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Passover Meal (Chapter 1)! Advance preparations for
the Passover meal included:
A. Readying a suitable room in which to celebrate, one furnished (στρωµμνον, Mk 14:15; Lk 22:12) with the necessary dining cushions,
B.!Selecting a regulation Passover lamb, C.!Deciding which persons were going to partake in the eating of a particular lamb, D.!Taking the animal to the temple and having it slaughtered, E.!Skinning and guWing the animal, F.!Bringing it back to the place where the festival would be celebrated, and G.!Preparing the meat for consumption.
Jesus’ disciples would also have had all of this in mind when they asked their Master, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover lamb?” (Mt 26:17). (Regarding the removal of anything leavened from the houses, which likewise had to be finished before the Passover celebration began, see our commentary at 1 Corinthians 5:7a, p. 359, and in the excursus “Date of Jesus’ Death” [Der Todestag Jesu], vol. 2, p. 814.)
A.!Readying a Celebration Room
! Considering the large number of festival pilgrims that ordinarily aWended the Passover festival in Jerusalem every year,1 the question of lodging may have ojen posed considerable difficulties. Certainly a good portion of the visitors would have sought and found shelter in the towns and villages closest to Jerusalem, just as Jesus himself had stayed in Bethany at the time of his final Passover (Jn 12:1). But all of them not only had to celebrate the Passover meal in Jerusalem itself, according to the regulations in force at that time,2 but they also had to remain in the city that night.3 So the question of where in Jerusalem they should hold the Passover meal and spend the night ajerwards was also one of no liWle consequence for them. ! In order to overcome the difficulties, the theory had been developed that when the land of Canaan had been divided into the twelve tribes, the capital city of Jerusalem was not included in that division, but had been reserved as a national possession for the benefit of all the Israelites. Accordingly the homeowners in Jerusalem should not have the right to rent out their dwellings and rooms to the festival pilgrims at a high price, but should rather be obligated, if visitors were asking to be accommodated, to do so free of charge, and, as far as room was available, to place a dining room at their disposal where they could solemnly celebrate the Passover meal.4 This theory was not developed without success. It is counted among the ten wonders experienced by the fathers when
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the temple still stood, that the complaints about lack of shelter in Jerusalem had never been loud.5
Since a Passover meal could only be held if at least ten persons took part in it together around the same table,6 and since furthermore the meal could be eaten only in festal board, i.e. in reclining position,7 the dining room ( = τρκλινον, triclinium) naturally had to be large enough to house the required number of dining cushions. According to the Mishnah a room 10 cubits long and 10 cubits deep (a floor space of about 23 square meters *) would have been required for this purpose.8 In a larger dining hall several dining parties were also permiWed to celebrate the Passover meal simultaneously.9
1. We have two reports regarding the population of Jerusalem during a Passover festival: Toseja, Pesahim 4, 3 (163), quoted at Acts 12:3 (p. 710); according to this passage more than 12 million people had been present at the Passover festival in Jerusalem referred to there. The second report, from Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 6.9.3, stays within more modest limits: “[Cestius Gallus, 63-66 AD] instructed the chief priests, if by any means possible, to take a census of the population [in Jerusalem]. Accordingly, on the occasion of the feast called Passover, at which they sacrifice from the ninth to the eleventh hour,† and a liWle fraternity, as it were, gathers round each sacrifice, of not fewer than ten persons (feasting alone not being permiWed), while the companies ojen include as many as twenty, the victims were counted and amounted to two hundred and fijy-five thousand six hundred [255,600]; allowing an average of ten diners to each victim, we obtain a total of [roughly] two million seven hundred thousand, all pure and holy. For those afflicted with leprosy or gonorrhoea, or menstruous women, or persons otherwise defiled were not permiWed to partake of this sacrifice.”‡
2. Sifre to Numbers 9:10 §69 (18a): “What is the place where it [the Passover lamb] is eaten? From the gates of Jerusalem inward [i.e. in Jerusalem].” • Zebahim 56b Mishnah: “The firstling, [caWle-]tithe and Passover-offering are sacrifices of lesser sanctity.”§ — Concerning the holy things of lesser sanctity, it says in Kelim 1, 8 Mishnah: “The area within the wall [of Jerusalem] is holier [than the area within the other walled cities], for it is there that holy things of a minor degree [including
2
* At 18 inches to a cubit, the floor space would be closer to 21 square meters. - trans.
† The ninth hour began at 2 p.m. The eleventh hour ended at 5 p.m. - Billerbeck
‡ Josephus: The Jewish War, Books IV-VII, trans. H. St. J. Thackeray (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 499.
§ Soncino, 283.
the Passover lamb]…may be eaten.”* • Makkoth 17a Mishnah: “One who eats…of lesser holy [meats] [including the Passover lamb]…outside the city wall [of Jerusalem] [incurs a flogging of forty lashes].”†
3. For proofs, refer to the excursus “Date of Jesus’ Death” (Der Todestag Jesu, 2:833f, no. 6).
4.!For proofs, see at Luke 2:41 (p. 144, no. 5) and at MaWhew 26:17b (p. 988f).
5. Aboth 5, 5 Mishnah: “Ten wonders were wrought for our fathers in the sanctuary [at the time when the temple still stood]: … No man [in Jerusalem] said to his fellow: The place is too strait for me to lodge overnight in Jerusalem.”‡ • Aboth of Rabbi Nathan 35 (9b): “No man has ever said to his fellow: I have not found an oven for roasting the Passover lambs in Jerusalem. No man has ever said to his fellow: I have not found a bed on which to sleep in Jerusalem. No man has ever said to his fellow: The place is too strait for me to lodge overnight in Jerusalem.”
6.!See Toseja, Pesahim 4, 3 and Josephus, Wars 6.9.3 on p. 2.
7.!On the reclining at the time of the Passover meal, see p. 28-30.
8. Baba Bathra 98b Mishnah: “He who desires to erect…a [dining] hall [] [is to build it in the dimensions of no less than] ten [cubits] by ten [i.e. 10 cubits long and 10 cubits wide or deep]. The height […must be] half its length and half its width [thus also 10 cubits].”§
9. See Pesahim 86a Mishnah on p. 8.
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B.!Selecting the Passover Lamb
! The regulation in Exodus 12:3 that the Passover lamb should be taken, i.e. selected, on the 10th of Nisan, four days before being slaughtered, was no longer in force in later years. It could thus be picked out also on the days that followed the 10th.1 Any year-old male lamb or kid without defect was acceptable.2 It was also not necessary that the animal be selected by the head of the household. He could delegate someone to select it for him.3
1. Pesahim 96a Mishnah: “What is the difference between the Passover-offering of Egypt [ ] and the Passover-offering of [subsequent] generations [ according to Exodus 12:14]? The Passover-offering in Egypt was taken , on the tenth [of Nisan], [its blood] required sprinkling with a [i.e. selected ,] bunch of hyssop on the lintel and on the two door-posts, and it was eaten in haste on one night; whereas the Passover-offering of [subsequent] generations is kept the whole seven [days] [and the regulations given concerning the Passover in Egypt became obsolete].”* • Mekhilta on Exodus 12:3 (4b): “‘On the tenth of this month [Nisan] they should take’ [Ex 12:3]. In this passage I hear that only the tenth is acceptable for selecting. How is it that the fourteenth is also acceptable? Draw the conclusion from the lesser to the greater: If the tenth, which is not acceptable for slaughtering, is acceptable for selecting, then is it not right that the fourteenth, which is acceptable for slaughtering, is acceptable for selecting? How is it that the thirteenth is acceptable? Draw the conclusion from the lesser to the greater: If the tenth, which is not close to the slaughtering, is acceptable for selecting, then is it not right that the thirteenth, which is close to the slaughtering, is acceptable for selecting? And the same judgment applies to the eleventh and tweljh. ‘On the tenth of the month’ [Ex 12:3] is said exclusive of the Passover of [subsequent] generations. For the Passover of Egypt, the lamb’s selection should take place on the tenth, but for the Passover of [subsequent] generations, its selection can take place at any time.” Cf. also Pesahim 96a.†
2. Mekhilta on Exodus 12:5 (5b): “‘You should have a year-old male lamb [] without defect; you may take it from the sheep or the goats’ [Ex 12:5]. ‘Lamb’ – The general word lamb includes the [goat-]kid and the [sheep-]lamb, as it says in Deuteronomy 14:4: ‘sheep-lamb and goat-lamb’ [thus Midrash]. ‘Without defect’ – This excludes an animal that has an injury. ‘Male’ – This excludes an animal whose sex is not discernible, or one that is male and female, or one that is
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† Ibid., 514, 515.
female. ‘Year-old’ [ , ‘son of a year’] – In this place I hear only of a lamb that has been born in the [current] year. How can it be acceptable throughout its entire year [until it has completed its first year of life]? Rabbi Ishmael [† c. 135] has said on the basis of an argument from the greater to the lesser: If it [the lamb] is qualified to be offered as a year-old as a burnt offering, which is subject to more difficult regulations, up until the completion of its [first] year [cp. Lev 12:6], then is it not right that the Passover lamb, which is subject to lighter regulations, is qualified up until the completion of its year, as if it had been born during the year?” • Sifre to Leviticus 12:6 (232a): “‘A year-old lamb’ [ , ‘a lamb, a son of its year’] [Lev 12:6]. Its year is meant, not the year of the world’s counting [i.e. the calendar year].” — Likewise Rabbi Aha b. Jacob (c. 325), in Bekoroth 27b;* ‘Arakin 18b.† • Pesahim 97b Mishnah: “If a man sets aside a female or a two-year old male for his Passover- offering, it must be leW to graze until it becomes unfit, then be sold, and its money is spent on a voluntary sacrifice, on a peace-offering.”‡
3. Mekhilta on Exodus 12:3 (4b): “‘They should take for themselves’ [Ex 12:3]. What, have they all [each individual] taken? No, the words of a man make the one whom he has delegated the same as himself. From this comes the saying: The one delegated by a man is like the man himself.” — So also Jesus had the Passover lamb selected by one of his disciples.
