Gemara Clarity

Zevachim 73a

זבחים ע״ג ע״א

Learn Zevachim 73a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

Open Zevachim 73a in Gemara Clarity

Topic

Items that are counted (דבר שיש בו מנין) are not nullified by a majority. A ברייתא about a ליטרא of untithed dried figs pressed onto an unknown container is brought as the source.

Overview

The גמרא states a rule: an item that people count one by one (דבר שיש בו מנין) is too important to be nullified, even for a rabbinic prohibition, and all the more so for a Torah prohibition like the animals in the משנה. As a source, it quotes a ברייתא about a ליטרא of untithed dried figs that was pressed onto the top of one of many containers, and no one knows which one. In רבי מאיר's version, רבי אליעזר says the lower figs nullify the upper ones. In that version רבי יהושע says it takes a hundred openings, and otherwise the tops are forbidden and the bottoms permitted. In רבי יהודה's version, רבי אליעזר holds the hundred-openings view, and רבי יהושע says even three hundred openings do not help. Everyone agrees that figs lost somewhere inside one circle are nullified. רב אשי adds that even the רבנן agree living creatures are significant and are never nullified. The גמרא then asks why we can't pull out one animal at a time and rely on כל דפריש מרובא פריש. It answers that pulling an animal out ourselves makes it קבוע, and that discussion continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

כׇּל דָּבָר שֶׁיֵּשׁ בּוֹ מִנְיָן –

Any item that has a count,

אֲפִילּוּ בִּדְרַבָּנַן לָא בָּטֵיל,

even in a rabbinic law, is not nullified,

וְכׇל שֶׁכֵּן בִּדְאוֹרָיְיתָא.

and all the more so in a Torah law.

דְּתַנְיָא:

As it is taught in a ברייתא:

The steps (10)

  1. StatementCounted items are never nullified
  2. ProofThe case of the pressed dried figs
  3. Statementרבי אליעזר: the lower figs nullify the upper
  4. Statementרבי יהושע: nullification needs a hundred openings
  5. Statementרבי יהודה's version: רבי אליעזר needs a hundred openings
  6. Statementרבי יהושע: never nullified, even with three hundred openings
  7. StatementEveryone agrees when the spot inside one circle is unknown
  8. Resolutionרב אשי: living creatures are significant and are never nullified
  9. ChallengeWhy not take out one animal at a time from the majority?
  10. ResolutionPulling an animal out of its place makes it fixed