014b יש בקרבנות פרק שני תמורה יד ע"ב - YESH BEKORBONOS CHAPTER TWO TEMURAH

Is it not from our Mishnah that the libation meal-offering may not be "omitted"?

לא תיסמי נסכים - From that earlier Mishnah; and one could answer:

[Answer:] Not difficult. Here it refers to libations that come with an animal offering^[1]; there, to libations brought on their own.

הא - That he taught libations together with things offered by day, meaning the libations that come with the animal offering.

בפני עצמן - That they were not sanctified together with the slaughter of the animal, so they may be offered at night.

And if he had a letter, could it be sent?

But surely R. Abba bar Chiyya bar Abba said:

R. Yochanan said: Those who write down halachot are like one who burns the Torah^[2], and one who learns from them receives no reward.

כשורפי התורה - That one may not rescue them from a fire on Shabbat^[3]. Alternatively: it is forbidden to keep them in writing, since the Oral Torah is to be said orally.

והלמד מהן - From the books.

R. Yehuda bar Nachmani, the translator of Reish Lakish^[4], expounded:

"Write these words^[5]" (Exodus 34:27), says one verse; and another verse says "according to the mouth of these words" (Exodus 34:27).

This teaches: oral matters you may not say in writing, and written matters you may not say by heart.

But the school of R. Yishmael taught: "Write these words. You may write these, but you may not write halachot^[6]."

They said: perhaps a new matter^[7] is different.

חדתא - New: that they did not know how to resolve the baraitot.

[ל"א] חדתי - To innovate a matter like this, which is new.

For R. Yochanan and Reish Lakish studied the book of Aggadah^[8] on Shabbat and expounded: "It is a time to act for the Lord; they have violated Your Torah" (Psalms 119:126).

מעייני בספר אגדתא - So that they will not be forgotten.

עת לעשות לה' - When one acts for the sake of the sanctity of God, it is proper to "violate Your Torah", and better that Torah be uprooted.

They said: it is better that Torah be uprooted^[9] than that Torah be forgotten from Israel.

Rav Pappa said: Now that you say libations brought on their own are offered even at night,

השתא דאמרת כו' - One may sanctify them and offer them in a single night. Alternatively, we read "dawn disqualifies them like limbs", meaning: if libations come to him at night, he sanctifies them at night [and offers them].

if libations come to hand at night, one sanctifies them at night and offers them at night.

Rav Yosef bar Rav Shemaya said to Rav Pappa: a baraita supports you.

This is the principle^[10]: whatever is offered by day is sanctified only by day, and whatever is offered at night is sanctified only at night.

Rav Adda bar Ahava said: dawn disqualifies them like limbs^[11].

כאברים - Of the tamid in Zevachim (87a), and so is the principal correction of the Rav.

When Rav Dimi came, he said: R. Yochanan said in the name of R. Shimon ben Yehotzadak:

"These you shall offer to the Lord at your appointed times" (Numbers 29:39): these are the obligatory offerings of the festival, "apart from your vows and your free-will offerings"; this teaches that vows and free-will offerings are offered on chol hamoed.

חובות הבאות מחמת הרגל ברגל - Such as the appearance offering^[12], the chagigah and the musaf offerings.

And "your burnt-offerings": of what does the verse speak? If of a burnt-offering of vow, "your vows" is already stated; if of a burnt-offering of free-will, "your free-will offerings" is already stated.

אמור - "Your vows" is already stated.

Rather it speaks only of the burnt-offering of a woman after childbirth and of a leper^[13].

And "your meal-offerings": of what does the verse speak? If of a meal-offering of vow, it is already stated; if of a meal-offering of free-will, it is already stated.

Rather it speaks only of the meal-offering of a sotah^[14] and the meal-offering of jealousy.

And "your libations and your peace-offerings": the verse equates libations with peace-offerings. As peace-offerings are by day, so libations are by day.

אף - Libations by day.

"Your peace-offerings" includes the peace-offerings of a nazirite.

לרבות שלמי נזיר - For if these were free-will peace-offerings, "your free-will offerings" is already stated; and it is included through the juxtaposition to peace-offerings.

