Pesachim 5a (ה.) — the Talmud in English

For the nullification of leaven was juxtaposed with the eating of leaven.

From this juxtaposition we learn that the time for the nullification 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 leaven.

And the eating of leaven

was juxtaposed

with the eating of matza,

as the time when the eating of leaven becomes forbidden is from the time when one is obligated to eat matza.

And the Gemara explains:

The nullification of leaven

was juxtaposed

with the eating of leaven, as it is written:

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

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

And the eating of leaven

was juxtaposed

with the eating of matza, as it is written:

[There]

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

And

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

it is written concerning matza

[there]: “On the first, on the fourteenth day of the month,

in the evening you shall eat

matza.”

If so, the time when eating leaven is forbidden and the time for nullifying leaven are likewise from the evening. Consequently, “on the first day” cannot be intended to include the night of the fifteenth; rather, it refers to the fourteenth day, for the purpose of removing leaven.

The Gemara raises an objection:

And say

that the verse came

to include

even

the night of the fourteenth for the removal of leaven.

And from where do we know that the time for removing it begins only from the sixth hour onward on the fourteenth day?

The Gemara answers:

“On the day

of the first day”

is written,

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

The Gemara nevertheless raises another objection:

And say, from the morning

one should become obligated to nullify leaven from the morning of the fourteenth, and not only from midday?

The Gemara answers:

“Only”—

it divides.

That is, “only on the first day” is written, and every occurrence of “only” and “but” in the Torah indicates a limitation. The verse therefore comes to say that only part of the fourteenth day is forbidden with regard to leaven, while part of it remains permitted. Thus, the fourteenth day must be divided: half of it is permitted, and only from its second half onward is it forbidden.

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

of Nisan

is called

“the first,” as it is stated:

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

in the evening you shall eat matza.” Therefore, “on the first day you shall remove it” can likewise be interpreted as referring to the fourteenth of Nisan.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said:

Even without the contradiction between the verses cited above, the plain meaning of the phrase “on the first day”

means the first in the sense of preceding,

the day that precedes all seven days mentioned in that verse. Since it says, “For seven days leaven shall not be found in your houses; only on the first day you shall remove it,” the meaning is the first day that precedes the seven days.

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

the verse says

[Job 15:7]:

“Were you born first as a man?”

Its meaning is: Were you born before the first man? The Gemara raises an objection:

But if that is so,

concerning that which is written with regard to the lulav [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 preceding,

namely, the day preceding the seven days of the Festival [which are mentioned in the preceding verse: “But 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.

The Gemara answers:

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.

The Gemara raises an objection:

Likewise,

with regard to leaven,

it is written:

“Only on the first day you shall remove it,”

and before this, in the same verse, it says:

“For seven days you shall eat matza.”

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

The Gemara answers:

If so, the verse should write “only on

the day of

the first

you shall remove it.” The letter heh in

“the first”

why do I need it?

Rather,

learn from it

that the verse came

to

include the fourteenth day,

as we said.

The Gemara again raises an objection:

If so, there,

with regard to the lulav,

also

there should be an objection: The letter heh in

“the first”

why do I need it?

And furthermore,

there is another difficulty:

There,

with regard to the Festival of Sukkot,

as it is written, “But 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 sacred convocation and on the eighth day there shall be a sacred convocation.”

Say

that

“first”

means the one preceding,

so that one should be obligated to rest on the day preceding the seven days of the Festival, and not on the first day of the Festival?

The Gemara answers:

There it is different, as the verse says:

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

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”],

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.

The Gemara nevertheless raises an objection: The letter heh in

“the first”

with regard to the Festival of Sukkot

why do I need it?

The Gemara answers: The heh comes

to exclude the intermediate days of the Festival,

to say that one is not obligated to rest on them.

The Gemara asks in astonishment: Surely

the intermediate days of the Festival

do not require an exclusion, since

from

the fact that “rest” is stated only with regard to

the first and the eighth, it follows

that the other days of the Festival do not contain the mitzva of rest?

The Gemara answers: Nevertheless,

it was necessary

to have a special exclusion of the intermediate days of the Festival from the mitzva of rest. For

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

“And on the eighth day

there shall be a sacred convocation,” one might say that the letter

vav

in “and on the day”

adds to the preceding matter,

to the preceding days,

so that even on the intermediate days of the Festival

one would be obligated to rest.

Therefore,

it teaches us

that the heh in “the first” excludes the intermediate days of the Festival from the mitzva of rest.

The Gemara raises an objection:

Why did the Merciful One not write neither

the addition represented by the

vav

of “and on the eighth day”?

And

then

not

write the

heh

of “the first” to exclude the intermediate days of the Festival? We would automatically know that the obligation to rest applies only on the first day and on the eighth day.

And furthermore,

there is 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 you shall have a sacred convocation;

you shall not perform any laborious work,” should it also be said there that

“first”

means the one preceding,

so that the fourteenth day would be forbidden for labor?

The Gemara answers:

Rather,

there is no difficulty, because

these three occurrences of

“first”

stated with regard to the lulav, Sukkot, and Passover do not have their literal meaning. Rather, “first” is a designation: all of them are called “first.” -

And

it is needed for that which the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught.

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

things

called “first,” Israel merited

three

“firsts”

of their own —

of their own —

A. They merited

the eradication of the offspring of Esau. B. And

the

building of the Temple. C.

And

the name of the Messiah,

all of which are called “first”—

The eradication of the offspring of Esau,

who is called “first,”

as it is written

[Genesis 25:25]:

“And the first emerged ruddy, all of him like a hairy garment.”

And the building of the Temple,

which is called “first,”

as it is written

[Jeremiah 17:12]:

“A throne of glory, exalted from the beginning, 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.”

The explanation is as follows: The reason for the rest on Passover is that Israel was redeemed from its oppressors on that Festival. In the merit of this rest, the Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem us from the hand of Esau, who oppresses us, as they said: “In Nisan they are destined to be redeemed.” The reason for the rest on Sukkot is that God spread His shelter of peace over us when He brought us out of Egypt. In the merit of this, we will merit the indwelling of the Divine Presence in the Temple. The reason for the mitzva of the lulav is joy. In its merit, we will merit joy in the future, with the coming of the Messiah. Therefore, the teaching specifies “the name of the Messiah,” since his name is Menahem, for he will comfort us and make us rejoice. Maharsha, Novellae on Aggadah.

Rava said: From here

we learn that “only on the first day you shall remove it” refers to midday on the eve of Passover. For 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 Passover offering while

leaven still exists.”

The time for slaughtering the Passover 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. Through this, the Torah reveals that the time for removing leaven begins from the sixth hour onward.

The Gemara raises an objection:

And say

that the Torah warned

each individual when he slaughters

to remove his leaven shortly before slaughtering his Passover offering, so that his leaven would not exist at the time he slaughters the offering. If he slaughters only in the ninth hour, he may keep the leaven until then. And from where do we know that leaven becomes forbidden for everyone from the sixth hour onward? The Gemara answers:

The Merciful One stated: the time of slaughtering.

The Torah prohibited leaven at the time suitable for slaughtering the Passover offering, and not at the time 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 rather established one time for everyone.

It was taught likewise:

a proof for Rava from the words of Rabbi Yishmael in a baraita: It is stated:

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

from the eve of the Festival

the verse commands that it be removed!

Or is it not

so,

but

the intent of the verse is that the leaven be removed

on the Festival itself?

The verse states:

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

“You shall not slaughter the Passover offering while

the

leaven still exists.”

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

the words of Rabbi Yishmael.

The Tosafot ask: The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught above that “we find that the fourteenth is called first” based on another verse. [And in several places in the Talmud, the Gemara asks Rabbi Yishmael about a teaching of the school of Rabbi Yishmael, because “the school of Rabbi Yishmael” refers to the words of the tanna from Rabbi Yishmael’s study hall, who taught Rabbi Yishmael’s method.] Tosafot on the phrase “the words.”

Rabbi Akiva says: It is not necessary

to learn this from “You shall not slaughter the blood of My sacrifice with leaven.” Rather, it is evident on its own. For

it says

“Only 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 labor shall be performed through them.”

Therefore, it is impossible to say that the verse is speaking of the Festival itself, when one would burn the leaven,

for

we

find that kindling is a primary category of labor,

and it is forbidden on the Festival when not performed for the purpose of food. It must necessarily be explained that “on the first day you shall remove it” refers to the eve of Passover.

Rabbi Yosei says: It is not necessary

to learn this from the proof involving the labor of kindling, but from the mitzva of removal itself. For

it says

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

The phrase “on the first day” must necessarily mean

from the eve of the Festival.

Or does it mean only on the Festival?

The verse states: “Only on the first day.” And from

The verse states: “Only on the first day.” And from

“only”

we derive: It divides,

meaning that the day is divided: part of it is permitted for retaining leaven, and part of it is forbidden.

The Gemara analyzes this:

And if “on the first day” means

the first day

itself, is it permitted

to retain the leaven during part of it!?

The cessation of leaven is linked to the eating of leaven, and the eating of leaven is linked to the eating of matza—

the time for eating matza is at the beginning of the night of the fifteenth. If so, the time for the prohibition against eating leaven and the time for the cessation of leaven likewise begin then. If so, how is the word “however” fulfilled, indicating that during part of the first day it is permitted to retain leaven?

Rather, it must be that “on the first day” means from the eve of the Festival, part of which leaven may be retained, and only from midday is there a mitzva to eliminate it.

Rava said:

Rava said: