Zevachim 53b (נג:) — the Talmud in English

The students of Rabbi Yishmael taught in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai:

The students of Rabbi Yishmael would teach that Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai says:

Both this one and that one have a yesod on the western side,

in accordance with Rabbi Yishmael.

And your mnemonic,

so that you will not exchange the versions, is:

“Draw the men,”

the students of Rabbi Yishmael, who are the majority,

“to the man,”

to Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, to state his words as the words of their teacher.

Mishna:

The olah is sacrificial meat of the highest degree of sanctity

and the practical consequence is that its flesh becomes disqualified through leaving the Temple courtyard, and one is liable for misuse of consecrated property even during the animal’s lifetime, and it becomes disqualified through contact with one who immersed that day or one who lacks atonement.

Its slaughter is performed on the north side, and its blood is received in a service vessel on the north side,

and its blood requires two placements

on two opposite corners of the altar

which are four,

through which the blood reaches the altar’s four sides; the Gemara will explain how this is done.

And it requires

the olah

to be flayed,

its hide,

and cut up

into limbs,

and

it ascends upon the altar

entirely for the fires,

for all of it is burned upon the fire on the altar.

Gemara:

We raise a question concerning this:

With regard to an olah, for what reason did he teach it

in the Mishna that it is

sacrificial meat of the highest degree of sanctity,

which he did not teach with regard to the other sacrificial meat of the highest degree of sanctity?

And we answer:

Because it is not written explicitly concerning it

“

It is sacrificial meat of the highest degree of sanctity,”

and nevertheless it is sacrificial meat of the highest degree of sanctity, since it is entirely for the Most High [and there is no other sacrificial meat of the highest degree of sanctity like this. For, with regard to a sin offering and a guilt offering, which are sacrificial meat of the highest degree of sanctity, it is written explicitly that they are sacrificial meat of the highest degree of sanctity, yet they are eaten].

We learned in the Mishna:

And its blood requires two placements

which are four.

We raise a question concerning this:

How does he perform

the two placements so that they reach the altar’s four sides?

Rav said:

He would make four separate placements. First he would

place

the blood by casting it from one side of the corner, and afterward he would

return and place

it by means of another casting on the other side of the corner. From there he would proceed diagonally to the opposite corner and place the blood on one of its sides, and return and place it on its other side. Thus, he would make four separate placements on the four sides of the altar: the first two placements on one corner and the last two on the diagonally opposite corner.

And Shmuel said:

He would make one placement in the form of a gamma

[that is, in the form of what resembles our final kaf]

he would place

it on one corner, and he would make one placement in the form of a gamma on the opposite corner. Thus, he would cast only twice; however, each of these two castings, on the two opposite corners, would divide by virtue of the casting into four separate placements on the four sides of the altar.

And we say that this dispute between Rav and Shmuel, whether he gives the blood in four separate placements or in two placements that divide through the casting into four, is

a dispute between tanna’im.

As it is taught in a beraita:

One might have thought that he should cast it

the blood

in a single casting

alone.

The verse states: “And they shall cast the blood upon the altar

around

it.”

And with a single casting it is impossible to cast the blood around the altar.

If “around,” one might have thought that he should encircle it

the altar with the blood

like a thread

that surrounds the entire altar.

The verse states: “And they shall cast it.”

And by casting it is impossible to encircle the altar like a thread, unless he dips his finger into the blood and encircles the altar with the blood on his finger.

How, then,

can both verses be fulfilled, both “around” and “and they shall cast it”

in the form of a gamma?

He shall

make two placements,

each by means of a casting, on two opposite corners,

which are four.

Thus, there is here both casting and “around,” extending to the altar’s four sides.

Rabbi Yishmael says: “Around” is stated here, and below

with regard to a sin offering,

“around” is stated. Just as there, there are separate placements and four placements,

for he gives four separate placements on the four upper corners,

so too here,

although the blood is given on two corners,

there must be separate placements and four placements

in this case as well. This is in accordance with Rav, who places the blood on one side and then returns and places it on the other side.

Lest you say:

If so, just as there,

with regard to a sin offering,

four placements

on

four corners

above,

so too here,

in the case of an olah, a guilt offering, and a peace offering, let us say:

four placements on four corners.

Your answer is:

You said that an olah requires

that its blood be placed on the altar opposite

the base,

so that beneath the place where its blood is placed on the wall of the altar there will be a base,

and the southeastern corner did not have a base

beneath it. Therefore, it is impossible to say that the blood is given on all four corners literally. Consequently, he gives it on two corners in a manner that reaches all four sides.

We raise a question concerning this:

What is the reason

that the southeastern corner did not have a base beneath it?

Rabbi Elazar said:

Because it was not in the portion of the predator,

that is, Benjamin, concerning whom it is stated, “He is a wolf that preys”; Jacob prophesied about him, “In the morning he will devour prey,” and the translation explains that the altar would be built in his portion. That corner was not in his portion; therefore, there was no base there.

For Rav Shmuel bar Rav Yitzhak said: “The altar ‘consumes’

occupies space

in Judah’s portion

to the width of

one cubit.”

For a strip one cubit wide along the length of the altar, on its eastern and southern sides, which should have had a base, was in Judah’s portion [apart from one cubit at the northeastern corner and one cubit at the southwestern corner, which were not in Judah’s portion].

Rabbi Levi bar Hama said that Rabbi Hama bar Rabbi Hanina said: “A strip extended from Judah’s portion,

which was on the eastern side of the altar,

and entered Benjamin’s portion,”

for all the rest of the area surrounding the altar, including the altar itself, was in Benjamin’s portion, except for an area in the form of a strip one cubit wide that extended from the east toward the southern side of the altar, up to the point before the final cubit at the southwestern corner.

And righteous Benjamin

would foresee through ruaḥ hakodesh that this would be the case in the future,

and he would grieve over it every day, wishing to take it.