One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
מְחֻסְּרֵי כַּפָּרָה
Offerings for Unintentional Transgressions 15, Offerings for Those with Incomplete Atonement 1-2
Sefer Korbanot · The offering that reads a man's rank and vanishes when he ruled in company, four people who are already pure and still described as lacking, and the counting of a moment that falls across twilight
4
Individuals called lacking atonement
7
Factors a zav is checked against
3
Discharges that oblige a sacrifice
8
The day the zav, zavah and metzora bring
Shegagot 15Rank, ruling, and when the bull disappears
- Three animals for one sin. For every transgression where an ordinary person brings a fixed sin offering, a ewe or a she-goat, a nasi who violates it inadvertently brings a he-goat and an anointed priest brings a bull. (15:1)
- The bull requires a ruling, not merely a sin. The anointed priest is liable only where he erred in a ruling for himself, was a sage of distinction, nullified part of a prohibition while maintaining the rest, and acted relying on that ruling alone; if he acted inadvertently without a ruling, or was not a distinguished sage, or nullified the prohibition in its entirety, he is exempt entirely. (15:1, 15:2)
- Ruling with the court removes the bull. Where he ruled together with the High Court and both erred, he brings no individual sacrifice and receives atonement with the community; only where they erred on separate matters, they concerning blood and he concerning fats, does he bring a bull on his own accord. (15:4, 15:5)
- Doubt divides the two offices. An anointed priest in doubt brings no provisional guilt offering, since he is comparable to the community, while a nasi in doubt brings one like any ordinary person, because his liability was never dependent on a ruling. (15:6)
- The office at the moment of the act. One who transgressed as a nasi and was afterwards removed still brings a goat, while one who transgressed before his appointment brings an ordinary person's offering even if he learns of it later; half an olive-sized portion eaten as a commoner and half as a nasi in one lapse do not combine. (15:9, 15:10)
RememberThe bull is not the price of being wrong. It is the price of being the only one who was wrong.
Mech. Kapparah 1Pure, immersed, and still not permitted
- Four who lack atonement. A zavah, a woman after childbirth, a zav and one afflicted by tzara'at may not eat sacrificial food even after becoming pure, immersing, and letting the day of immersion pass, until each brings the offering required of him. (1:1)
- The convert is a separate case. A circumcised convert who has not brought his offering also may not eat sacrificial food, yet he is not called mechusar kapparah; his lack is membership rather than purity, and bringing one dove in the morning already permits him to eat while the second waits. (1:2)
- The eighth day, and the day after the count. The zav, zavah and metzora bring on the eighth day, having counted seven, immersed on the seventh and waited for that day to end; a woman after childbirth brings on the forty first day for a son and the eighty first for a daughter, and an offering brought inside those days does not fulfil her obligation. (1:4, 1:5)
- The doubtful offering is brought and burnt. Where it is unresolved whether she was a zavah, or whether what she miscarried obliged an offering, she brings a sacrifice but her fowl sin offering is not eaten, lest it be an unconsecrated bird slaughtered in the Courtyard from which no benefit may be derived. (1:6, 1:7)
- Doubts do not accumulate; certainties do. Five births or zivot of questionable status are discharged by one set of offerings and the remainder cease to be obligations, while five definite ones are covered by one set for the purpose of eating sacrificial food and the remainder stay owed. (1:10)
RememberNot impure and not guilty. Finished with the process and not yet through the door.
Mech. Kapparah 2What makes a zav, and how the moments are counted
- From his flesh, and not from anything else. A discharge traced to a different sickness or to circumstances beyond his control does not render him a zav, so he is checked against seven factors: food, drink, burdens, jumping, infirmity, provocative sights and thoughts. (2:2)
- Each cause carries its own clock. A seminal emission, a provocative sight and a lustful thought are credited for a full day afterwards, while food, drink, jumping and burdens are credited only for as long as they still cause discomfort; a minor is checked against five factors rather than seven. (2:3, 2:4)
- One, two, three. One discharge leaves him like a man who had a seminal emission, two make him a zav who counts seven clean days and immerses in living water, and three oblige a sacrifice; the only difference between two and three is the offering, and there is no minimum measure at all. (2:6, 2:9)
- Counted by time, not by volume. A single uninterrupted discharge lasting as long as it takes to immerse and dry counts as two, and one lasting long enough to immerse and dry twice counts as three; conversely, an interruption of an entire day between discharges breaks the link so that they are not joined. (2:8, 2:10)
- Twilight divides one moment into two. A discharge falling partly at the end of the day and partly at the start of the night counts as two, since the change of dates divides it; a discharge at bein hashemashot entering Shabbat with another on Saturday night leaves both the impurity and the sacrifice unresolved, so he brings a set of doves and the sin offering is not eaten. (2:12, 2:14)
RememberThe law asks what he ate, carried and saw before it will tell him what he has become.