Talmud - Pesahim 98b פסחים צ״ח ב׳

GEMARA: The Gemara challenges Rabbi Shimon’s statement permitting priests to eat a Paschal lamb that became intermingled with firstborn animals: How can all of the animals be eaten according to the strictures of the Paschal lamb? They will cause offerings to be considered disqualified unnecessarily. A firstborn animal may be eaten for two days and one night while a Paschal lamb must be eaten in one night; therefore, eating the firstborn animals according to the strictures of the Paschal lamb will cause them to be disqualified and burned once morning arrives, despite the fact that they are not actually disqualified yet.

The Gemara answers: Rabbi Shimon conforms to his standard line of reasoning, as he said that it is permitted to cause offerings to be considered disqualified, as we learned in a mishna: If a guilt-offering became intermingled with a peace-offering, what should be done? Rabbi Shimon says: One should slaughter all of them in the northern part of the Temple courtyard, like a guilt-offering, because it is permitted to slaughter a peace-offering there, even though it is not obligatory to do so. And they should be eaten as the stricter of them would be, according to the rules of a guilt-offering, which is a sacrifice of the most sacred order. Therefore, they must be eaten in the Temple courtyard over the course of one day and night, unlike sacrifices of minor sanctity, and may not be distributed to family members of the priests anywhere in Jerusalem.

The Rabbis said to him: One may not cause offerings to be considered disqualified, and since one of the animals is a peace-offering one may not treat it as a guilt-offering, which minimizes the time period in which it may be eaten and which may lead to it being burned unnecessarily. This indicates that Rabbi Shimon is not concerned with this possibility.

The Gemara asks: And according to the Rabbis, what should we do if a Paschal lamb is intermingled with firstborn animals? Firstborn animals are sanctified from birth, and their sanctity takes effect on them alone. Rava said: We wait for the owner until the animals are blemished, and at that point he will bring a fat, unsanctified animal and say: Anywhere that the Paschal lamb is, its sanctity should apply to this new animal. The new animal is then brought as a peace-offering. And with regard to the original group of animals, he eats them according to the laws of a blemished firstborn animal. Such an animal is considered unsanctified and is eaten by priests, albeit with certain limitations, such as the fact that the meat cannot be weighed or sold in a degrading manner.

MISHNA: With regard to a group whose Paschal lamb was lost, and they said to one member of the group: Go and search for our Paschal lamb, and when you find it, slaughter it on our behalf; and he went and found the missing offering and slaughtered it on behalf of the entire group, but in the meantime they took a different animal and slaughtered it as a Paschal lamb, the halakha is as follows: If his Paschal lamb was slaughtered first, he eats from his offering, as he is considered to be registered specifically for that offering, and they eat with him from his offering, because he included them in his offering and it belongs to the entire group. The second animal does not have any registrants and is therefore burned. And if theirs was slaughtered first, they eat from theirs because they withdrew from the original offering through the act of slaughtering a replacement, and he eats from his because he was not registered for the replacement offering sacrificed by the remainder of his group.

And if it is not known which of the offerings was slaughtered first, or if both the group and the individual slaughtered them together, he eats from his and they do not eat with him in case theirs was slaughtered first, and theirs must be taken out to the place designated for burning. The offering slaughtered by the group may not be eaten due to the concern that it was slaughtered second and the members of the group would therefore have been included in the first offering. However, they are exempt from performing the offering of the Paschal lamb on the second Pesaḥ, because they were included in the slaughter of whichever animal was slaughtered first. It is only due to external circumstances that they cannot complete the mitzva by eating the Paschal lamb, and this does not prevent them from fulfilling their obligation.

A somewhat different case of a lost Paschal lamb would occur if the group had sent one member as an agent to search for the lost animal, and the agent said to the other members of the group before he left: If I am late, go and slaughter a Paschal lamb for me. He then went and found the lost Paschal lamb and slaughtered it, and they took another animal and slaughtered it as a Paschal lamb. In that case, if theirs was slaughtered first, they eat from theirs and he eats with them, because he requested to be included in their offering and they registered him for their Paschal lamb. And if his was slaughtered first, he eats from his and they eat from theirs, because the fact that they slaughtered a different animal indicates that they have withdrawn from the original offering.

