Pesachim 5a — the Talmud in English

For the cessation of leaven was juxtaposed with the eating of leavened bread.

From this juxtaposition we learn that the time for the cessation of leaven mentioned in the verse, “For seven days leaven shall not be found in your houses,” is from the time when it is forbidden to eat leavened bread.

And the eating of leavened bread

was juxtaposed

with the eating of matza,

so that the time when eating leavened bread becomes forbidden is from the time when one is obligated to eat matza.

And the Gemara, the Talmudic discussion of the Mishna, explains:

The cessation of leaven

was juxtaposed

with the eating of leavened bread, as it is written:

“For seven days leaven shall not be found in your houses, for anyone who eats leavened food shall be cut off

from that soul from Israel, from the first day until the seventh day.”

And the eating of leavened bread

was juxtaposed

with the eating of matza, as it is written:

[Exodus 12:20]

“You shall not eat any leavened food; throughout all your settlements you shall eat matza.”

And

the time for eating matza is on the night of the fifteenth,

as it is written concerning matza:

[there, verse 18] “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month,

in the evening you shall eat

matza.”

If so, the time when eating leavened bread is forbidden and the time for the cessation of leaven are also from the evening. Therefore, “on the first day” cannot be coming to include the night of the fifteenth; rather, it refers to the fourteenth day, for the removal of leaven.

And they raise a difficulty:

But perhaps

the verse comes

to include

even

the night of the fourteenth for removal?

And from where do we know that the time for removal begins only from midday of the fourteenth?

And they answer:

“On the day

of the first day”

is written,

which indicates only from the day, and not from the night.

They still raise a difficulty:

But perhaps from the morning

one must remove the leaven from the morning of the fourteenth, and not only from midday?

And they answer:

“However”—

it divides.

That is, “However, on the first day” is written, and every “however” and “only” in the Torah indicates a limitation. The verse therefore teaches that only part of the fourteenth day is forbidden with regard to leaven, while part of it is permitted. Consequently, we divide the fourteenth day: half of it is permitted, and only from its second half onward is leaven forbidden.

The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: We find that the fourteenth

of Nisan

is called

“first,” as it is stated:

“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month,

the evening you shall eat matza.” Therefore, “On the first day you shall remove leaven” can also be interpreted as referring to the fourteenth of Nisan.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said:

Even without contradicting the verses cited above, the plain meaning of the words “on the first day” is—

“first” means the one that precedes,

the day that comes before all seven days mentioned in that verse. Since it says, “For seven days leaven shall not be found in your houses; however, on the first day you shall remove it,” this means the first day, which precedes the seven days.

We find that “first” can mean “preceding,” as

the verse says

[Job 15:7]

“Were you born before the first man?”

The meaning is: Were you born before Adam, the first man? And they raise a difficulty:

If so,

concerning the lulav it is written [Leviticus 23:40]

“And you shall take for yourselves on the first day

the fruit of a beautiful tree,” should we

likewise

say that

“first”

means the one that precedes,

the day preceding the seven days of the festival, [as it says in the preceding verse: “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month … you shall celebrate the festival of the Lord for seven days”]? Surely the lulav is not taken before the first day of the festival.

And they answer:

There it is different, as it is written

at the end of the verse:

“And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.”

And we derive:

Just as the seventh

of these seven days is

the seventh of the festival, so too the first

is

the first of the festival.

They raise a difficulty:

Likewise,

with regard to leaven,

it is written

“On the first day you shall remove leaven,”

and earlier in the same verse it says

“For seven days you shall eat matza.”

Should we also derive here that just as “the seventh” means the seventh day of eating matza, so “the first” means the first day of eating matza, which is the fifteenth?

And they answer:

If so, the verse should have written

“However, on

first

day you shall remove it.” What is the purpose of the letter heh in

“the first”

—why do I need it?

Rather,

learn from this

that the verse comes

to

include the fourteenth day,

as we said.

They raise another difficulty:

If so, there,

with regard to the lulav,

too,

the same difficulty should be raised: What is the purpose of the letter heh in

“the first”

—why do I need it?

And another

difficulty:

There,

with regard to the festival of Sukkot,

as it is written:

“On the fifteenth day of the seventh month … you shall celebrate the festival of the Lord for seven days,

on the first day there shall be a cessation, and on the eighth day there shall be a cessation.”

Perhaps

“first”

means the one that precedes,

so that one would be obligated to cease from labor on the day preceding the seven days of the festival, and not on the first day of the festival?

And they answer:

There it is different, as the verse says:

“And on the eighth day there shall be a cessation.”

And we derive:

Just as

“eighth”

is

the eighth of the festival [since “on the eighth day” refers to “seven days,” and not to “on the first day”],

so too the first

is

the first of the festival.

They still raise a difficulty: The letter heh in

“the first”

with regard to the festival of Sukkot,

why do I need it?

And they answer: The letter heh comes

to exclude the intermediate days of the festival,

teaching that one is not obligated to cease from labor on them.

They ask in wonder:

The intermediate days of the festival

do not require an exclusion, since

from

the fact that “a cessation” is stated only regarding

the first and the eighth, it follows

that the other days of the festival do not have the mitzva of cessation.