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C.!Finalizing the Members of a Meal Company
According to Exodus 12:3f, the Passover meal was supposed to be celebrated as a family meal, to whose number also the “neighbor who is near [the] house” could be added as circumstances warranted. In Jesus’ day this identity did not generally fit the Passover meal any more. The festival pilgrims who did not have any close family connections in Jerusalem banded together with smaller groups and formed their own companies (, sing. ) among themselves for the purpose of mutually celebrating the Passover meal. So the original family gathering was gradually replaced by a specially formed meal- or table-company. It was not as though the celebration by the family within its own circle had ceased completely,1 but the arrangement of companies had become so prevalent that it gave the evening of the 14th of Nisan its own distinct character. Jesus and his disciples also celebrated their final Passover meal as a company meal.
Membership in a given company of pilgrims remained open up until the slaughtering of the lamb that had been obtained for them. Until then new persons could still enter the company, and those already in it could still leave.2 Once the lamb was slaughtered the company was considered firmly established. Only those persons with whose consent and in whose names the respective lamb was slaughtered were members of the company ( );i3 no further changes to its constituency were to be made later.4 The assignment of women, slaves, and minors to a particular company was governed by special regulations. Children of age could have a Passover lamb slaughtered for themselves and thus also form their own company.5 In the event that several companies were forced to hold their celebration together in one and the same room, their separateness was also to be formally maintained in every way.6 Y The number of persons united in a meal-company was not legally fixed. Since, however, none of the meat of the Passover lamb was to be lej over if at all possible (Ex 12:10), there had to be at least enough persons partaking of the meal as were needed to consume the entire lamb. From experience ten persons appeared to be sufficient to do so. This, then, was usually the minimum number of members in a company.7 Yet it was also conceded that a lamb could be slaughtered even for just one person.8
The maximum number of meal companions was even more undefined. One restriction lay only in the regulation that every table companion should be given at least an olive-size piece of lamb meat.9 Naturally, with such a small amount of meat, there could no longer be any talk of anyone actually geWing full from the Passover lamb,*
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* Mekhilta on Exodus 12:8 (8b): “‘With unleavened bread and bitter herbs they should eat [the Passover lamb]’ [Ex 12:8]. On the basis of this passage it is said: The Passover lamb is eaten as food to fill a person up, but the unleavened bread and the bitter herb is not eaten as food to fill one up.”
especially since people usually abstained from food all ajernoon on the 14th of Nisan* in order to arrive at the Passover meal with a healthy appetite.10 From this, therefore, had developed the custom that, if there were a larger number of persons in a company, another special festival offering (, hagigah) was prepared for the Passover meal. This was then consumed, as a rule, immediately before the eating of the Passsover lamb. In this way the eating of the Passover lamb itself could cause someone to feel satiated, even if he had not eaten more than a small olive-size piece of it. However, a special festival offering could only be prepared for the Passover meal when the meal was held on a weekday. If it fell on a Sabbath, then the preparation of a hagigah was forbidden.11
1. Toseja, Pesahim 8, 12f (169): “Of the Passover-offering of Egypt it is said: ‘He and his neighbor who is near his house should take [the Passover lamb], according to the number of persons’ [Ex 12:4]. This does not hold true of the Passover-offering of the [subsequent] generations in the same way. Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar [c. 190] said: It does hold true of the Passover-offering of the generations in the same way. And what is the reason for all this? So that a man does not abandon his neighbor who is near his house and that his Passover-offering does not get prepared with others [by his joining of any company whatsoever], in order to fulfill what is said: ‘BeWer is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away’ [Pr 27:10].”
2. Pesahim 89a Mishnah: “One may always register for it [the Passover lamb of a company] as long as there is as much as an olive therein for each [table companion] [registered]. They may register and withdraw their hands from it until it is slaughtered; R. Simeon [c. 150] said: Until the blood is sprinkled [on the altar].”† (The Halacha does not conform to R. Simeon’s views.) — In Toseja, Pesahim 7, 3 (166), the saying of R. Simeon reads: “One may always register for a Passover lamb until it is slaughtered, and may withdraw his hands from it until the blood is sprinkled.”
! 3.!See Toseja, Pesahim 7, 4 (166) in note 5 below, and Zebahim 46b Mishnah on p. 16.
! 4.!This follows from the citations in note 2 above.
5. Women, as a rule, would have taken part in the Passover meal of their respective husbands. Pesahim 87a Mishnah: “A woman, when she is in her husband’s home, and her husband slaughtered on her behalf and her father slaughtered on her behalf, must eat of her husband’s [lamb]. If she went to spend the first [Passover] festival [ajer her marriage] in her father’s home, [as was customary,] and her father slaughtered on her behalf and her husband slaughtered on her behalf, she
7
† Soncino, 474.
may eat wherever she pleases.”* — The Baraita in Pesahim 88a accordingly requires that a man slaughter on behalf of his wife only with her consent.† • Regarding children and slaves, see Toseja, Pesahim 7, 4 (166): “A man should slaughter [the Passover lamb] on behalf of his grown [i.e. of age] son or on behalf of his grown daughter, on behalf of his Hebrew slave or his Hebrew bondmaid, only with their consent [lest they might slaughter on their own behalf separately, to which they are entitled]. On the other hand, he may slaughter on behalf of his minor son and his minor daughter, on behalf of his Canaanitish slave and his Canaanitish bondmaid, either with their consent or without it [since they do not have any determining right of their own]. And all of these, if they have slaughtered [on their own behalf] and their master has [also] slaughtered on their behalf, eat of their own [lamb], except the slave, who eats of his master’s.” — The conclusion is different in the second Baraita, Pesahim 88a.‡ • Pesahim 87a Mishnah: “A slave of two partners may not eat of either. [The partners or companions must first agree with whose lamb their mutual slave should be registered.] He who is half slave and half free [which occurred ojen enough] must not eat of his master’s [but of his own Passover lamb].”§ • Pesahim 91a Mishnah: “One may not form a company of women and slaves and minors.”** — Toseja, Pesahim 8, 6 (168) specifies as a reason: “[T]hat wildness not be increased.” — Similarly Pesachim 91a,b.††
6. Pesahim 86a Mishnah: “If two companies are eating in one room, these may turn their faces in one direction and those may turn their faces in another direction, with the boiler [in which water was heated for mixing the wine] in the middle. When the waiter rises to mix [the wine in a cup], he must shut his mouth and turn his face away [from the other company] until he [once again] reaches his own company.”‡‡ The prescribed formalities should make it clear that it is talking about two distinct meal-companies.
! 7.!See Toseja, Pesahim 4, 3 (163) and Josephus, Wars 6.9.3 on p. 2.
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‡‡ Ibid., 454.
8. Pesahim 91a Mishnah: “One may not slaughter the Passover-offering for a single person: This is R. Judah’s [c. 150] view; but R. Jose [c. 150] permits it [and this corresponds to the Halacha].”* — To this point Pesahim 91a: “R. Jose maintained: A single person and he is able to eat it [by himself], one may slaughter [a Passover lamb] on his behalf.”†
9. Pesahim 89a Mishnah: “One may always [up to the slaughtering of the Passover lamb] register for it as long as there is as much as an olive therein for each one [registered].”‡ • Toseja, Pesahim 7, 6 (166): “The members of a company registered for a Passover-offering may eat as long as there is as much as an olive available for each one; if not, they may not eat. If they were registered one ajer the other [not together], then the first ones for whom [an olive-size piece of Passover meat] is available may eat. The later ones may not eat and must keep the second Passover [a month later on the 14th of Iyyar; see Numbers 9:1-14], since the blood has already been sprinkled on their behalf.”
10. Pesahim 99b Mishnah: “On the eve of Passover [i.e. on the 14th of Nisan] close to minhah a man must not eat until nightfall.”§ — The same is found in Toseja, Pesahim 10, 1 (172, 12). — The reason for this we learn from JT Sukkah 2:7: “Just as in the case of the Passover seder, one must eat the unleavened bread with a ravenous appetite, so here one must enter the sukkah with a ravenous appetite.”** — For more, see note 1 on p. 28.
11. Pesahim 69b Mishnah: “When does one bring a hagigah with it [the Passover sacrifice]? When it [the Passover sacrifice] comes during the week, in purity, and in small [portions] [on account of the large number of people registered to eat from it]. But when it comes on the Sabbath, in large [portions], and in uncleanness [of the majority of the priests or of those congregated], one does not bring the hagigah with it. The hagigah was brought of flocks, herds, lambs or goats, of the males or the females, and it is eaten two days and one night [between the two days].”†† In the parallel in Toseja, Pesahim 5, 3 (163), it reads at the end: “[The hagigah with the Passover lamb] is eaten two days and one night, and one does not incur guilt with it for breaking a bone [as he does with the Passover lamb]. The hagigah which is
9
** Neusner, 50.
†† Soncino, 356.
brought with it is eaten first, so that the Passover sacrifice may be eaten with satiation. … R. Simeon ben Eleazar [c. 190] said: The hagigah that comes with it on the table and the foods that come with it on the table are cleared away with it.”* Cf. Pesahim 70a,† and note 9 on p. 45, 46.