And if it is not known which of the animals was slaughtered first, or if both the group and the individual slaughtered them together, they eat from theirs because they definitely withdrew from the original offering by slaughtering a different one, and he does not eat with them because he also intended to be included in the animal he slaughtered and it is not clear which was slaughtered first. Therefore, his must be taken out to the place designated for burning; and he is exempt from performing the sacrifice of the Paschal lamb on the second Pesaḥ.

If he said to them that if he is delayed they should include him in their Paschal lamb, and they said to him that if he finds the original offering he should slaughter it on their behalf, all of them eat from the first sacrifice that was slaughtered. And if it is not known which of them was slaughtered first, both of them must be taken out to the place designated for burning, and the entire group is exempt from participating in the Paschal lamb on the second Pesaḥ.

If he did not say anything to them and they did not say anything to him, meaning that neither side granted the other authority to slaughter a Paschal lamb on its behalf, they are not responsible for each other, and the members of the group eat their Paschal lamb while the individual sent to find the lost animal eats from his own offering. The reason for this is that the individual is registered only for the original offering, while the other members of the group withdrew from that lost offering by sacrificing a different Paschal lamb.

Two groups whose Paschal lambs have become intermingled and they do not know which one belongs to which group should act in the following manner: These members of the first group draw one of the animals separated as a Paschal lamb for themselves, and those members of the second group draw one for themselves. One of these, a member of one group, comes to those, the members of the other group, and one of those members of the second group comes to these members of the first group. And this is what each group says to the member of the other group who has come to join them: If this Paschal lamb that is now in our possession is ours, you are withdrawn from the Paschal lamb that was yours, and you are registered for our Paschal lamb and you may eat from it. And if this Paschal lamb is yours, meaning that it actually belongs to the other group, including this individual, we are hereby withdrawn from ours and we are registered for your Paschal lamb, which you agree to share with us. The other group makes the same statement.

And similarly, if there were five groups of five people each or of ten people each, they draw one person from each and every group, and they say this statement mentioned in the case of two groups. The remaining member or members of each group will grant the representatives of the other groups that have come to join them a share in the Paschal lamb, and they will acquire a share in it for themselves in case the animal they have chosen belonged originally to one of the other groups.

In the case of two individuals whose Paschal lambs became intermingled and each person was the only one registered for his offering, what should they do? This person draws one of the Paschal lambs for himself and that person draws one for himself; this person registers someone from the marketplace with him on his Paschal lamb and that person registers someone from the marketplace with him on his Paschal lamb.

Once this has been done, this one comes to that person from the marketplace who has been added to the other person’s sacrifice, and that one comes to this person from the marketplace who has been added to the first person’s sacrifice, and this is what they say: If this Paschal lamb is mine, you are withdrawn from yours and you are registered for mine, and if this is your Paschal lamb, I am withdrawn from mine and I am hereby registered for yours, as described previously. The reason it is necessary for each individual to add an additional person to his Paschal lamb, is to ensure that when each person withdraws from his original Paschal lamb and registers for the other, no Paschal lamb will be left ownerless for any amount of time.

GEMARA: The Sages taught: If he, the agent, said to the other members of the group that if they slaughter their Paschal lamb first they should include him, and they said to him that if he slaughters his Paschal lamb first he should include them, all of them eat from the first Paschal lamb that was slaughtered, and the second one must be burned. If he did not say this to them and they did not say this to him, they are not responsible for each other, and each side eats its own Paschal lamb.

Traduction : The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, with commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.

Pesachim 98b discusses mixing a Paschal lamb with firstborn animals and Rabbi Shimon’s view on eating disqualified sacrificial offerings.