Abaye said to him: let the master say instead the peace-offerings of Pesach. For if the nazirite's peace-offerings were "vowed and free-will",

שלמי פסח - The chagigah of the fourteenth^[15]: when the group is large and the Pesach does not suffice, they bring peace-offerings with it; if set aside for this and not offered, they offer them on chol hamoed. Pesach peace-offerings are obligatory, as explained in Pesachim (71a).

for it was taught: this is the principle: whatever is "vowed and free-will" is offered at a private altar, and whatever is not vowed and free-will is not offered at a private altar.

For our Mishnah teaches: "Meal-offerings and nazirite-offerings are offered at a private altar^[16], the words of R. Meir."

והנזירות קרב בבמת יחיד - This implies that "vowed and free-will" is counted; otherwise it would not be offered at a private altar.

Delete nazirite-offerings from here.

סמי מכאן נזירות - Even though a nazirite's status comes upon him through a vow^[17], the offerings are not called vowed or free-will: he vowed only to abstain from wine, and the offering is incumbent upon him by itself.

Is there anyone who holds that a nazirite is not "vowed and free-will"?

But it is written^[18] (2 Samuel 15:7-8): "At the end of forty years Absalom said to the king: Let me go and pay my vow which I vowed to the Lord in Hebron... for your servant vowed a vow".

אשר נדרתי לה' בחברון - This implies: "in Hebron I will go and fulfil my vow". That vow was a nazirite vow: Absalom was a lifelong nazirite^[19] who shaved every thirty days and brought an offering; when he went to offer his nazirite offerings in Hebron, a private altar, learn that it is vowed and free-will.

What then? Is it not that he means the sacrifice, not the core of his vow?

אעיקר נדרו קאי - "In Hebron" refers to this: let me go to the great altar at Gibeon, where Moses' altar is, and fulfil my vow made in Hebron; but not that he should bring the offering in Hebron.

It is said: the core of his vow was in Hebron? But surely it was in Geshur^[20]!

והא בגשור כו' - As it is written: "for your servant vowed a vow when I dwelt in Geshur" (2 Samuel 15:8).

Rav Acha, or perhaps Rabba bar Rav Chanan, said: Absalom went only to bring rams from Hebron.

להביא כבשים - And offer them again at the great altar. That is: I will fulfil my nazirite status, shave, and bring the rams from Hebron; therefore he asks, "should it not say from Hebron?"

בחברון - In it, fat rams (Menachot 87a).

This is also reasonable: if you say he went to offer, he would have left Jerusalem and gone to offer in Hebron.

But then what is "to bring rams from Hebron" about?

"Which I vowed to the Lord in Hebron" should have said "from Hebron".

Rather, he indeed went to offer.

אלא לעולם לאקרובי - Nazirite offerings at a private altar.

And as you ask: why did he leave Jerusalem and offer in Hebron?

You may ask about Gibeon, which is a holy place.

תיקשי לך גבעון - Where Moses' altar stood^[21].

Rather: once the bamot were permitted^[22], one may offer wherever one wishes.

Forty years^[23]: for whom was this taught?

R. Nehorai said in the name of R. Yehoshua: at the end of forty years, when they asked for a king^[24].

As it was taught: that year they asked for a king; that year was the tenth year of Samuel.

Tosafot

דברים שבכתב אי אתה רשאי לאומרם בעל פה - Surely we say psalms by heart? Answer: one need be careful only with what is written in the Chumash; yet it is difficult: how is "Vayosha" and Shema read? Answer: one need be careful only with what enables others to discharge their obligation.

ותנן המנחות והנזירות בבמת יחיד דברי ר' מאיר - One could answer that it is a dispute among Tannaim: in the last chapter of Zevachim (117a) the Rabbis dispute R. Meir, and it concludes there that meal-offerings and nazirite-offerings differ between them.

סמי מכאן נזירות - And this, too, must be deleted from that passage in the last chapter of Zevachim (117a), where it says that meal-offerings and nazirite-offerings differ between them.