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D.!Slaughtering the Lamb at the Temple
The Mishnah uses the term i() – literally, the “causing to ride” – for the transporting of the lamb to the temple. We may gather from this that the animals were mostly carried off to the temple on one’s shoulders. On the Sabbath this was obviously forbidden as work;1 on that day the animals had to be led.2 It was not required that only the owner (head of the household) bring the lamb to the temple. He could also delegate someone else for the task, even a (Hebrew) slave.3 The slaughtering of the lambs could take place anywhere in the inner court (though as close as possible to the altar of burnt offering),4 and indeed they began to be slaughtered ajer the daily evening burnt offering, or evening tamid, had been made,5 about 2:30 in the ajernoon, and when the 14th of Nisan* fell on the day of Preparation for the Sabbath, even an hour earlier.6 This was done to avoid having people infringe upon, and thus defile, the Sabbath as they prepared the lamb at home for the Passover meal. ! Since the slaughtering place in the inner court could not hold the large number of sacrificers all at once, the slaughtering was undertaken in three divisions, one ajer the other.9 The owner of the lamb or his delegate carried out the slaughtering itself;7 at the same time it was announced for what purpose and for whom the animal was being slaughtered.8 The priests stood there in long rows up to the altar of burnt offering and collected the blood in gold and silver basins. They then passed the basins along to each other from hand to hand until the priest standing closest to the altar emptied them with one sprinkling against the base of the altar before handing them back again.9 The entire affair was accompanied by the singing of the Hallel (Psalms 113-118).9
1. Pesahim 65b Mishnah: “These things in [connection with] the Passover offering override the Sabbath: Its shechitah [slaughtering] and the sprinkling of its blood and the cleansing of its bowels and the burning of its fat. But its roasting [at home] and the washing of its bowels do not override the Sabbath [and so may be undertaken only ajer the Sabbath is over]. Its carrying [] [to the temple] and bringing it from without the tehum [i.e. from any place which lies more than 2000 cubits from Jerusalem] and the cuaing off of its [potential] wart do not override the Sabbath. R. Eliezer [c. 90] said: They do override [the Sabbath].”† — Pesahim 66a Mishnah: “R. Akiba [† c. 135] stated a general rule: Every work which could be done on the eve of the Sabbath [or ajer the Sabbath is over] does not override the
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† Soncino, 332.
Sabbath…”* — For more, see JT Pesahim 6:1† and parallels, and Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7a) in note 7 below.
2. Leading an animal was permiWed on the Sabbath. — Shabbath 51b Mishnah: “[A] horse [may go forth] with its chain [around its neck on the Sabbath], and all chainwearing animals may go out with their chains and be led by their chains.”‡ — For more, see Shabbath 128b Mishnah;§ cf. also the discussion between Hillel the Elder (c. 20 BC) and the Master in JT Shabbat 19:1;** JT Pesahim 6:1;†† and Pesahim 66af.‡‡
! 3.!This follows from Pesahim 88b Mishnah in note 8 below, and from Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7a) in note 7 below.
4. Zebahim 56b Mishnah: “The firstling [of caWle], tithe [of caWle] and Passover- offering are sacrifices of lesser sanctity. They are slaughtered in any part of the [inner] temple court…”§§ — That the inner court is meant is clear from Pesahim 64a,b (see p. 19). Sacrifices of higher sanctity could be slaughtered only at the north side of the altar of burnt offering, as opposed to the sacrifices of lower sanctity; see Zebahim 47a Mishnah & ff.*** Regarding the task of the priesthood in connection with the slaughtering of the Passover lambs, refer to the excursus, “Date of Jesus’ Death” (Der Todestag Jesu, 2:845), and notes 8 & 9 below.
5. Pesahim 58a Mishnah: “The Passover offering [is slaughtered] aWer it [i.e. the daily evening burnt offering].”††† • Sifre to Numbers 28:8 §143 (53b): “Only the incense [which is offered in the morning in the Holy Place of the temple] precedes the daily
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* Soncino, 333. Soncino is confusing here. The translation reads: “Work which could be done on the eve of the Sabbath overrides the Sabbath.” But the note on “overrides” reads: “Lit., ‘every work…does not override’.” I have stayed with the literal which, as the note suggests, is in accord with the Vilna edition and with Billerbeck’s German.
† Neusner, 189f.
‡ Soncino, 234.
§ Ibid., 639.
** Neusner, 391f.
†† Ibid., 180ff.
‡‡ Soncino, 333ff.
§§ Ibid., 283.
*** Ibid., 238.
††† Ibid., 287.
morning burnt offering, and ajer the daily evening burnt offering comes only the [evening] incense and the lamps [namely their enkindling] and the Passover offering [namely its slaughtering]…” — This Baraita is referred to in Pesahim 59a.* The sequence of each of these activities is different in the Baraita in Pesachim 58b: “The [evening] tamid is [sacrificed] before the Passover offering, the Passover offering is [sacrificed] before the [burning of the evening] incense, the incense before [the kindling of] the lights.”†
6. See Pesahim 58a Mishnah at John 4:52 at the end (p. 442). According to this passage the daily evening burnt offering was offered at 2:30 p.m. on the 14th of Nisan, and when the 14th of Nisan fell on a Friday, already around 1:30 p.m. The slaughtering of the Passover lambs began ajerwards.‡ Josephus agrees with this when he says in The Wars of the Jews 6.9.3 (see p. 2) that the slaughtering of the Passover lambs took place from the ninth hour until the eleventh hour. The ninth hour began at 2 p.m. and the eleventh hour ended at 5 p.m.§ — The aWempts to provide a more detailed explanation from Scripture for the time of the slaughtering appear somewhat strange. The following are some examples. Sifre to Deuteronomy 16:6 §133 (101b): “‘You should slaughter the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, at the time of your departure from Egypt’ [Dt 16:6]. Rabbi Eliezer [c. 90] said: ‘In the evening’ you should slaughter, and ‘when the sun goes down’ you should eat [i.e. observe the Passover meal], and ‘at the time of your departure from Egypt’ [in the morning] you should burn [the lejovers; Ex 12:10]. Rabbi Joshua [c. 90] said: ‘In the evening’ you should slaughter, and ‘when the sun goes down’ you should eat. For how long? Until ‘the time of your departure from Egypt’ [i.e. until midnight].” — The same is found in Berakoth 9a.** — R. Eliezer and R. Joshua understand , evening, to mean the time in which the sun begins to turn to the west until the time it goes down, thus from noon to sunset. The Passover may be slaughtered during this time. A more exact indication of time is missing. • Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7b): “Ben Bathyra [c. 110?] said: ‘Between the evenings’ [ ] [Ex 12:6]. That is, slaughter it ‘between the two evenings.’ Take one evening for its slaughtering and the other for its eating.” — The first evening is the time from noon
13
† Ibid., 292.
‡ Ibid., 287.
§ Since Billerbeck just said that the evening tamid was offered at 2:30 p.m., which he took from the original Mishnaic phrase “eight and a half hours” (counting from 6 a.m.), it is somewhat difficult to understand how he can interpret “from the ninth until the eleventh hour” to mean 2-5 p.m., instead of 3-5 or 3-6 p.m. - trans.
** Ibid., 47.
onward. The second evening is the actual evening, when darkness sets in. The slaughtering should be done during the first evening. • JT Pesahim 5:1 Baraita: “Hananiah b. Judah [c. 120] says, ‘I may understand the Hebrew phrase ([ Exod. 12:6) [as] “Between the two evenings:” between the evening of the [ fourteenth [i.e. the evening which follows the 13th of Nisan] and the evening of the fijeenth [i.e. the evening which concludes the 14th of Nisan]. Perhaps it should include the day and the night [i.e. the entire 24 hours between those two evenings should be used for slaughtering], [therefore] the teaching says “day” ([] Num. 28:16). When it says “day” it excludes the night. If [you say] “day,” perhaps [the offering is to be slaughtered] at the second hour of the day [8 a.m.]? [Therefore] the teaching says, in the “evening” ([] Deut. 16:4). If [you say] in the “evening,” perhaps [it should be done] once it gets dark? Behold, [however,] the teaching says, “between the evenings.” Lo, how [should it be understood]? Divide between the evenings [i.e. the time from 12 p.m. to the actual evening, about 6 p.m.] and assign two-and-one-half hours before it [the sacrifice] [from 12:00-2:30 p.m.] and two-and- one-half hours ajer it [from 3:30-6:00 p.m.] and one hour [from 2:30-3:30 p.m.] for involvement with [the Passover offering.] You as a result may say [as it says in Pesahim 58a Mishnah; see at John 4:52, p. 442] that the Passover sacrifice is [usually] offered at the ninth-and-one-half hour [3:30 p.m.].’”* — On the 14th of Nisan, however, the daily burnt offering was offered one hour earlier, thus around 2:30 p.m. The slaughtering of the Passover lambs then came right ajerward, thus almost exactly in the middle “between the two evenings,” of which the first began around 12 p.m. and the second around 6 p.m. — For a similar exposition by R. Joshua b. Levi (c. 250) refer to JT Pesahim 5:1† and Pesahim 58a.‡ • Sifre to Leviticus 23:5 (404a): “‘In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the two evenings [begins the Passover of the Lord]’ [Lev 23:5]. Perhaps once it gets dark? Scripture teaches, ‘day’ [] [Ex 12:6]. If ‘day,’ perhaps from the second hour [i.e. 8 a.m.] onward? Scripture teaches, ‘between the two evenings’ [Lev 23:5]. Just as ‘between the two evenings’ means, ‘once the day has turned [waned]’ [which happens ajer 12 noon], so also ‘day’ [Ex 12:6] means, ‘once the day has turned, from the sixth hour onward [i.e. from 12 noon onward]. Even if there is no proof for this, there is an allusion to it: ‘Woe to us, for the day has turned, the shadows of the evening grow
14
* Neusner, 140f. The end of this quote in Neusner differs from that in Billerbeck. Billerbeck reads: “‘…and one hour [from 2:30-3:30 p.m.] for involvement with [the daily evening burnt offering.] You as a result may say [as it says in Pesahim 58a Mishnah; see at John 4:52, p. 442] that the daily evening burnt offering is [usually] offered at the ninth-and-one-half hour [3:30 p.m.], while its involvement takes up one hour [from 2:30-3:30 p.m.]’” (italics Billerbeck’s).
† Ibid., 140.
