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Zevachim 77a

זבחים ע״ז ע״א

Learn Zevachim 77a step by step: Aramaic beside English, every question, answer and proof colour-coded.

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Topic

The doubtful מצורע's conditional offerings, and רבי אליעזר's rule that unfit limbs may go up on the מזבח 'as wood'

Overview

The amud opens by finishing רבי שמעון's plan for a person who may or may not be a מצורע. He brings his לוג of oil with a condition, and if he is not a מצורע the sprinkling counts only 'as wood.' The גמרא handles three problems with this plan. Leftover oil that never had a קמיצה is redeemed. The redemption happens inside the עזרה, because the oil becomes חולין there on its own. רבי שמעון allows donating oil here because it is needed to purify a person. רב רחומי then suggests making the animal an אשם תלוי instead, and tries to prove רבי שמעון's view from this. רבינא rejects him: the מצורע brings a lamb, but an אשם תלוי must be a ram. A new משנה follows about חטאת limbs mixed with עולה limbs. רבי אליעזר puts them all on the מזבח and treats the חטאת meat as wood, learning this from 'לא יעלו לריח ניחח'. The רבנן limit that rule to leaven and honey. A ברייתא of רבי יהודה says the real argument is about blemished limbs. The גמרא then asks why רבי אליעזר does not treat a רובע or נרבע the same way, and the discussion continues on the next amud.

Opening lines

לְשֵׁם עֵצִים.

For the sake of wood.

וְהָא אִיכָּא שִׁירַיִים

But there is the remainder

דְּבָעֵי (מילינהו) [מֵיכְלִינְהוּ],

which needs filling up (or, in other versions, eating),

וְאִיכָּא הָךְ פּוּרְתָּא

and there is that small bit

The steps (19)

  1. ResolutionThe sprinkling is done 'for the sake of wood'
  2. ChallengeSome of the oil was never permitted by a קמיצה
  3. ResolutionHe redeems the leftover bit
  4. ChallengeWhere could he redeem it?
  5. ResolutionInside: the oil becomes חולין by itself
  6. ChallengeBut רבי שמעון holds oil cannot be donated
  7. ResolutionFixing a person's status is different
  8. ChallengeWhy not make it a provisional guilt offering?
  9. ProofProof that רבי שמעון forbids donating an אשם תלוי
  10. Rejectionרבינא: lambs are not rams
  11. Statementמשנה: limbs of a sin offering mixed with limbs of a burnt offering
  12. QuestionWhat is רבי אליעזר's reason?
  13. ResponseThe verse: not as a pleasing aroma, but as wood
  14. ResponseThe רבנן limit the wood rule to leaven and honey
  15. Responseרבי אליעזר uses the word 'them' for the ramp
  16. ResponseThe רבנן learn both lessons from 'them'
  17. Statementרבי יהודה tells the argument differently from our משנה
  18. StatementWhere רבי אליעזר and the חכמים really argue: blemished limbs
  19. ChallengeWhy is a רובע or נרבע worse than a blemished animal for רבי אליעזר?