אלא כיון דהותרו הבמות כל היכא דבעי מקריב - According to the Rabbis who dispute R. Meir, who holds that a nazirite is not vowed and free-will, one must say Absalom went only to bring rams from Hebron and offer them at Gibeon. Per Rashi's reading in Zevachim, the Rabbis hold that at a private altar only burnt-offerings and peace-offerings are brought, so Absalom's words "I will fulfil my vow" are difficult. R. Shimon in Zevachim holds that even the public brought only fixed-time obligations, and in Pesachim (38a) the nazirite breads are eaten at Nov and Gibeon. The answer offered by my teacher is that R. Shimon in Nazir (46a) holds that one who shaves on peace-offerings has fulfilled the vow; if he said "I will shave on a hundred burnt-offerings" he must bring a hundred. So Absalom may have vowed to bring free-will burnt-offerings, which are vowed and free-will and offered at a private altar by all, and that was the offering for which he wished to shave.

Notes

1. 1. Nesachim (libations): wine, and sometimes oil and flour, poured on the altar. Libations that come with an animal offering are a different case from libations brought on their own; the night question depends on which one it is.
2. 2. R. Yochanan's principle: writing down halachot is compared to burning the Torah, since the Oral Torah was meant to be learned by mouth. The Gemara below finds ways to justify written sources.
3. 3. Rashi: the Torah scrolls are not rescued from a fire on Shabbat. A second explanation: writing them is forbidden, since the Oral Torah is meant to be taught orally.
4. 4. A translator (מתורגמן) repeated a Sage's teaching aloud for the audience, as Reish Lakish's teaching was relayed by R. Yehuda bar Nachmani.
5. 5. Exodus 34:27. The two verses are read as two sources: one for what is written, one for what is oral ("according to the mouth of these words").
6. 6. A beraita of the school of R. Yishmael: the verse permits writing the Torah's words, but not halachot. The Gemara then objects that a new matter may be different.
7. 7. A new matter: one that earlier sages did not know how to reconcile with the beraitot, per Rashi. Such a matter may be written down.
8. 8. A written collection of non-legal teachings (Aggadah), studied on Shabbat so that it would not be forgotten. It is the justification given for writing here.
9. 9. The principle that forgetting Torah is worse than the ban on writing it down; the Gemara treats writing as the lesser evil.
10. 10. The principle: a sacrifice's sanctity and time of offering follow the time of its service, by day or by night.
11. 11. Limbs (אברים): the parts of an offering laid on the altar. Per Rashi, the reference is to the tamid in Zevachim 87a, where limbs left until dawn are disqualified.
12. 12. The appearance offering (olat re'iyah) is brought by pilgrims at the festivals; the chagigah is the festival peace-offering; the musaf offerings are the additional festival offerings.
13. 13. The burnt-offering of a woman after childbirth and the leper's burnt-offering: obligatory offerings brought on an event (childbirth, or healing from leprosy).
14. 14. The sotah's meal-offering (Numbers 5:15), brought for a wife suspected of adultery.
15. 15. The chagigah of 14 Nisan: peace-offerings brought with the Pesach offering when the group is too large for the lamb. Pesach peace-offerings are obligatory (see Pesachim 71a).
16. 16. A Mishnah giving R. Meir's view that meal-offerings and nazirite-offerings may be brought at a private altar (bamat yachid). Tosafot (below) locates the dispute in Zevachim 117a.
17. 17. Nezirut is a vow to abstain (from wine, impurity and haircutting). Even though it is taken by vow, its offerings are not called vowed or free-will, since the vow was only to abstain from wine.
18. 18. 2 Samuel 15:7-8: Absalom asks leave to go to Hebron to fulfil a vow. The verse is the Gemara's proof-text for the questions that follow.
19. 19. Rashi's reading: Absalom was a lifelong nazirite who shaved every thirty days and brought an offering; this is what the vow in Hebron refers to.
20. 20. Geshur: an Aramean kingdom east of the Sea of Galilee, ruled by Talmai, Absalom's maternal grandfather (2 Samuel 13:37). General knowledge, not from the page.
21. 21. Gibeon, the great bamah, where the altar made by Moses stood (1 Kings 3:4). General knowledge, not from the page.
22. 22. Bamot: private altars. Once they were permitted, a person could offer at any of them; the Gemara uses this to answer where Absalom offered.
23. 23. The forty years, from 2 Samuel 15:7 ("at the end of forty years"). The Gemara asks which chronology this teaching belongs to.
24. 24. When Israel asked for a king. The baraita below dates the request to the tenth year of Samuel (1 Samuel 8).