One-Page Learn · The Halachos at a glance
קָרְבַּן פֶּסַח
Paschal Offering 3 · 4 · 5
Sefer Korbanot · Agents, mixed up animals and the conditional sentence that saves them, then the offering whose flaw lies in its owner, then the second Pesach that is a festival and not a make up
2
Paschal offerings no person may ever be enumerated upon
1
Year, past which the animal is a peace offering, not a Pesach
15
Mil beyond the walls of Jerusalem, the distant way
14
Of Iyar, the second Pesach, its own appointed time
KP 3Agents, mixtures, and the sentence that repairs them
- Two animals leave you with none. If a servant told only to offer a Pesach slaughters both a kid and a lamb, the master partakes of neither and both go to the place of burning, since one may not be enumerated on two Paschal offerings; a king or queen alone may eat the one slaughtered first, to preserve peace with the throne. (3:1)
- The forgetful agent stipulates his way out. An agent who cannot recall whether he was told kid or lamb slaughters both and declares that if a kid was named the kid is the principal's and the lamb his own, and the reverse if a lamb; only if the principal has also forgotten do both animals go out to be burnt. (3:2)
- Trade a member, then speak the condition. When the offerings of two companies become intermingled, one member of each crosses to the other and each company declares: if this offering is ours you are removed from yours and enumerated on ours, and if it is yours we are removed from ours and enumerated on yours. Five companies of five or ten of ten do the same. (3:7)
- Gestures are not words. Two men who each set out to search for a lost animal, each intending in his heart that whoever found his would slaughter for the other, with gestures and circumstances from which the agreement could plainly be assessed, bear no responsibility to one another, because nothing was said explicitly. (3:6)
RememberA forgotten instruction is repaired by one spoken sentence; a perfect understanding that was never spoken is not repaired at all.
KP 4When the flaw is in the owner and not the animal
- Impure meat stops the blood. If the meat became impure before the blood was poured it may not be poured, though the fats and organs are pure, since this offering exists to be eaten; if poured in ignorance the forehead plate secures acceptance, but it never covers a deliberate violation, and it never covers impurity of the owners. (4:2)
- Burn the thing today, burn the person's offering tomorrow. Where the disqualification lies in the body of the sacrifice it is burnt at once; where it lies in the blood or in the owners it is left overnight and burnt afterwards. (4:3)
- An heir inherits the animal but not the offering. One who sets aside a Pesach and dies leaves a son who brings it as a peace offering, unless the son had been enumerated on it together with his father; and if the father died before midday on the fourteenth the son is deferred to the second Pesach, since he is an onen. (4:5)
- Leftover money is ordinary money, by an ancient stipulation. Funds set aside for a Pesach that remain over are used for a peace offering, and money taken from those enumerated for their portion is ordinary funds, because the Jewish people consecrated their offerings and the money for them on precisely that condition. (4:10)
RememberA defect in the animal is disposed of the same day; a defect in the owner is given a night before anything is burnt.
KP 5The second Pesach, and who is genuinely held back
- Not a make up, an independent festival. One impure, on a distant way, held back by force, or who inadvertently failed the first, offers on the fourteenth of Iyar in the afternoon; the offering is its own positive commandment and supersedes Shabbat, since the second Pesach is not compensation for the first, and one who fails to bring it is liable for karet. (5:1, 5:2)
- Arriving in the evening does not repair a distant way. If a man was on a distant way on the fourteenth and the offering was nonetheless slaughtered and its blood poured on his behalf, it is not accepted and he must bring the second Paschal offering, even though he came in the evening. (5:3)
- Uncircumcised sons and servants invalidate the offering. Failure to circumcise one's minor children and one's Canaanite servants holds a man back, and if he offered before doing so the Paschal offering is invalidated; immersion of maidservants counts the same as circumcision of servants. A minor, however, is not held back by his own servant, since the verse speaks of the servant of a man. (5:5, 5:6)
- Fifteen mil at sunrise, and not one step less. A distant way means fifteen mil outside the walls of Jerusalem at the appearance of the sun on the fourteenth; nearer than that is not distant, since he could reach the city after midday walking comfortably, and a man delayed by a press of animals or weak in the legs is held back by circumstance but is not on a distant way. (5:8, 5:9)
RememberThe second Pesach is not the lenient one. Skip it deliberately and the karet is exactly the same.