‡ Soncino, 287.
long!’ [Jer 6:4].” • Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7b): “‘Slaughter it between the two evenings’ [Ex 12:6]. Should I understand this to mean, ‘at the onset of dusk’ [ Scripture teaches, ‘in the evening’ [Dt 16:6]. If in the evening, then ?[ perhaps once it gets dark? Scripture teaches, ‘when the sun has gone down’ [Dt 16:6]. If once the sun goes down, then what about ‘and you should cook [roast] and eat it’ [Dt 16:7]? Scripture teaches, ‘at the time of your departure from Egypt’ [Dt 16:6]. That breaks up the context – ‘and you should cook and eat it,’ namely once it gets dark. Rabbi [† 217?] said: See, it says: ‘There you should slaughter the Passover in the evening’ [Dt 16:6]. [The arrangement of the sentence corresponds to the accents.] Should I understand this according to its wording [thus ‘in the evening’ meaning ‘once it gets dark’]? Scripture teaches, ‘at the time of your departure from Egypt.’ When did the Israelites depart from Egypt? From the sixth hour [12 noon] onward, and so it says, ‘On exactly this day [interpretation of ; ‘in the strength of the day’ = midday] all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt’ [Ex 12:41]. R. Nathan [c. 160] said: From where will you prove that the expression ‘between the two evenings’ means from the sixth hour [12 noon] onward? Even if there is no proof for it, there is an allusion to it: ‘Sanctify against her a baWle! Up, let us go up at midday! Woe to us, for the day has turned, the shadows of the evening grow long [i.e. the shadows fall from west to east]!’ [Jer 6:4]. R. Simeon b. Yohai [c. 150] said: Scripture comes forth and makes the first last and the last first. ‘At the time of your departure from Egypt’ [Dt 16:6] [that is said last, but should be positioned first] – this refers to its [the Passover lamb’s] slaughtering [he presupposes that the departure from Egypt took place from midday onward]. ‘When the sun has gone down’ [Dt 16:6] – this refers to its roasting. And ‘in the evening’ [Dt 16:6] refers to its eating.” • The interpretation of the expression “between the two evenings” as “from midday onward until nightfall” is always connected to the fact that, when a Passover lamb was slaughtered before the daily evening burnt offering but aKer 12 noon, it was declared valid, whereas if it was slaughtered before 12 noon, it was declared invalid. Pesahim 61a Mishnah: “If he killed it [the Passover lamb] before midday, it is disqualified, because it is said, [And the whole assembly… shall kill it] at dusk [lit. between the evenings; Ex 12:6]. If he killed it before the [evening] tamid [but aKer midday], it is fit, providing that one shall stir its blood [to prevent it from congealing] until [that of] the tamid is sprinkled; yet if it [the blood of the Passover lamb] was sprinkled [before the blood of the tamid], it is fit.”* — Cf. also Zebahim 11b Mishnah† and Toseja, Pesahim 3, 8 (162) in part 2, p. 845, before section G.
15
* Soncino, 305.
† Ibid., 58.
7. Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7a): “‘The assembly…shall slaughter it’ [Ex 12:6]. What, should all of them slaughter it? Rather [as has been said], in order to make the one whom a man has delegated the same as himself. From this comes the saying: The one delegated by a man is like the man himself.”
8. Zebahim 46b Mishnah: “The sacrifice [so too the Passover lamb] is slaughtered for the sake of six things: for the sake of the [respective] sacrifice [so that, for example, it is not announced as a peace offering, when it was intended as a burnt offering], for the sake of the sacrificer [the actual owner, not in the name of some other man], for the sake of the [divine] name, for the sake of fire-offerings, for the sake of a savour, for the sake of pleasing [God], and a sin-offering and a guilt- offering for the sake of sin [for which it should make atonement].”* — In the parallel passage, Toseja, Zebahim 5, 13 (487), the text is not correct. • Pesahim 59b Mishnah: “If a man slaughtered the Passover sacrifice for another purpose [i.e. not as a Passover offering], and he caught [the blood] and went and sprinkled it for another purpose [not as the blood of a Passover offering]…it is disqualified.”† • Pesahim 63a Mishnah: “R. Simeon said: [If he slaughters] the Passover offering [with leaven] [i.e. with anything leavened in his possession] on the fourteenth [of Nisan] for its own purpose [i.e. as a Passover overing], he is liable [to punishment]; [if] for a different purpose [i.e. under the name of a different sacrifice], he is exempt [for now it does not count as a Passover offering, and it is not forbidden to slaughter other sacrifices with anything leavened in one’s possession].”‡ • Toseja, Zebahim 1, 1 (479): “R. Joshua [c. 90] said: All sacrifices slaughtered not in their own name [i.e. for their own purpose] are valid, save that they do not free their owners of their obligation [i.e. do not free them from offerings they already vowed; they must still bring these later], with the exception of the Passover-offering and the sin-offering [i.e. these two are always invalid when offered under an incorrect designation].” — The same is said anonymously in Zebahim 2a Mishnah.§ • Pesahim 71b Mishnah: “If the Passover was slaughtered for a different purpose on the Sabbath, he [the slaughterer] is liable to a sin-offering on its account [because no offering apart from the Passover offering could be slaughtered for someone on the Sabbath].”** • Pesahim 88b Mishnah: “If a man says to his [Hebrew] slave, ‘Go forth and slaughter the Passover-offering on my behalf’ [without further indicating whether he should
16
§ Ibid., 1.
** Ibid., 367.
take it from the sheep or the goats]: If he slaughtered a kid, he eats [thereof]. If he slaughtered a lamb, he eats [thereof]. If he slaughtered a kid and a lamb, he must eat of the first. If he forgot what his master told him, how shall he act? He slaughters a lamb and a kid and declares, ‘If my master told me [to slaughter] a kid, the kid is his [for his Passover-offering] and the lamb is mine; while if my master told me [to slaughter] a lamb, the lamb is his and the kid is mine.’ If his master [also] forgot what he told him, both [animals] go forth to the place of burning [where the unfit offerings were burned], yet they are exempt from sacrificing the second Passover [four weeks later].”* A designation of a sacrificial animal that is either lacking or questionable on the part of the one sacrificing the animal thus makes the sacrifice unfit.
9. Pesahim 64a Mishnah: “The Passover offering is slaughtered in three divisions, for it is said, And the whole assembly of the congregation shall kill it [Ex 12:6]: [i.e.] ‘assembly,’ ‘congregation,’ and ‘Israel’ [these three words indicated the three divisions; see Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7b)]. The first division entered, the temple court was filled, they closed the doors of the temple court, they sounded a teki‘ah [a long, straight blast on the ram’s horn], a teru‘ah [series of three short, consecutive blasts], and [again] a teki‘ah. The priests stood in rows, and in their hands were basins of silver and basins of gold; a row which was entirely of silver was of silver, and a row which was entirely of gold was of gold: they were not mixed; and the basins had no [flat] boaoms, lest they put them down and the blood become congealed. The Israelite killed [the lamb],‡‡ and the priest caught [the blood]; he handed it to his colleague and his colleague [passed it on] to his colleague; and he received the full [basin] and gave back the empty one. The priest nearest the altar sprinkled it once over against the base [of the altar]. The first division [then] went out and the second entered; the second went out and the third entered. As the manner of the first [group], so was the manner of the second and the third. They recited the Hallel [Psalms 113-118];† if they finished it they repeated, and if they repeated [and were not finished yet], they recited it a third time, though they never did recite it [to the end] a third time. R. Judah [c. 150] said: The third division never reached ‘I love that the Lord should hear’ [etc.; Ps 116:1], because the people for it were few.”‡ — For a parallel passage interspersed with commentary, see Toseja, Pesahim 3, 10-12, where one finds the observation that the third division was called the “lazy division.”
17
‡ Soncino, 323, 324.
E.!Skinning and GuWing the Lamb
Pesahim 64a,b Mishnah: “How did they hang up [the sacrifices] and flay [them]? There were iron hooks fixed in the walls and in the pillars [on the north side of the altar of burnt offering], on which they suspended [the sacrifices] and flayed [them]. If any one had no place to suspend and flay, there were there thin smooth staves which he placed on his shoulder and on his neighbour’s shoulder, and so suspended [the animal] and flayed [it]. R. Eliezer [c. 90] said: When the fourteenth fell on the Sabbath, he placed [not those staves, but] his hand on his neighbour’s shoulder and his neighbour’s hand on his shoulder, and he [thus] suspended [the sacrifice] and flayed [it]. Then he [the owner of the animal] tore it and took out its emurim* [cf. Lev 3:9f], [then] placed them in a tray and burnt them on the altar [via a priest].”† The owner of the animal was responsible for skinning it. • Toseja, Pesahim 3, 10 (162): “A man [a priest] removed its [the lamb’s] emurim, from as many as four or five animals, laid them in a tray and burnt them on the altar, and on the Sabbath [when one could not carry the animal home immediately, but had to wait in the sanctuary for the Sabbath to end] one covered it with its wool [i.e. wrapped it in its own hide] and lej it lying there and went out. R. Ishmael son of Johanan son of Berokah [c. 150] said: When the 14th of Nisan fell on a Sabbath, one only skinned it to the breast [in order to be able to gut it].” — For the rubbing off () of the bowels (removal of the excrement), which was done immediately even on the Sabbath, cf. Pesahim 65b Mishnah at on p. 11.
18
† Soncino, 324, 325.
F.!Bringing the Lamb Home
Pesahim 65b Baraita: “Each one placed his paschal lamb in its hide and slung it behind him [and carried it home]. Said R. ‘Ilish: In Arab-like fashion.”* • If the 14th of Nisan† was a Sabbath, one could not carry the animal home immediately, but first had to wait in the sanctuary for the Sabbath to end. Pesahim 64b Mishnah alludes to this: “The first division [of the three divisions of those who slaughtered; see Pesahim 64a Mishnah on p. 17] went out [when the 14th of Nisan was a Sabbath] and sat down on the temple mount [i.e. in the outer court], the second [sat] in the hel [i.e. terrace around the outer part of the wall that enclosed the inner court], while the third remained in its place. [Toseja, Pesahim 4, 12 (162) is more precise: “R. Eliezer son of Jacob [probably the Elder; c. 90] said: The third division went and sat down &nbs
A. Readying a suitable room in which to celebrate, one furnished (στρωµμνον, Mk 14:15; Lk 22:12) with the necessary dining cushions,
B.!Selecting a regulation Passover lamb, C.!Deciding which persons were going to partake in the eating of a particular lamb, D.!Taking the animal to the temple and having it slaughtered, E.!Skinning and guWing the animal, F.!Bringing it back to the place where the festival would be celebrated, and G.!Preparing the meat for consumption.
