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Zevachim 43b

זבחים מ״ג ע״ב

Learn Zevachim 43b step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

Altar items whose איסור lapses once the fire takes hold, and the ברייתא about ״וְטֻמְאָתוֹ עָלָיו״ and lenient and stringent impurities

Overview

The amud opens by explaining why עולא had to teach that a קומץ caught by the altar fire counts as one unit, just like an אבר. רב אחאי draws a practical rule from this: a פיגול קומץ that is half on the מזבח and burning is brought up entirely. רבי יוחנן then rules that פיגול, נותר and טמא brought onto the מזבח lose their איסור. רב חסדא objects that the מזבח is not a מקוה, and רבי זירא limits the rule to where the fire has taken hold. רבי יצחק בר ביסנא challenges this from a ברייתא that says meat's טומאה can never leave it. רבא, רב פפא and רבינא each try to answer him. The גמרא then studies that ברייתא's proofs that ״וְטֻמְאָתוֹ עָלָיו״ means a person's impurity, and explains רבי's proof from ״וְאָכַל״ through רב יצחק בר אבודימי. Finally it quotes a hard ברייתא about 'lenient' and 'stringent' cases and begins testing what they could mean. That discussion continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

מַהוּ דְּתֵימָא:

What might you have said?

הָנֵי מִילֵּי אֵבֶר – דִּמְחַבַּר;

This applies only to a limb, which is connected;

אֲבָל קוֹמֶץ, דְּמִיפְּרַת – אֵימָא לָא;

but a handful, which is in separate pieces, say it does not;

קָא מַשְׁמַע לַן.

so he teaches us that it does.

The steps (28)

  1. ResolutionWhy the teaching about the handful was needed
  2. StatementA פיגול handful half on the ground and half on the altar
  3. StatementDisqualified items brought onto the altar lose their prohibition
  4. ChallengeIs the altar a purifying bath?
  5. ResolutionOnly once the fire has taken hold
  6. ChallengeChallenge from the verse about impurity that can leave
  7. Resolutionרבא: the ברייתא only means a מקוה cannot purify meat
  8. RejectionThe ברייתא never mentions a מקוה
  9. Resolutionרב פפא: the ברייתא is about שלמים meat, which never goes on the מזבח
  10. Resolutionרבינא: the verse is about something whose impurity leaves while it is whole
  11. StatementThe ברייתא itself: the verse is about a person's body
  12. QuestionMaybe the verse means the meat's impurity
  13. ProofProof by comparing the same words in the verse about a person impure from a dead body
  14. Proofרבי יוסי: plural sacrifices, singular impurity
  15. Proofרבי: proof from the word 'and eat'
  16. Proofאחרים: impurity that can leave
  17. QuestionHow does 'and eat' prove it?
  18. Statementרבא praises two great explainers
  19. ResponseFeminine, masculine, feminine
  20. StatementThe hard ברייתא: why both lenient and stringent?
  21. ResponseWhy each set had to be written
  22. QuestionWhat are the lenient and stringent cases?
  23. RejectionSuggesting מעשר and תרומה, and rejecting it
  24. ChallengeA second problem: a קל וחומר cannot go beyond its source
  25. ResponseA new suggestion: טומאת שרץ and טומאת מת
  26. ChallengeWhich food? If it is תרומה, both carry death
  27. ChallengeFurthermore: תרומה is not just a לאו
  28. ChallengeTesting the second option: eating מעשר