016a יש בקרבנות פרק שני תמורה טז ע"א - YESH BEKORBONOS CHAPTER TWO TEMURAH

Rav Yosef said: The Tanna teaches a flaw of semikhah.^[1]

דופי של סמיכה - Until Yosef ben Yo'ezer there was no dispute about semikhah or anything else, before the heart [of the generations] diminished. Therefore it cites semikhah, because it was the first dispute the sages ever had. From Yosef ben Yo'ezer onward there was a flaw in them over semikhah: they disputed the semikhah of peace-offerings on a festival, as stated in Chagigah (16): "Shammai says to lean, and Hillel says not to lean".

But did Yosef ben Yo'ezer^[2] himself disagree about semikhah?

והא יוסף גופיה - He disagreed about it in Tractate Chagigah (there).

It was when he disagreed about it at the end of the second [period], since his heart was constricted.^[3]

דבצר ליבא - That his heart diminished at the end of his years, and they were forgotten.

Gufa: the main point.

Rav Yehuda said in Shmuel's name: Three thousand halakhot were forgotten in the days of Moses' mourning.^[4]

נשתכחה בימי אבלו של משה - Was forgotten in Moses' mourning period: whether it was [the case of] a mother or a shepherd, and these are among those laws. "Yaf"sh" (an abbreviation): Yehoshua was asked first, then Shmuel, then Pinchas, then Elazar. "Yaf"sh": Yehoshua, Elazar, Pinchas, Shmuel. "Yifl"sh": Yehoshua, Pinchas, Elazar, Shmuel.

They said to Yehoshua: Ask.

He said: "It is not in heaven" (Devarim 30).^[5]

They said to Shmuel: Ask.

He said to them: "These are the commandments"^[6] — a prophet may not innovate any matter from now on.

Rabbi Yitzchak Nappacha said: Even the sin-offering whose owner died was forgotten in the days of Moses' mourning.^[7]

They said to Pinchas: Ask.^[8]

He said to him: "It is not in heaven".

He said to Elazar: Ask.

He said to them: "These are the commandments", that a prophet may not innovate any matter from now on.

Rav Yehuda said in Rav's name: When Moses our teacher departed for the Garden of Eden, he said to Yehoshua: Ask me all the doubts you have.

He said to him: Rabbi, did I leave you for one hour and go somewhere else? Did you not write about me: "His attendant Joshua son of Nun, a youth, would not depart from within the tent" (Shemot 33)?

Immediately Yehoshua's strength failed, and three hundred halakhot were forgotten from him.

ונשתכחו ממנו - Forgotten from him: from Yehoshua, because of the sin that caused Moses' mind to be weakened; Moses was distressed over Yehoshua himself, who was as great as he was.

And seven hundred doubts arose for him.

And all Israel stood ready to kill him.

להרגו - To kill him, until he would say to them: [the answer].

The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Telling you, it is not possible for you.

And he harasses them in war.

As it says: "And it came to pass after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord said..." (Yehoshua 1).

The Mishnah teaches: "One thousand seven hundred light and severe [laws]".

קלין וחמורין - Light and severe: the a fortiori inferences (kal vachomer).

And the gezeirot shavot (verbal analogies).

And the fine points of the scribes (dikdukei soferim).

דקדוקי סופרים - Dikdukei soferim: explained in Shekalim (8). They arranged the Torah into counts, e.g. "fifteen women who release their co-wives," "thirteen matters said about the carcass of a clean bird," "five who do not raise terumah." They joined the matters and counted them together so they would not be forgotten; the fine points they had not yet joined were forgotten in Moses' mourning period.

They were forgotten during Moses' mourning period.

Rabbi Avahu said: Nevertheless, Otniel ben Kenaz^[9] restored them through his reasoning.

As it says: "And Otniel son of Kenaz, brother of Caleb, captured it, and he gave him Achsah his daughter as a wife" (Yehoshua 15:17).

וילכדה עתניאל - Captured it: Kiryat Sefer. And what is Kiryat Sefer? The laws.

And why was her name called Achsah? Because anyone who saw her grew angry at his wife.

כועס על אשתו - Grew angry at his wife: because of her beauty.

(Yehoshua 15:18) "When she came, she urged him to ask her father for a field, and she fell from the donkey".

ותצנח - Fell: an expression of crying out, shouting.

What is the meaning of "and she fell"?