Jesus’ disciples would also have had all of this in mind when they asked their Master, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover lamb?” (Mt 26:17). (Regarding the removal of anything leavened from the houses, which likewise had to be finished before the Passover celebration began, see our commentary at 1 Corinthians 5:7a, p. 359, and in the excursus “Date of Jesus’ Death” [Der Todestag Jesu], vol. 2, p. 814.)
A.!Readying a Celebration Room
! Considering the large number of festival pilgrims that ordinarily aWended the Passover festival in Jerusalem every year,1 the question of lodging may have ojen posed considerable difficulties. Certainly a good portion of the visitors would have sought and found shelter in the towns and villages closest to Jerusalem, just as Jesus himself had stayed in Bethany at the time of his final Passover (Jn 12:1). But all of them not only had to celebrate the Passover meal in Jerusalem itself, according to the regulations in force at that time,2 but they also had to remain in the city that night.3 So the question of where in Jerusalem they should hold the Passover meal and spend the night ajerwards was also one of no liWle consequence for them. ! In order to overcome the difficulties, the theory had been developed that when the land of Canaan had been divided into the twelve tribes, the capital city of Jerusalem was not included in that division, but had been reserved as a national possession for the benefit of all the Israelites. Accordingly the homeowners in Jerusalem should not have the right to rent out their dwellings and rooms to the festival pilgrims at a high price, but should rather be obligated, if visitors were asking to be accommodated, to do so free of charge, and, as far as room was available, to place a dining room at their disposal where they could solemnly celebrate the Passover meal.4 This theory was not developed without success. It is counted among the ten wonders experienced by the fathers when
1
the temple still stood, that the complaints about lack of shelter in Jerusalem had never been loud.5
Since a Passover meal could only be held if at least ten persons took part in it together around the same table,6 and since furthermore the meal could be eaten only in festal board, i.e. in reclining position,7 the dining room ( = τρκλινον, triclinium) naturally had to be large enough to house the required number of dining cushions. According to the Mishnah a room 10 cubits long and 10 cubits deep (a floor space of about 23 square meters *) would have been required for this purpose.8 In a larger dining hall several dining parties were also permiWed to celebrate the Passover meal simultaneously.9
1. We have two reports regarding the population of Jerusalem during a Passover festival: Toseja, Pesahim 4, 3 (163), quoted at Acts 12:3 (p. 710); according to this passage more than 12 million people had been present at the Passover festival in Jerusalem referred to there. The second report, from Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 6.9.3, stays within more modest limits: “[Cestius Gallus, 63-66 AD] instructed the chief priests, if by any means possible, to take a census of the population [in Jerusalem]. Accordingly, on the occasion of the feast called Passover, at which they sacrifice from the ninth to the eleventh hour,† and a liWle fraternity, as it were, gathers round each sacrifice, of not fewer than ten persons (feasting alone not being permiWed), while the companies ojen include as many as twenty, the victims were counted and amounted to two hundred and fijy-five thousand six hundred [255,600]; allowing an average of ten diners to each victim, we obtain a total of [roughly] two million seven hundred thousand, all pure and holy. For those afflicted with leprosy or gonorrhoea, or menstruous women, or persons otherwise defiled were not permiWed to partake of this sacrifice.”‡
2. Sifre to Numbers 9:10 §69 (18a): “What is the place where it [the Passover lamb] is eaten? From the gates of Jerusalem inward [i.e. in Jerusalem].” • Zebahim 56b Mishnah: “The firstling, [caWle-]tithe and Passover-offering are sacrifices of lesser sanctity.”§ — Concerning the holy things of lesser sanctity, it says in Kelim 1, 8 Mishnah: “The area within the wall [of Jerusalem] is holier [than the area within the other walled cities], for it is there that holy things of a minor degree [including
2
* At 18 inches to a cubit, the floor space would be closer to 21 square meters. - trans.
† The ninth hour began at 2 p.m. The eleventh hour ended at 5 p.m. - Billerbeck
‡ Josephus: The Jewish War, Books IV-VII, trans. H. St. J. Thackeray (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 499.
§ Soncino, 283.
the Passover lamb]…may be eaten.”* • Makkoth 17a Mishnah: “One who eats…of lesser holy [meats] [including the Passover lamb]…outside the city wall [of Jerusalem] [incurs a flogging of forty lashes].”†
3. For proofs, refer to the excursus “Date of Jesus’ Death” (Der Todestag Jesu, 2:833f, no. 6).
4.!For proofs, see at Luke 2:41 (p. 144, no. 5) and at MaWhew 26:17b (p. 988f).
5. Aboth 5, 5 Mishnah: “Ten wonders were wrought for our fathers in the sanctuary [at the time when the temple still stood]: … No man [in Jerusalem] said to his fellow: The place is too strait for me to lodge overnight in Jerusalem.”‡ • Aboth of Rabbi Nathan 35 (9b): “No man has ever said to his fellow: I have not found an oven for roasting the Passover lambs in Jerusalem. No man has ever said to his fellow: I have not found a bed on which to sleep in Jerusalem. No man has ever said to his fellow: The place is too strait for me to lodge overnight in Jerusalem.”
6.!See Toseja, Pesahim 4, 3 and Josephus, Wars 6.9.3 on p. 2.
7.!On the reclining at the time of the Passover meal, see p. 28-30.
8. Baba Bathra 98b Mishnah: “He who desires to erect…a [dining] hall [] [is to build it in the dimensions of no less than] ten [cubits] by ten [i.e. 10 cubits long and 10 cubits wide or deep]. The height […must be] half its length and half its width [thus also 10 cubits].”§
9. See Pesahim 86a Mishnah on p. 8.
3
B.!Selecting the Passover Lamb
! The regulation in Exodus 12:3 that the Passover lamb should be taken, i.e. selected, on the 10th of Nisan, four days before being slaughtered, was no longer in force in later years. It could thus be picked out also on the days that followed the 10th.1 Any year-old male lamb or kid without defect was acceptable.2 It was also not necessary that the animal be selected by the head of the household. He could delegate someone to select it for him.3
1. Pesahim 96a Mishnah: “What is the difference between the Passover-offering of Egypt [ ] and the Passover-offering of [subsequent] generations [ according to Exodus 12:14]? The Passover-offering in Egypt was taken , on the tenth [of Nisan], [its blood] required sprinkling with a [i.e. selected ,] bunch of hyssop on the lintel and on the two door-posts, and it was eaten in haste on one night; whereas the Passover-offering of [subsequent] generations is kept the whole seven [days] [and the regulations given concerning the Passover in Egypt became obsolete].”* • Mekhilta on Exodus 12:3 (4b): “‘On the tenth of this month [Nisan] they should take’ [Ex 12:3]. In this passage I hear that only the tenth is acceptable for selecting. How is it that the fourteenth is also acceptable? Draw the conclusion from the lesser to the greater: If the tenth, which is not acceptable for slaughtering, is acceptable for selecting, then is it not right that the fourteenth, which is acceptable for slaughtering, is acceptable for selecting? How is it that the thirteenth is acceptable? Draw the conclusion from the lesser to the greater: If the tenth, which is not close to the slaughtering, is acceptable for selecting, then is it not right that the thirteenth, which is close to the slaughtering, is acceptable for selecting? And the same judgment applies to the eleventh and tweljh. ‘On the tenth of the month’ [Ex 12:3] is said exclusive of the Passover of [subsequent] generations. For the Passover of Egypt, the lamb’s selection should take place on the tenth, but for the Passover of [subsequent] generations, its selection can take place at any time.” Cf. also Pesahim 96a.†
2. Mekhilta on Exodus 12:5 (5b): “‘You should have a year-old male lamb [] without defect; you may take it from the sheep or the goats’ [Ex 12:5]. ‘Lamb’ – The general word lamb includes the [goat-]kid and the [sheep-]lamb, as it says in Deuteronomy 14:4: ‘sheep-lamb and goat-lamb’ [thus Midrash]. ‘Without defect’ – This excludes an animal that has an injury. ‘Male’ – This excludes an animal whose sex is not discernible, or one that is male and female, or one that is
4
† Ibid., 514, 515.
female. ‘Year-old’ [ , ‘son of a year’] – In this place I hear only of a lamb that has been born in the [current] year. How can it be acceptable throughout its entire year [until it has completed its first year of life]? Rabbi Ishmael [† c. 135] has said on the basis of an argument from the greater to the lesser: If it [the lamb] is qualified to be offered as a year-old as a burnt offering, which is subject to more difficult regulations, up until the completion of its [first] year [cp. Lev 12:6], then is it not right that the Passover lamb, which is subject to lighter regulations, is qualified up until the completion of its year, as if it had been born during the year?” • Sifre to Leviticus 12:6 (232a): “‘A year-old lamb’ [ , ‘a lamb, a son of its year’] [Lev 12:6]. Its year is meant, not the year of the world’s counting [i.e. the calendar year].” — Likewise Rabbi Aha b. Jacob (c. 325), in Bekoroth 27b;* ‘Arakin 18b.† • Pesahim 97b Mishnah: “If a man sets aside a female or a two-year old male for his Passover- offering, it must be leW to graze until it becomes unfit, then be sold, and its money is spent on a voluntary sacrifice, on a peace-offering.”‡
3. Mekhilta on Exodus 12:3 (4b): “‘They should take for themselves’ [Ex 12:3]. What, have they all [each individual] taken? No, the words of a man make the one whom he has delegated the same as himself. From this comes the saying: The one delegated by a man is like the man himself.” — So also Jesus had the Passover lamb selected by one of his disciples.
5
C.!Finalizing the Members of a Meal Company
According to Exodus 12:3f, the Passover meal was supposed to be celebrated as a family meal, to whose number also the “neighbor who is near [the] house” could be added as circumstances warranted. In Jesus’ day this identity did not generally fit the Passover meal any more. The festival pilgrims who did not have any close family connections in Jerusalem banded together with smaller groups and formed their own companies (, sing. ) among themselves for the purpose of mutually celebrating the Passover meal. So the original family gathering was gradually replaced by a specially formed meal- or table-company. It was not as though the celebration by the family within its own circle had ceased completely,1 but the arrangement of companies had become so prevalent that it gave the evening of the 14th of Nisan its own distinct character. Jesus and his disciples also celebrated their final Passover meal as a company meal.
Membership in a given company of pilgrims remained open up until the slaughtering of the lamb that had been obtained for them. Until then new persons could still enter the company, and those already in it could still leave.2 Once the lamb was slaughtered the company was considered firmly established. Only those persons with whose consent and in whose names the respective lamb was slaughtered were members of the company ( );i3 no further changes to its constituency were to be made later.4 The assignment of women, slaves, and minors to a particular company was governed by special regulations. Children of age could have a Passover lamb slaughtered for themselves and thus also form their own company.5 In the event that several companies were forced to hold their celebration together in one and the same room, their separateness was also to be formally maintained in every way.6 Y The number of persons united in a meal-company was not legally fixed. Since, however, none of the meat of the Passover lamb was to be lej over if at all possible (Ex 12:10), there had to be at least enough persons partaking of the meal as were needed to consume the entire lamb. From experience ten persons appeared to be sufficient to do so. This, then, was usually the minimum number of members in a company.7 Yet it was also conceded that a lamb could be slaughtered even for just one person.8
The maximum number of meal companions was even more undefined. One restriction lay only in the regulation that every table companion should be given at least an olive-size piece of lamb meat.9 Naturally, with such a small amount of meat, there could no longer be any talk of anyone actually geWing full from the Passover lamb,*
6
* Mekhilta on Exodus 12:8 (8b): “‘With unleavened bread and bitter herbs they should eat [the Passover lamb]’ [Ex 12:8]. On the basis of this passage it is said: The Passover lamb is eaten as food to fill a person up, but the unleavened bread and the bitter herb is not eaten as food to fill one up.”
especially since people usually abstained from food all ajernoon on the 14th of Nisan* in order to arrive at the Passover meal with a healthy appetite.10 From this, therefore, had developed the custom that, if there were a larger number of persons in a company, another special festival offering (, hagigah) was prepared for the Passover meal. This was then consumed, as a rule, immediately before the eating of the Passsover lamb. In this way the eating of the Passover lamb itself could cause someone to feel satiated, even if he had not eaten more than a small olive-size piece of it. However, a special festival offering could only be prepared for the Passover meal when the meal was held on a weekday. If it fell on a Sabbath, then the preparation of a hagigah was forbidden.11
1. Toseja, Pesahim 8, 12f (169): “Of the Passover-offering of Egypt it is said: ‘He and his neighbor who is near his house should take [the Passover lamb], according to the number of persons’ [Ex 12:4]. This does not hold true of the Passover-offering of the [subsequent] generations in the same way. Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar [c. 190] said: It does hold true of the Passover-offering of the generations in the same way. And what is the reason for all this? So that a man does not abandon his neighbor who is near his house and that his Passover-offering does not get prepared with others [by his joining of any company whatsoever], in order to fulfill what is said: ‘BeWer is a neighbor nearby than a brother far away’ [Pr 27:10].”
2. Pesahim 89a Mishnah: “One may always register for it [the Passover lamb of a company] as long as there is as much as an olive therein for each [table companion] [registered]. They may register and withdraw their hands from it until it is slaughtered; R. Simeon [c. 150] said: Until the blood is sprinkled [on the altar].”† (The Halacha does not conform to R. Simeon’s views.) — In Toseja, Pesahim 7, 3 (166), the saying of R. Simeon reads: “One may always register for a Passover lamb until it is slaughtered, and may withdraw his hands from it until the blood is sprinkled.”
! 3.!See Toseja, Pesahim 7, 4 (166) in note 5 below, and Zebahim 46b Mishnah on p. 16.
! 4.!This follows from the citations in note 2 above.
5. Women, as a rule, would have taken part in the Passover meal of their respective husbands. Pesahim 87a Mishnah: “A woman, when she is in her husband’s home, and her husband slaughtered on her behalf and her father slaughtered on her behalf, must eat of her husband’s [lamb]. If she went to spend the first [Passover] festival [ajer her marriage] in her father’s home, [as was customary,] and her father slaughtered on her behalf and her husband slaughtered on her behalf, she
7
† Soncino, 474.
may eat wherever she pleases.”* — The Baraita in Pesahim 88a accordingly requires that a man slaughter on behalf of his wife only with her consent.† • Regarding children and slaves, see Toseja, Pesahim 7, 4 (166): “A man should slaughter [the Passover lamb] on behalf of his grown [i.e. of age] son or on behalf of his grown daughter, on behalf of his Hebrew slave or his Hebrew bondmaid, only with their consent [lest they might slaughter on their own behalf separately, to which they are entitled]. On the other hand, he may slaughter on behalf of his minor son and his minor daughter, on behalf of his Canaanitish slave and his Canaanitish bondmaid, either with their consent or without it [since they do not have any determining right of their own]. And all of these, if they have slaughtered [on their own behalf] and their master has [also] slaughtered on their behalf, eat of their own [lamb], except the slave, who eats of his master’s.” — The conclusion is different in the second Baraita, Pesahim 88a.‡ • Pesahim 87a Mishnah: “A slave of two partners may not eat of either. [The partners or companions must first agree with whose lamb their mutual slave should be registered.] He who is half slave and half free [which occurred ojen enough] must not eat of his master’s [but of his own Passover lamb].”§ • Pesahim 91a Mishnah: “One may not form a company of women and slaves and minors.”** — Toseja, Pesahim 8, 6 (168) specifies as a reason: “[T]hat wildness not be increased.” — Similarly Pesachim 91a,b.††
6. Pesahim 86a Mishnah: “If two companies are eating in one room, these may turn their faces in one direction and those may turn their faces in another direction, with the boiler [in which water was heated for mixing the wine] in the middle. When the waiter rises to mix [the wine in a cup], he must shut his mouth and turn his face away [from the other company] until he [once again] reaches his own company.”‡‡ The prescribed formalities should make it clear that it is talking about two distinct meal-companies.
! 7.!See Toseja, Pesahim 4, 3 (163) and Josephus, Wars 6.9.3 on p. 2.
8
‡‡ Ibid., 454.
8. Pesahim 91a Mishnah: “One may not slaughter the Passover-offering for a single person: This is R. Judah’s [c. 150] view; but R. Jose [c. 150] permits it [and this corresponds to the Halacha].”* — To this point Pesahim 91a: “R. Jose maintained: A single person and he is able to eat it [by himself], one may slaughter [a Passover lamb] on his behalf.”†
9. Pesahim 89a Mishnah: “One may always [up to the slaughtering of the Passover lamb] register for it as long as there is as much as an olive therein for each one [registered].”‡ • Toseja, Pesahim 7, 6 (166): “The members of a company registered for a Passover-offering may eat as long as there is as much as an olive available for each one; if not, they may not eat. If they were registered one ajer the other [not together], then the first ones for whom [an olive-size piece of Passover meat] is available may eat. The later ones may not eat and must keep the second Passover [a month later on the 14th of Iyyar; see Numbers 9:1-14], since the blood has already been sprinkled on their behalf.”
10. Pesahim 99b Mishnah: “On the eve of Passover [i.e. on the 14th of Nisan] close to minhah a man must not eat until nightfall.”§ — The same is found in Toseja, Pesahim 10, 1 (172, 12). — The reason for this we learn from JT Sukkah 2:7: “Just as in the case of the Passover seder, one must eat the unleavened bread with a ravenous appetite, so here one must enter the sukkah with a ravenous appetite.”** — For more, see note 1 on p. 28.
11. Pesahim 69b Mishnah: “When does one bring a hagigah with it [the Passover sacrifice]? When it [the Passover sacrifice] comes during the week, in purity, and in small [portions] [on account of the large number of people registered to eat from it]. But when it comes on the Sabbath, in large [portions], and in uncleanness [of the majority of the priests or of those congregated], one does not bring the hagigah with it. The hagigah was brought of flocks, herds, lambs or goats, of the males or the females, and it is eaten two days and one night [between the two days].”†† In the parallel in Toseja, Pesahim 5, 3 (163), it reads at the end: “[The hagigah with the Passover lamb] is eaten two days and one night, and one does not incur guilt with it for breaking a bone [as he does with the Passover lamb]. The hagigah which is
9
** Neusner, 50.
†† Soncino, 356.
brought with it is eaten first, so that the Passover sacrifice may be eaten with satiation. … R. Simeon ben Eleazar [c. 190] said: The hagigah that comes with it on the table and the foods that come with it on the table are cleared away with it.”* Cf. Pesahim 70a,† and note 9 on p. 45, 46.
