקדש the house of the 'God of יעקב' because it will be a בית, as יעקב called it. רבי יוחנן adds that קבוץ גליות is as great as the day of creation. The גמרא then returns to the משנה. רבי זירא shows that the orphan's case is based on 'שה לבית', not ברירה. Two ברייתות explain who is included in the master's פסח automatically and who can protest by slaughtering their own. Next, רב נחמן resolves a contradiction about a slave owned by two partners. Finally, the גמרא explains the half-slave's case through the משנה ראשונה and the משנה אחרונה, and the quote from בית שמאי continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

The steps (24)

1. StatementDates in בבל make Torah study possible
2. Statementעולא is amazed at how cheap dates are
3. Conclusionעולא gets sick and changes his mind
4. QuestionWhy does the פסוק say only 'the God of יעקב'?
5. ResponseThe מקדש will be a 'house', as יעקב called it
6. StatementThe ingathering of exiles is as great as the day of creation
7. ProofDoes the orphan case prove ברירה?
8. Rejectionרבי זירא: it is not ברירה, it is 'שה לבית'
9. StatementWho can be included without asking
10. StatementA second ברייתא: the master's קרבן overrides their own
11. StatementThe wife is the exception because she can protest
12. QuestionWhat makes a wife different?
13. ResponseThe wife and everyone like her
14. ChallengeThe two halves of the ברייתא seem to contradict
15. Resolution'With their consent' means presumed consent
16. ChallengeThe case where they slaughtered their own looks like silence, yet the wife is excluded
17. ResolutionSlaughtering her own פסח is itself the strongest protest
18. StatementQuoting the next line of the משנה: a slave owned by two partners
19. ChallengeThe משנה forbids the jointly owned slave from eating, but a ברייתא lets him choose
20. ResolutionStrict partners versus easygoing partners
21. StatementQuoting the משנה on the half-slave and reading it closely
22. ChallengeA ברייתא says he eats from neither
23. ResolutionTwo different stages of the משנה
24. ProofCiting the משנה where the change is recorded