Pesachim 120b (קכ:) — the Talmud in English

Rabbi Yosei says:

What we said—that if some of them fell asleep, they may eat—applies specifically when they

dozed off

only; in that case

they may eat.

But if they

fell into a deep sleep

literally, even if only some of them did so,

they may not eat

after they awaken.

The meat of the

Paschal offering

that remained

after midnight

of the night of Passover and became notar—

renders the hands impure

in accordance with the law governing all notar, for the Sages decreed that it renders impure the hands that touch it, as will be explained below.

Piggul and notar render the hands impure

by rabbinic decree. The Gemara will explain the reason that the Sages instituted this decree.

Gemara:

We learned in the Mishna:

Rabbi Yosei says: If they dozed off, they may eat. If they fell into a deep sleep, they may not eat.

And we raised a difficulty with this:

What are the circumstances

of “dozing off”?

And we answer:

Rav Ashi said: Partially asleep and partially awake—

asleep but not asleep;

partially awake but not fully awake—

awake but not fully awake.

For example: One calls him, and he responds,

one calls him and he responds. But

he does not know how to reason out an answer.

He does not know how to answer something that requires reasoning and deliberation. For example, one asks him: Where did you put this utensil?

And when one reminds him,

when one reminds him and asks, “Did you put it in such-and-such a place?”

he remembers,

he recalls and says yes or no.

Abaye was sitting before Rabba

during the seder.

He saw

that

he was dozing off.

Rabba was dozing after he had begun eating from the afikoman.

He said to him,

Abaye said to Rabba:

“Are you falling asleep?”

You have fallen asleep, and it is forbidden for you to continue eating from the afikoman, in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yosei, who says that even if only some of them fell asleep, they may not eat.

He said to him,

Rabba said to him:

“I am merely dozing”,

I am only dozing.

And we learned

that even according to Rabbi Yosei,

if they dozed off, they may eat.

Only if

they fell into a deep sleep may they not eat.

We learned in the Mishna:

The Paschal offering after midnight renders

the hands impure.

Evidently,

it is apparent that

from midnight

onward

it becomes notar.

And we raised a difficulty with this:

Who

is the

tanna

of our Mishna who maintains that it becomes notar already at midnight? Is it not written: “You shall not leave any of it until morning,” which indicates that it becomes notar only in the morning?

And we answer:

Rav Yosef said: It is Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya.

As it was taught in a beraita: “And they shall eat the meat on this night”

[Exodus 12:8].

Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya says: It is stated here,

with regard to eating the Paschal offering,

“on this night.”

And it is stated elsewhere,

with regard to the Exodus from Egypt,

“And I shall pass through the land of Egypt on this night

and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt.” And the two verses are linked by a gzera shava based on the expression “on this night.”

Just as there, until midnight,

for the plague of the firstborn occurred at midnight,

so too here,

the eating of the Paschal offering,

until midnight.

What is stated, “You shall not leave any of it until morning,” means that it is only in the morning that one is obligated to burn it. But the time for eating it extends only until midnight, at which point it has already become notar.

Rabbi Akiva said to him: But it has already been stated,

“And you shall eat it

in haste,” until the time of haste

when they hurried to leave, namely, at dawn, as it is written: “None of you shall go out from the entrance of his house until morning.”

[And Rabbi Eliezer ben Azarya holds that the time of haste was at the time of the plague of the firstborn, at midnight, through which the Egyptians hastened to send them out of the land, Rashbam.]

If so, what is the meaning of

“And they shall eat the meat

at night”?

To teach you that

it might have been thought that

the Paschal offering

could be eaten like

other

consecrated offerings, during the day

of its slaughter, like a thanksgiving offering, whose time for eating is also one day: it is eaten throughout the day of its slaughter and during the following night, until morning?

The verse therefore states

“at night”: It is eaten at night, but it is not eaten during the day!

And we raise a difficulty:

And as for Rabbi Akiva, what does he do with

“this”

in this verse?

And we answer:

He requires it to exclude another night

the night of the sixteenth of Nisan;

it comes to teach

that the offering may not be eaten then.

It might have been thought that, since the Paschal offering is an offering of lesser sanctity, and a peace-offering is an offering of lesser sanctity,

just as peace-offerings are eaten for two days and one night

between them,

so too, with regard to the Paschal offering, we could establish the nights

so that they would be

in place of the days

of the peace-offerings,

and it could be eaten for two nights and one day

between them—that is, until the morning of the sixteenth of Nisan.

The Torah therefore wrote

“this”,

to teach you that it is eaten only on this night, and not on another night.

And we ask:

And as for Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya,

how does he know that it may not be eaten on two nights?

And we answer:

He can say to you: This is derived from “You shall not leave any of it until morning”;

this

indicates the morning following the day on which the Paschal offering was slaughtered.

And we ask:

And as for Rabbi Akiva,

why does he not derive this from “You shall not leave any of it until morning”? Why does the Torah need to write “this”?

And we answer:

He can say to you: If the Torah had not written

“this,” I would have thought: What morning? The second morning,

after the second night.

And we ask:

And as for Rabbi Elazar

ben Azarya, what would he answer to this?

And we answer:

He can say to you: Wherever

“morning” is written, it means the first morning.

Rava said: One who ate matza nowadays after midnight, according to Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya,

who maintains that the time for eating the Paschal offering extends only until midnight, is subject to the same law with regard to matza:

he has not fulfilled his obligation.

And we ask:

Is this obvious

?

Since the Torah juxtaposed

matza

with the Paschal offering

in the verse, “With matzot and bitter herbs they shall eat it,” surely

it is like the Paschal offering?

And we answer:

It might have been thought that the verse removed

the obligation to eat matza on the first night

through the juxtaposition

of matza to the Paschal offering. For we learned in the beraita above [on the previous side]: Just as the seventh day is optional, so too the six days are optional. On this basis, one might likewise have thought that the first night is also merely optional.

It teaches us

Rava

that when the verse restored

the obligation to eat matza on the first night nowadays, as explained in the beraita above, based on the verse “In the evening you shall eat matzot,”

it restored it to its original matter!

It is therefore entirely equal to the Paschal offering, whose time for eating extends only until midnight.

We learned in the Mishna:

Pigul and notar render the hands impure.

Rav Huna and Rav Ḥisda

explain the reason that the Sages decreed that pigul and notar render the hands impure.

One says: Because of suspicions concerning the priesthood.

And one says: Because of the negligence of the priesthood.

The Gemara will explain these matters below.

They further disagree:

One says:

the measure of meat of pigul and notar that renders the hands impure is

an olive-bulk.

And one says:

it is

an egg-bulk.