10
D.!Slaughtering the Lamb at the Temple
The Mishnah uses the term i() – literally, the “causing to ride” – for the transporting of the lamb to the temple. We may gather from this that the animals were mostly carried off to the temple on one’s shoulders. On the Sabbath this was obviously forbidden as work;1 on that day the animals had to be led.2 It was not required that only the owner (head of the household) bring the lamb to the temple. He could also delegate someone else for the task, even a (Hebrew) slave.3 The slaughtering of the lambs could take place anywhere in the inner court (though as close as possible to the altar of burnt offering),4 and indeed they began to be slaughtered ajer the daily evening burnt offering, or evening tamid, had been made,5 about 2:30 in the ajernoon, and when the 14th of Nisan* fell on the day of Preparation for the Sabbath, even an hour earlier.6 This was done to avoid having people infringe upon, and thus defile, the Sabbath as they prepared the lamb at home for the Passover meal. ! Since the slaughtering place in the inner court could not hold the large number of sacrificers all at once, the slaughtering was undertaken in three divisions, one ajer the other.9 The owner of the lamb or his delegate carried out the slaughtering itself;7 at the same time it was announced for what purpose and for whom the animal was being slaughtered.8 The priests stood there in long rows up to the altar of burnt offering and collected the blood in gold and silver basins. They then passed the basins along to each other from hand to hand until the priest standing closest to the altar emptied them with one sprinkling against the base of the altar before handing them back again.9 The entire affair was accompanied by the singing of the Hallel (Psalms 113-118).9
1. Pesahim 65b Mishnah: “These things in [connection with] the Passover offering override the Sabbath: Its shechitah [slaughtering] and the sprinkling of its blood and the cleansing of its bowels and the burning of its fat. But its roasting [at home] and the washing of its bowels do not override the Sabbath [and so may be undertaken only ajer the Sabbath is over]. Its carrying [] [to the temple] and bringing it from without the tehum [i.e. from any place which lies more than 2000 cubits from Jerusalem] and the cuaing off of its [potential] wart do not override the Sabbath. R. Eliezer [c. 90] said: They do override [the Sabbath].”† — Pesahim 66a Mishnah: “R. Akiba [† c. 135] stated a general rule: Every work which could be done on the eve of the Sabbath [or ajer the Sabbath is over] does not override the
11
† Soncino, 332.
Sabbath…”* — For more, see JT Pesahim 6:1† and parallels, and Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7a) in note 7 below.
2. Leading an animal was permiWed on the Sabbath. — Shabbath 51b Mishnah: “[A] horse [may go forth] with its chain [around its neck on the Sabbath], and all chainwearing animals may go out with their chains and be led by their chains.”‡ — For more, see Shabbath 128b Mishnah;§ cf. also the discussion between Hillel the Elder (c. 20 BC) and the Master in JT Shabbat 19:1;** JT Pesahim 6:1;†† and Pesahim 66af.‡‡
! 3.!This follows from Pesahim 88b Mishnah in note 8 below, and from Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7a) in note 7 below.
4. Zebahim 56b Mishnah: “The firstling [of caWle], tithe [of caWle] and Passover- offering are sacrifices of lesser sanctity. They are slaughtered in any part of the [inner] temple court…”§§ — That the inner court is meant is clear from Pesahim 64a,b (see p. 19). Sacrifices of higher sanctity could be slaughtered only at the north side of the altar of burnt offering, as opposed to the sacrifices of lower sanctity; see Zebahim 47a Mishnah & ff.*** Regarding the task of the priesthood in connection with the slaughtering of the Passover lambs, refer to the excursus, “Date of Jesus’ Death” (Der Todestag Jesu, 2:845), and notes 8 & 9 below.
5. Pesahim 58a Mishnah: “The Passover offering [is slaughtered] aWer it [i.e. the daily evening burnt offering].”††† • Sifre to Numbers 28:8 §143 (53b): “Only the incense [which is offered in the morning in the Holy Place of the temple] precedes the daily
12
* Soncino, 333. Soncino is confusing here. The translation reads: “Work which could be done on the eve of the Sabbath overrides the Sabbath.” But the note on “overrides” reads: “Lit., ‘every work…does not override’.” I have stayed with the literal which, as the note suggests, is in accord with the Vilna edition and with Billerbeck’s German.
† Neusner, 189f.
‡ Soncino, 234.
§ Ibid., 639.
** Neusner, 391f.
†† Ibid., 180ff.
‡‡ Soncino, 333ff.
§§ Ibid., 283.
*** Ibid., 238.
††† Ibid., 287.
morning burnt offering, and ajer the daily evening burnt offering comes only the [evening] incense and the lamps [namely their enkindling] and the Passover offering [namely its slaughtering]…” — This Baraita is referred to in Pesahim 59a.* The sequence of each of these activities is different in the Baraita in Pesachim 58b: “The [evening] tamid is [sacrificed] before the Passover offering, the Passover offering is [sacrificed] before the [burning of the evening] incense, the incense before [the kindling of] the lights.”†
6. See Pesahim 58a Mishnah at John 4:52 at the end (p. 442). According to this passage the daily evening burnt offering was offered at 2:30 p.m. on the 14th of Nisan, and when the 14th of Nisan fell on a Friday, already around 1:30 p.m. The slaughtering of the Passover lambs began ajerwards.‡ Josephus agrees with this when he says in The Wars of the Jews 6.9.3 (see p. 2) that the slaughtering of the Passover lambs took place from the ninth hour until the eleventh hour. The ninth hour began at 2 p.m. and the eleventh hour ended at 5 p.m.§ — The aWempts to provide a more detailed explanation from Scripture for the time of the slaughtering appear somewhat strange. The following are some examples. Sifre to Deuteronomy 16:6 §133 (101b): “‘You should slaughter the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, at the time of your departure from Egypt’ [Dt 16:6]. Rabbi Eliezer [c. 90] said: ‘In the evening’ you should slaughter, and ‘when the sun goes down’ you should eat [i.e. observe the Passover meal], and ‘at the time of your departure from Egypt’ [in the morning] you should burn [the lejovers; Ex 12:10]. Rabbi Joshua [c. 90] said: ‘In the evening’ you should slaughter, and ‘when the sun goes down’ you should eat. For how long? Until ‘the time of your departure from Egypt’ [i.e. until midnight].” — The same is found in Berakoth 9a.** — R. Eliezer and R. Joshua understand , evening, to mean the time in which the sun begins to turn to the west until the time it goes down, thus from noon to sunset. The Passover may be slaughtered during this time. A more exact indication of time is missing. • Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7b): “Ben Bathyra [c. 110?] said: ‘Between the evenings’ [ ] [Ex 12:6]. That is, slaughter it ‘between the two evenings.’ Take one evening for its slaughtering and the other for its eating.” — The first evening is the time from noon
13
† Ibid., 292.
‡ Ibid., 287.
§ Since Billerbeck just said that the evening tamid was offered at 2:30 p.m., which he took from the original Mishnaic phrase “eight and a half hours” (counting from 6 a.m.), it is somewhat difficult to understand how he can interpret “from the ninth until the eleventh hour” to mean 2-5 p.m., instead of 3-5 or 3-6 p.m. - trans.
** Ibid., 47.
onward. The second evening is the actual evening, when darkness sets in. The slaughtering should be done during the first evening. • JT Pesahim 5:1 Baraita: “Hananiah b. Judah [c. 120] says, ‘I may understand the Hebrew phrase ([ Exod. 12:6) [as] “Between the two evenings:” between the evening of the [ fourteenth [i.e. the evening which follows the 13th of Nisan] and the evening of the fijeenth [i.e. the evening which concludes the 14th of Nisan]. Perhaps it should include the day and the night [i.e. the entire 24 hours between those two evenings should be used for slaughtering], [therefore] the teaching says “day” ([] Num. 28:16). When it says “day” it excludes the night. If [you say] “day,” perhaps [the offering is to be slaughtered] at the second hour of the day [8 a.m.]? [Therefore] the teaching says, in the “evening” ([] Deut. 16:4). If [you say] in the “evening,” perhaps [it should be done] once it gets dark? Behold, [however,] the teaching says, “between the evenings.” Lo, how [should it be understood]? Divide between the evenings [i.e. the time from 12 p.m. to the actual evening, about 6 p.m.] and assign two-and-one-half hours before it [the sacrifice] [from 12:00-2:30 p.m.] and two-and- one-half hours ajer it [from 3:30-6:00 p.m.] and one hour [from 2:30-3:30 p.m.] for involvement with [the Passover offering.] You as a result may say [as it says in Pesahim 58a Mishnah; see at John 4:52, p. 442] that the Passover sacrifice is [usually] offered at the ninth-and-one-half hour [3:30 p.m.].’”* — On the 14th of Nisan, however, the daily burnt offering was offered one hour earlier, thus around 2:30 p.m. The slaughtering of the Passover lambs then came right ajerward, thus almost exactly in the middle “between the two evenings,” of which the first began around 12 p.m. and the second around 6 p.m. — For a similar exposition by R. Joshua b. Levi (c. 250) refer to JT Pesahim 5:1† and Pesahim 58a.‡ • Sifre to Leviticus 23:5 (404a): “‘In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the two evenings [begins the Passover of the Lord]’ [Lev 23:5]. Perhaps once it gets dark? Scripture teaches, ‘day’ [] [Ex 12:6]. If ‘day,’ perhaps from the second hour [i.e. 8 a.m.] onward? Scripture teaches, ‘between the two evenings’ [Lev 23:5]. Just as ‘between the two evenings’ means, ‘once the day has turned [waned]’ [which happens ajer 12 noon], so also ‘day’ [Ex 12:6] means, ‘once the day has turned, from the sixth hour onward [i.e. from 12 noon onward]. Even if there is no proof for this, there is an allusion to it: ‘Woe to us, for the day has turned, the shadows of the evening grow
14
* Neusner, 140f. The end of this quote in Neusner differs from that in Billerbeck. Billerbeck reads: “‘…and one hour [from 2:30-3:30 p.m.] for involvement with [the daily evening burnt offering.] You as a result may say [as it says in Pesahim 58a Mishnah; see at John 4:52, p. 442] that the daily evening burnt offering is [usually] offered at the ninth-and-one-half hour [3:30 p.m.], while its involvement takes up one hour [from 2:30-3:30 p.m.]’” (italics Billerbeck’s).
† Ibid., 140.
‡ Soncino, 287.
long!’ [Jer 6:4].” • Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7b): “‘Slaughter it between the two evenings’ [Ex 12:6]. Should I understand this to mean, ‘at the onset of dusk’ [ Scripture teaches, ‘in the evening’ [Dt 16:6]. If in the evening, then ?[ perhaps once it gets dark? Scripture teaches, ‘when the sun has gone down’ [Dt 16:6]. If once the sun goes down, then what about ‘and you should cook [roast] and eat it’ [Dt 16:7]? Scripture teaches, ‘at the time of your departure from Egypt’ [Dt 16:6]. That breaks up the context – ‘and you should cook and eat it,’ namely once it gets dark. Rabbi [† 217?] said: See, it says: ‘There you should slaughter the Passover in the evening’ [Dt 16:6]. [The arrangement of the sentence corresponds to the accents.] Should I understand this according to its wording [thus ‘in the evening’ meaning ‘once it gets dark’]? Scripture teaches, ‘at the time of your departure from Egypt.’ When did the Israelites depart from Egypt? From the sixth hour [12 noon] onward, and so it says, ‘On exactly this day [interpretation of ; ‘in the strength of the day’ = midday] all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt’ [Ex 12:41]. R. Nathan [c. 160] said: From where will you prove that the expression ‘between the two evenings’ means from the sixth hour [12 noon] onward? Even if there is no proof for it, there is an allusion to it: ‘Sanctify against her a baWle! Up, let us go up at midday! Woe to us, for the day has turned, the shadows of the evening grow long [i.e. the shadows fall from west to east]!’ [Jer 6:4]. R. Simeon b. Yohai [c. 150] said: Scripture comes forth and makes the first last and the last first. ‘At the time of your departure from Egypt’ [Dt 16:6] [that is said last, but should be positioned first] – this refers to its [the Passover lamb’s] slaughtering [he presupposes that the departure from Egypt took place from midday onward]. ‘When the sun has gone down’ [Dt 16:6] – this refers to its roasting. And ‘in the evening’ [Dt 16:6] refers to its eating.” • The interpretation of the expression “between the two evenings” as “from midday onward until nightfall” is always connected to the fact that, when a Passover lamb was slaughtered before the daily evening burnt offering but aKer 12 noon, it was declared valid, whereas if it was slaughtered before 12 noon, it was declared invalid. Pesahim 61a Mishnah: “If he killed it [the Passover lamb] before midday, it is disqualified, because it is said, [And the whole assembly… shall kill it] at dusk [lit. between the evenings; Ex 12:6]. If he killed it before the [evening] tamid [but aKer midday], it is fit, providing that one shall stir its blood [to prevent it from congealing] until [that of] the tamid is sprinkled; yet if it [the blood of the Passover lamb] was sprinkled [before the blood of the tamid], it is fit.”* — Cf. also Zebahim 11b Mishnah† and Toseja, Pesahim 3, 8 (162) in part 2, p. 845, before section G.
15
* Soncino, 305.
† Ibid., 58.
7. Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7a): “‘The assembly…shall slaughter it’ [Ex 12:6]. What, should all of them slaughter it? Rather [as has been said], in order to make the one whom a man has delegated the same as himself. From this comes the saying: The one delegated by a man is like the man himself.”
8. Zebahim 46b Mishnah: “The sacrifice [so too the Passover lamb] is slaughtered for the sake of six things: for the sake of the [respective] sacrifice [so that, for example, it is not announced as a peace offering, when it was intended as a burnt offering], for the sake of the sacrificer [the actual owner, not in the name of some other man], for the sake of the [divine] name, for the sake of fire-offerings, for the sake of a savour, for the sake of pleasing [God], and a sin-offering and a guilt- offering for the sake of sin [for which it should make atonement].”* — In the parallel passage, Toseja, Zebahim 5, 13 (487), the text is not correct. • Pesahim 59b Mishnah: “If a man slaughtered the Passover sacrifice for another purpose [i.e. not as a Passover offering], and he caught [the blood] and went and sprinkled it for another purpose [not as the blood of a Passover offering]…it is disqualified.”† • Pesahim 63a Mishnah: “R. Simeon said: [If he slaughters] the Passover offering [with leaven] [i.e. with anything leavened in his possession] on the fourteenth [of Nisan] for its own purpose [i.e. as a Passover overing], he is liable [to punishment]; [if] for a different purpose [i.e. under the name of a different sacrifice], he is exempt [for now it does not count as a Passover offering, and it is not forbidden to slaughter other sacrifices with anything leavened in one’s possession].”‡ • Toseja, Zebahim 1, 1 (479): “R. Joshua [c. 90] said: All sacrifices slaughtered not in their own name [i.e. for their own purpose] are valid, save that they do not free their owners of their obligation [i.e. do not free them from offerings they already vowed; they must still bring these later], with the exception of the Passover-offering and the sin-offering [i.e. these two are always invalid when offered under an incorrect designation].” — The same is said anonymously in Zebahim 2a Mishnah.§ • Pesahim 71b Mishnah: “If the Passover was slaughtered for a different purpose on the Sabbath, he [the slaughterer] is liable to a sin-offering on its account [because no offering apart from the Passover offering could be slaughtered for someone on the Sabbath].”** • Pesahim 88b Mishnah: “If a man says to his [Hebrew] slave, ‘Go forth and slaughter the Passover-offering on my behalf’ [without further indicating whether he should
16
§ Ibid., 1.
** Ibid., 367.
take it from the sheep or the goats]: If he slaughtered a kid, he eats [thereof]. If he slaughtered a lamb, he eats [thereof]. If he slaughtered a kid and a lamb, he must eat of the first. If he forgot what his master told him, how shall he act? He slaughters a lamb and a kid and declares, ‘If my master told me [to slaughter] a kid, the kid is his [for his Passover-offering] and the lamb is mine; while if my master told me [to slaughter] a lamb, the lamb is his and the kid is mine.’ If his master [also] forgot what he told him, both [animals] go forth to the place of burning [where the unfit offerings were burned], yet they are exempt from sacrificing the second Passover [four weeks later].”* A designation of a sacrificial animal that is either lacking or questionable on the part of the one sacrificing the animal thus makes the sacrifice unfit.
9. Pesahim 64a Mishnah: “The Passover offering is slaughtered in three divisions, for it is said, And the whole assembly of the congregation shall kill it [Ex 12:6]: [i.e.] ‘assembly,’ ‘congregation,’ and ‘Israel’ [these three words indicated the three divisions; see Mekhilta on Exodus 12:6 (7b)]. The first division entered, the temple court was filled, they closed the doors of the temple court, they sounded a teki‘ah [a long, straight blast on the ram’s horn], a teru‘ah [series of three short, consecutive blasts], and [again] a teki‘ah. The priests stood in rows, and in their hands were basins of silver and basins of gold; a row which was entirely of silver was of silver, and a row which was entirely of gold was of gold: they were not mixed; and the basins had no [flat] boaoms, lest they put them down and the blood become congealed. The Israelite killed [the lamb],‡‡ and the priest caught [the blood]; he handed it to his colleague and his colleague [passed it on] to his colleague; and he received the full [basin] and gave back the empty one. The priest nearest the altar sprinkled it once over against the base [of the altar]. The first division [then] went out and the second entered; the second went out and the third entered. As the manner of the first [group], so was the manner of the second and the third. They recited the Hallel [Psalms 113-118];† if they finished it they repeated, and if they repeated [and were not finished yet], they recited it a third time, though they never did recite it [to the end] a third time. R. Judah [c. 150] said: The third division never reached ‘I love that the Lord should hear’ [etc.; Ps 116:1], because the people for it were few.”‡ — For a parallel passage interspersed with commentary, see Toseja, Pesahim 3, 10-12, where one finds the observation that the third division was called the “lazy division.”
17
‡ Soncino, 323, 324.
E.!Skinning and GuWing the Lamb
Pesahim 64a,b Mishnah: “How did they hang up [the sacrifices] and flay [them]? There were iron hooks fixed in the walls and in the pillars [on the north side of the altar of burnt offering], on which they suspended [the sacrifices] and flayed [them]. If any one had no place to suspend and flay, there were there thin smooth staves which he placed on his shoulder and on his neighbour’s shoulder, and so suspended [the animal] and flayed [it]. R. Eliezer [c. 90] said: When the fourteenth fell on the Sabbath, he placed [not those staves, but] his hand on his neighbour’s shoulder and his neighbour’s hand on his shoulder, and he [thus] suspended [the sacrifice] and flayed [it]. Then he [the owner of the animal] tore it and took out its emurim* [cf. Lev 3:9f], [then] placed them in a tray and burnt them on the altar [via a priest].”† The owner of the animal was responsible for skinning it. • Toseja, Pesahim 3, 10 (162): “A man [a priest] removed its [the lamb’s] emurim, from as many as four or five animals, laid them in a tray and burnt them on the altar, and on the Sabbath [when one could not carry the animal home immediately, but had to wait in the sanctuary for the Sabbath to end] one covered it with its wool [i.e. wrapped it in its own hide] and lej it lying there and went out. R. Ishmael son of Johanan son of Berokah [c. 150] said: When the 14th of Nisan fell on a Sabbath, one only skinned it to the breast [in order to be able to gut it].” — For the rubbing off () of the bowels (removal of the excrement), which was done immediately even on the Sabbath, cf. Pesahim 65b Mishnah at on p. 11.
18
† Soncino, 324, 325.
F.!Bringing the Lamb Home
Pesahim 65b Baraita: “Each one placed his paschal lamb in its hide and slung it behind him [and carried it home]. Said R. ‘Ilish: In Arab-like fashion.”* • If the 14th of Nisan† was a Sabbath, one could not carry the animal home immediately, but first had to wait in the sanctuary for the Sabbath to end. Pesahim 64b Mishnah alludes to this: “The first division [of the three divisions of those who slaughtered; see Pesahim 64a Mishnah on p. 17] went out [when the 14th of Nisan was a Sabbath] and sat down on the temple mount [i.e. in the outer court], the second [sat] in the hel [i.e. terrace around the outer part of the wall that enclosed the inner court], while the third remained in its place. [Toseja, Pesahim 4, 12 (162) is more precise: “R. Eliezer son of Jacob [probably the Elder; c. 90] said: The third division went and sat down &nbs