And they answer: Nevertheless,

it was necessary

to have a special exclusion of the intermediate days of the festival from the obligation of cessation. For

it might have entered your mind to say: Since the Merciful One wrote

“And on the eighth day

there shall be a cessation,” one might have said that the letter

vav

in “and on the day”

adds to the first subject,

the preceding days, so that

even on the intermediate days of the festival

one is obligated to cease from labor.

Therefore,

it teaches us

that the letter heh in “the first” excludes the intermediate days of the festival from the obligation of cessation.

They raise a difficulty:

Why should the Merciful One not write either

the addition conveyed by the

vav

in “and on the eighth day,”

or

again

not

write the

heh

in “the first” to exclude the intermediate days of the festival? In any event, we would know that the obligation of cessation applies only on the first and eighth days.

And another

difficulty:

There,

with regard to Passover,

as it is written

[Leviticus 23:6] “For seven days you shall eat matza.

On the first day it shall be a sacred occasion for you;

you shall not perform any laborious work,” should we also say there that

“first”

means the one that precedes,

so that labor would be forbidden on the fourteenth day?

And they answer:

Rather,

there is no difficulty, because

these three

“first”

mentioned with regard to the lulav, Sukkot, and Passover are not to be understood according to their simple meaning. Rather, “first” is a designation: all of them are called “first.” -

And

it is needed for the teaching of the school of Rabbi Yishmael.

For the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: In the merit of the three

things

called “first,” Israel merited

three

three

other “firsts” —

a. They merited

the destruction of the descendants of Esau.

b. And

the building of the Temple.

c.

And the name of the Messiah,

since all of these are called “first”—

The destruction of the descendants of Esau,

who is called “first,”

as it is written

[Genesis 25:25]

“And the first one emerged ruddy, all like a hairy mantle.”

And the building of the Temple,

which is called “first,”

as it is written

[Jeremiah 17:12]

“A throne of glory, exalted from the first, the place of our Sanctuary.”

And the name of the Messiah,

who is called “first”—

as it is written

[Isaiah 41:27]

“The first to Zion, behold,

they are here.”

Rava said: We learn it from here:

“On the first day you shall remove leaven” means at midday on the eve of Passover. It is written [Exodus 34:25]

“You shall not slaughter the blood of My sacrifice with leaven.”

The meaning of the verse is:

You shall not slaughter

the

Paschal offering while leaven is still present.

The time for slaughtering the Paschal offering is on the eve of Passover, in the afternoon, that is, from the beginning of the seventh hour, when the sun begins to incline westward toward evening. The Torah thereby reveals that the time for removing leaven begins from midday onward.

They raise a difficulty:

But perhaps

the Torah warned

each individual when he slaughters

to remove his leaven shortly before slaughtering his Paschal offering, so that his leaven would not be present when he slaughters the offering. If he slaughters only during the ninth hour, he may keep the leaven until then. From where do we know that leaven becomes forbidden for everyone from midday onward? And they answer:

The Merciful One stated: “the time of slaughter.”

The Torah prohibited leaven during the time fit for slaughtering the Paschal offering, and not only when each individual actually slaughters his offering. Since the Torah came to establish a time for removing leaven, and the prohibition of leaven applies equally to all, it is reasonable that it did not establish a different time for each person, but one time for everyone.

It was taught likewise:

A proof for Rava from the words of Rabbi Yishmael in a beraita, a tannaitic source not included in the Mishna: It is stated,

“On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses”—

from the eve of the festival

the verse commanded that it be removed!

Or perhaps it is not

so,

but rather

the verse means that one must remove the leaven

on the festival itself?

The verse states:

“You shall not slaughter the blood of My sacrifice with leaven.”

“You shall not slaughter the Paschal offering while

the

leaven is still present.”

The verse teaches that one must remove the leaven on the eve of Passover after the sixth hour,

the words of Rabbi Yishmael.

Rabbi Akiva says: It is not necessary

to learn this from “You shall not slaughter the blood of My sacrifice with leaven.” It is proven on its own, for

it says:

“On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses,”

and “removal” means burning.

And it is written

with regard to the festival day:

“No manner of labor shall be performed through them.”

Therefore, it is impossible to say that the verse refers to the festival itself, when one would burn the leaven,

for

there

is a form of kindling that is a primary category of labor,

and it is forbidden on a festival when it is not needed for preparing food for a person. It must therefore be explained that “on the first day you shall remove leaven” refers to the eve of Passover.

Rabbi Yosei says: It is not necessary

to learn this from the proof concerning the labor of kindling; it follows from the mitzva of removal itself, for

it says:

“On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses.”

The words “on the first day” must necessarily mean

from the eve of the festival.

Or perhaps it means only on the festival?

The verse states: “On the first day.” And we derive from

“however”—

it divides,

that the day must be divided: part of it is permitted for keeping leaven, and part of it is forbidden.

And the Gemara infers:

And if

“on the first day” means

on the festival itself, is it permitted

to keep the leaven during part of that day?!

Behold, the cessation of leaven was juxtaposed with the eating of unleavened bread, and the eating of unleavened bread with the eating of matza,

and the time for eating matza is at the beginning of the night of the fifteenth; and if so, the time of the prohibition against eating leaven and the time of the cessation of leaven is also from then. If so, how is the word “however” fulfilled, according to which during part of the first day it is permitted to retain leaven?

Rather, it is necessarily the case that “on the first day” means from the eve of the Festival, part of which it is permitted to retain leaven, and only from midday is there a mitzva to remove it.

Rava said:

Rava said: