Pesachim 66a — the Talmud in English

3.

Rabbi Akiva said to him

to Rabbi Eliezer: It is clear to me that I heard that sprinkling does not override Shabbat, but rather prevents the impure person from performing the Passover offering.

And if so, according to the course of your kal va-chomer:

or —

the reverse?

Perhaps one should reason in the opposite manner.

For since it is certain to me that I heard [and Rabbi Akiva heard this teaching from Rabbi Eliezer himself, and did not state it to him explicitly, but rather attempted to remind him] that one does not sprinkle upon one impure through contact with the dead in order to purify him even on Shabbat on which the eve of Passover falls, if so, it is possible to learn from sprinkling to slaughtering by a reverse kal va-chomer, that even the slaughter of the Passover offering does not override Shabbat.

And thus one should reason by a kal va-chomer:

If sprinkling, which is

prohibited on Shabbat only

because of shevut, does not override Shabbat.

Slaughter, which is

prohibited by the Torah

because of

a primary category of

labor —

is it not a matter of logic that it should not override Shabbat!

Rabbi Eliezer said to him: Akiva!

How can it be possible for you to expound such a rule?

But

you have uprooted

thereby

what is written in the Torah,

that the Passover offering is offered even on Shabbat!

For the Torah said [Numbers 9], “And the children of Israel shall perform the Passover

at its appointed time.”

And we learn from “at its appointed time” that one must perform the Passover offering at its appointed time, on the fourteenth of Nisan

whether

it falls

on a weekday, whether

it falls

on Shabbat.

He said to him

Rabbi Akiva to Rabbi Eliezer:

Rabbi,

indeed you are correct that it is impossible to reverse and learn by a kal va-chomer from sprinkling that the slaughter of the Passover offering does not override Shabbat, for the Torah said “at its appointed time.”

But I still have an objection to your words, when you said that carrying the Passover offering on one’s shoulder and bringing it from outside the boundary override Shabbat, even though it is possible to do them yesterday.

How do you reason a kal va-chomer from the slaughter of the Passover offering to these rabbinic labors, which are permitted to be done on Shabbat even if there is a possibility of doing them on the eve of Shabbat?

Bring me

a verse of

“appointed time”

that will establish a fixed time

for

labors

these,

to perform them even on Shabbat,

like the “appointed time”

that the Torah established

for slaughter!?

That is to say, since these have no fixed time and it is possible to do them yesterday, how can it be possible to reason about them by a kal va-chomer from slaughter, whose time is fixed, that they should be like it and override Shabbat!?

And likewise you cannot reason a kal va-chomer from slaughter in order to permit sprinkling, since “at its appointed time” was not said concerning it either [and as stated, Rabbi Akiva heard from Rabbi Eliezer that it is prohibited on Shabbat].

And although it is impossible to do it on the eve of Shabbat [for the seventh day had not yet arrived then], nevertheless it does not override Shabbat, since sprinkling is not among the acts that constitute the Passover offering itself, but only among its requirements, and “appointed time” was not written concerning it so that it should override Shabbat; “appointed time” was written only concerning the Passover offering itself and not concerning its requirements [according to the Maharsha].

4.

Rabbi Akiva stated a principle: Any labor that can be done on the eve of Shabbat —

does not override Shabbat.

But

slaughter

of the Passover offering,

which cannot be done on the eve of Shabbat —

it

does override Shabbat.

Gemara:

The Sages taught: This halakha

that the Passover offering overrides Shabbat

was forgotten by the sons of Beteira

the presidents, who lived in the time of Hillel.

Once, the fourteenth fell on Shabbat.

They forgot and did not know whether the Passover offering overrides Shabbat or not.

They said,

the sons of Beteira, the presidents, asked on Friday, the eve of Shabbat:

Is there anyone who knows whether the Passover offering overrides Shabbat or not?

They said to them: There is one person who came up from Babylonia, and Hillel the Babylonian is his name, who served

here, after he came up to the Land,

the two great ones of the generation, Shemaya and Avtalyon, and

he

knows whether the Passover offering overrides Shabbat or not.

They sent for him and summoned him

Hillel.

They said to him: Do you know whether the Passover offering overrides Shabbat or not?

He said to them: Is

the matter of

one Passover offering

alone

the only one we have during the year that overrides Shabbat?

But are there not many more than two hundred

“Passover offerings” [

public offerings, whose law is like that of the Passover offering. That is, the two daily offerings and the two lambs for the additional offering on the fifty Shabbatot of the year. And to these one must add the additional offerings on the Shabbatot of the festivals]

that we have during the year, which override Shabbat.

They said to him: From where do you know

that the law of the Passover offering is like the law of these public offerings?

He said to them:

I learn this by a gzera shava:

It is stated

“at its appointed time”

concerning the Passover offering, and it is stated [

Numbers 28]

“at its appointed time”

in

the offering of

the daily offering.

Just as

“at its appointed time”

which is stated concerning the daily offering —

overrides Shabbat [

as its source will be explained],

so too

“at its appointed time”

which is stated concerning the Passover offering —

overrides Shabbat.

Furthermore,

also

it is a kal va-chomer:

And just as

the offering

of the daily offering

which is lenient,

for which one is not punished by karet

for failing to offer it,

overrides Shabbat.

The offering

of Passover

which is stringent,

for which one is punished by karet

for failing to offer it —

is it not a matter of logic that it should override Shabbat.

Immediately they seated him

Hillel

at the head and appointed him president over them.

And

Hillel

sat and expounded the entire day

before them

concerning the laws of the Passover offering,

as the president would do.

Hillel began

Hillel

to taunt them,

to provoke the sons of Beteira and sadden them,

with words

that he said to them.

He said to them

Hillel:

What caused you to make me come up from Babylonia and become president over you —

the laziness that was in you, because you did not serve the two great ones of the generation, Shemaya and Avtalyon.

And since Hillel’s words contained arrogance toward them, his wisdom immediately departed from him, and he did not know how to answer an additional question that they asked him.

They said to him,

the sons of Beteira asked him:

Rabbi,

one who

forgot and did not bring a knife

for slaughter

on the eve of Shabbat —

what is the rule

regarding bringing it on Shabbat through the public domain?

He said to them: I heard this halakha

as to how one should act concerning it,

but I forgot

what the halakha is.

And Hillel added and said:

Rather, leave Israel alone.

If they are not prophets —

they are the sons of prophets,

and you will see what they do on Shabbat tomorrow.

Tomorrow, whoever has a lamb as his Passover offering —

he will insert it

into the knife

through its wool; whoever has a kid as his Passover offering

which has no wool —

he will insert it between its horns.

And there is no nullification of the mitzva of the rest of one’s animal, since this does not constitute a burden for his animal on Shabbat, as this is not the manner of carrying a burden.

Hillel saw

Hillel

an act and remembered the halakha, and said:

Indeed,

this is what I have received from Shemaya and Avtalyon,

that one does so.

The Master said: “At its appointed time” is stated concerning the Passover offering, and “at its appointed time” is stated concerning the daily offering; just as “at its appointed time” stated concerning the daily offering overrides Shabbat —

so too “at its appointed time” stated concerning the Passover offering overrides Shabbat.

And we raise a difficulty concerning this:

And

the offering

of the daily offering itself —

from where do we know that it overrides Shabbat?

If you say it is because it is written concerning it,

in the daily offering,

“at its appointed time”?

But concerning the offering of

Passover too, it is written concerning it

“at its appointed time”,

and nevertheless Hillel did not expound from it that it overrides Shabbat; rather, he learned this by a gzera shava from the daily offering.

Rather,

it is proven that

“at its appointed time”

stated concerning the Passover offering

does not appear to him

to be expounded by Hillel as teaching that the Passover offering overrides Shabbat, for it is possible to say that the verse speaks only where there is no desecration of Shabbat.

And if so,

here too —

“at its appointed time”

stated concerning the daily offering

does not appear to him

to be expounded from it that it overrides Shabbat.

And we answer: Indeed, Hillel did not learn it from “at its appointed time.”

Rather,

from here Hillel learned that the daily offering overrides Shabbat:

The verse says [

Numbers 28] concerning the additional offering of Shabbat

“the burnt offering of Shabbat on its Shabbat —

in addition to [

besides]

the burnt offering of the daily offering [

which is also offered on Shabbat]”.

By implication,

from here you learn explicitly that also [

the burnt offering]

of the daily offering is offered on Shabbat.

The Master said: Furthermore,

Hillel proved from

a kal va-chomer: Just as the daily offering, for the failure to offer which one is not punished by karet, overrides Shabbat, the Passover offering, for the failure to offer which one is punished by karet —

is it not a matter of logic that it should override Shabbat.

And we raise a difficulty: But

there is grounds to refute

that this is not a kal va-chomer, for one can say, on the contrary, that the daily offering is more stringent than the Passover offering, because:

What is there concerning the daily offering —

that

it is stringent in that it is

regular and

burned

entirely

on the altar; can you say this concerning the Passover offering, which comes only once a year, and only its sacrificial portions are burned, but its flesh is eaten?

And we answer:

Hillel said to them a kal va-chomer

Hillel

at first, and they refuted it

as we have said.

And afterward

and he returned and

said to them a gzera shava

of “at its appointed time, at its appointed time,” from the daily offering [and the daily offering itself overrides Shabbat by virtue of the verse “the burnt offering of Shabbat on its Shabbat in addition to the burnt offering of the daily offering”].

And we raise a difficulty:

But since Hillel learned

Hillel

a gzera shava,

since a person does not derive a gzera shava on his own, but it is a tradition from Sinai through his teachers, and it is as though it were written explicitly in the text of Scripture — if so,

the kal va-chomer,

which is based on his own reasoning,

why is it needed?

And we answer:

Rather,

Hillel

for their sake

of the sons of Beteira

said it to them:

Granted, as for the gzera shava —

you did not learn it,

you did not learn it from your teacher. And it is well that you do not expound the gzera shava on your own, since

a person does not derive a gzera shava on his own.

But the kal va-chomer, which a person derives on his own —

you ought to have derived,

you should have reasoned!

They said to him: The kal va-chomer

that you reasoned —

is refutable,

for the daily offering is more stringent than the Passover offering, since it is regular and it is entirely burned on the altar.

The Master said: “Tomorrow, whoever has a lamb as his Passover offering —

he inserts it for him through its wool; a kid —

he inserts it for him between its horns.”