Rava said in the name of R. Yitzchak: She said to him: What is this donkey like? Once it has no food in its trough, it cries out at once. So a woman, once she has no grain in her house, cries out at once.

(Yehoshua 15:19) "She said: Give me a blessing, for you have given me the arid land of the Negev" — a house parched of all goodness.

מנוגב - Arid: dry and parched of all good.

And give me springs of water^[10] — a man who has nothing but Torah.

גולות מים - Springs of water: Torah; that is, a man to whom Torah is revealed.

[אלא תורה בלבד - שהתורה נקראת מים] - Only Torah, since Torah is called water. And Otniel was not a rich man but a scholar.

(Yehoshua 15) "And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs".

He said to her: Should one who set up the upper and lower [springs] be asked for food?

יבקש ממנו מזונות - Should one ask him for food: certainly she will not need it, as written of her: "She is like merchant ships" (Mishlei 31:14).

And Caleb son of Kenaz? Is he?

בן קנז - Son of Kenaz: because it is written above, "Otniel son of Kenaz, brother of Caleb", so Caleb was the son of Kenaz. But it is written elsewhere, "Caleb son of Yefuneh the Kenizzite" (Yehoshua 14), and it does not say "son of Kenaz."

But is he not Caleb son of Yefuneh?^[11]

"Yefuneh" means that he turned away from the counsel of the spies.

And still, is he the son of Kenaz?

Is he the son of Chetzron?

As it is written: (Divrei HaYamim I 2:18) "And Caleb son of Chetzron begot Azuvah"^[12].

Rava said: He was the stepson of Kenaz.

חורגיה דקנז - Stepson of Kenaz: and Otniel is his brother through the mother.

דיקא נמי - Precisely (dika nami): Caleb was not the son of Kenaz, for it is written elsewhere "Caleb son of Yefuneh the Kenizzite" and not "son of Kenaz." So Kenaz raised him, but did not beget him.

A Tanna taught: This one, Otniel, is Yavetz.^[13] And what was his name? Yehuda, brother of Shimon, was his name.

"Otniel": because God answered him (sha'ana'o El).

"Yavetz": because he gave counsel and increased Torah in Israel.

How do we know that [his name] means "God answered him"?

As it is written: (Divrei HaYamim I 4:10) "Yavetz called to the God of Israel, saying: If You will indeed bless me and enlarge my border, and let Your hand be with me and keep me from pain, and God granted what he asked".

"If You will bless me" — in Torah.

"And enlarge my border" — in students.

"And let Your hand be with me" — that my learning not be forgotten from my heart.

"And keep me from harm" — that friends like me should come to me.

ועשית לי מרעה לבלתי - Keep me from harm: that the evil inclination^[14] not overpower me to turn aside; that the evil inclination not overpower me to neglect the study of Torah.

"Keep me from pain" — that the yetzer hara not overpower me to turn aside.

עצבי - Pain: a term of grief. So he said before Him: If You do this for me, good; and if not, I will go to Nesisi to ask, [or] I will die in my grief, as the Targum renders it (Bereshit 34).

If You do so, good; and if not, I will go to Nesisi to ask.

Immediately: "And God granted what he asked".

Similarly you say (Mishlei 29): "A poor man and a man of schemes meet; the Lord gives light to the eyes of both".

כיוצא בדבר אתה אומר - Similarly you say: one who devotes himself to seek Torah has his questions answered for him.

ואיש תככים - A man of schemes: a middling^[15] [scholar], one who knows two or three orders [of Mishnah] and is certified as a middling scholar.

מאיר עיני שניהם - Lights the eyes of both: for even the teacher still needs learning, and the Holy One, blessed be He, teaches him.

When a student goes to his teacher and says: Teach me Torah. If he teaches him, [it is] "the Lord gives light to the eyes of both." But if not: "The rich and the poor meet; the Lord made them all" (Mishlei 22:2).

Whoever made him wise for this one makes him a fool [for another]; a fool for this one, he makes wise. This is the teaching of R. Natan.^[16]

עושה שניהם - Makes both: now He begins to make them anew: this one wise and that one foolish.

Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi said: "If You will bless me" — in fruitfulness and multiplication.

"And enlarge my border" — in sons and daughters.

"And let Your hand be with me" — in business and trade.

"And keep me from harm" — that I should have no headache, earache, or eye-ache.

"Keep me from pain" — that the yetzer hara not overpower me to turn aside.

"If You do so, good; and if not, I will go to Nesisi to ask."

"And God granted him what he asked".

Similarly you say:

כיוצא בדבר כו' - Similarly, etc.: one who asks for his livelihood and needs, for whom [heaven] prepares needs from heaven, fills his requests.

"A poor man and a man of schemes meet; the Lord gives light to the eyes of both" — when a poor man goes to the householder and says: Support me! If he supports him, good; and if not: "The rich and the poor meet; the Lord made them all".

Whoever made him rich for one makes him poor; a poor man for one, he makes rich.

Rabbi Shimon [asks]: What do we find, etc.?

A Tanna taught: Rabbi Shimon says: Five sin-offerings die: the offspring of a sin-offering, the substitute of a sin-offering, a sin-offering whose owner died, a sin-offering whose owner atoned, and a sin-offering that became pregnant and changed its year.^[17]

You cannot say that the offspring of a sin-offering is for the community, because a female sin-offering is not brought for the community.^[18]

You cannot say that the substitute of a sin-offering is for the community, because a community does not make a substitute.^[19]

You cannot say that a sin-offering whose owner died is for the community, because the community does not die.^[20]

We have not found [a sin-offering] whose owner atoned, and [one that] became pregnant and changed its year^[21].

Could these apply both to the individual and to the community? You say: Let the unstated be learned from the stated.^[22]

סתום - Unstated: [the case of] one whose owner atoned and one who became pregnant and changed its year.

What is stated applies to individuals and not to the community.

מפורש - Stated: the offspring, its substitute, and one whose owner died, which are stated for us as not applying to the community.

Also: [the case of] one whose owner atoned and one who became pregnant and changed its year applies to individuals and not to the community.

Notes

1. 1. Semikhah: the owners lean their hands on the animal's head before it is slaughtered.
2. 2. Yosef ben Yo'ezer: one of the first of the zugot (pairs of sages), of the Second Temple era; here he is said to have himself disputed about semikhah.
3. 3. "Since the heart was constricted": his understanding weakened late in his life, which is why he disagreed (Rashi).
4. 4. Three thousand laws: the figure given for the halakhot said to have been forgotten after Moses died.
5. 5. Devarim 30:12, "It is not in heaven": the Torah is not beyond human reach; laws are learned by study, not revealed anew from heaven.
6. 6. Vayikra 27:34, "These are the commandments": the closing words of the commandments given through Moses. A prophet may add nothing from then on.
7. 7. A sin-offering whose owner died: such a chatat is not offered but left to die.
8. 8. Pinchas: son of Elazar the priest and grandson of Aaron; one of the priests consulted on the laws.
9. 9. Otniel ben Kenaz: the one who captured Kiryat Sefer and was given Achsah, Caleb's daughter (Yehoshua 15:16-17). Here he is said to have recovered the lost laws.
10. 10. "Springs of water": water stands for Torah (Rashi, ד"ה גולות מים).
11. 11. Kalev ben Yefuneh: one of the twelve scouts who was faithful (Bamidbar 14:24). The Gemara reads "Yefuneh" as meaning he turned away from the counsel of the spies.
12. 12. Caleb ben Hezron: a different Caleb, named in Divrei HaYamim I 2:18. The Gemara uses him to show that there was another Caleb.
13. 13. The Tanna identifies Otniel with Yavetz, so called because he gave counsel and multiplied Torah in Israel.
14. 14. Yetzer hara: the evil inclination that pushes a person to sin.
15. 15. A middling scholar: one who knows two or three orders of Mishnah and is recognised as qualified to teach (Rashi).
16. 16. This is the teaching of R. Natan, a tanna cited here for the explanation of the verse.
17. 17. Five sin-offerings that die: five kinds of chatat that may not be offered and must be left to die: the offspring, the substitute, one whose owner died, one whose owner atoned, and the one that conceived and changed its year.
18. 18. A communal sin-offering is never female, so it has no offspring to be offered.
19. 19. A community cannot make a substitution (temurah). Temurah is made by an individual, and the substitute becomes sacred itself.
20. 20. The community does not die, so a sin-offering whose owners died does not apply to a communal offering.
21. 21. We have not found a verse for these two cases in the community. This raises the question of their status for the community.
22. 22. Hermeneutic rule: a case not stated explicitly is learned from one that is stated explicitly.