XIV. Treatise Pesachi... | Sacred Texts Archive

Eighteen Treatises from the Mishna, by D. A. Sola and M. J. Raphall, [1843], at sacred-texts.com

CHAPTER VII.

§ 1. How must the paschal sacrifice be roasted? A spit made of the wood of the pomegranate-tree is to be taken and put in at the mouth [of the lamb or kid] and brought out again at the vent thereof; its legs and entrails are to be placed inside, according to R. José the Galilean; but R. Akivah says, "This would be a kind of boiling, therefore they ought to be suspended on the outside [of the lamb]."

§ 2. The paschal sacrifice may not be roasted on an iron roasting spit, nor on a gridiron [‏אסכלא‎]. R. Zadok relates that R. Gamaliel said once to his bondsman Tabbi, "Go and roast for us the paschal sacrifice on a gridiron." If the roasted lamb had in any part touched the earthenware oven on which it was roasted, that part must be

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pared off. If the fat which drips therefrom had fallen on the oven, and had again fallen on the lamb, the part so touched must also be cut out; but if the dripping fell on [hot] fine flour, a handful [of the flour] must be taken [and burned].

§ 3. If the paschal sacrifice has been anointed [or basted] with consecrated oil of heave-offering, and the company appointed to eat it consists of priests, they may eat it; but if of Israelites, they must wash it off the lamb, if yet raw; or should it have been already roasted, they must pare off the outward skin. If it had been anointed with oil of the second tithe, its value may not be charged to the company in money, because it is not lawful to redeem and sell it in Jerusalem. ¹

§ 4. Five kinds of sacrifices maybe brought, even if those who offer them should be in a state of [legal] pollution; but they may not be eaten in that state; namely, the "Omer," the two loaves, ² the shewbread, ³ the peace-offerings of the congregation, and the he-goats, offered on the feast of the New Moon; but the paschal offerings, which were sacrificed in a state of pollution, may be eaten in that state, because the primary intention [of the command of the law] was, that they should be eaten.

§ 5. If the flesh of the paschal offering had contracted a legal pollution, and the fat thereof remains [unpolluted] its blood may not be sprinkled on the altar: but if the fat had become polluted, and the flesh remains [unpolluted], the blood may be sprinkled, although this is not the case with respect to other consecrated sacrifices [under similar circumstances]; for although the flesh [of these] had contracted pollution, and the fat remains unpolluted, their blood may be sprinkled [on the altar].

§ 6. When the whole or the greater part of the congregation had contracted [legal] pollution, or that the priests were in a state of [legal] pollution—but the congregation was clean—it may be brought in this state of pollution; but if the minority only of the congregation had contracted pollution, the majority that are clean shall sacrifice the first passover at its proper time, and the unclean [minority] shall sacrifice a second passover [on the 14th of the following month].

§ 7. If, after the blood of a paschal sacrifice had been sprinkled on the altar, it became known that it was unclean, the plate or frontlet of gold [of the high priest ⁴] expiates [the sin]; ⁵ but if the body of

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the paschal sacrifice had been polluted, the golden plate does not expiate; ⁶ because it is a maxim, that the golden plate expiates the paschal sacrifice and that of the Nazarite, when the blood of these had been polluted; but it does not expiate when the body of the sacrifice had become polluted. It does, however, expiate, for [the so called] pollution of the abyss or ground. ⁷

§ 8. If the whole or greater part of the paschal offering had become polluted, it must be burned before the sanctuary with wood used for the altar: if the lesser part thereof had become polluted, or, that some part had remained [on the morning of the 15th] they must burn it in their own courts, or on their roofs, with their own wood; avaricious persons, however, used to burn it before the sanctuary, to avail themselves of the wood used for the altar.

§ 9. When a slaughtered passover sacrifice has been carried [beyond the walls of Jerusalem] or has become polluted, it must be immediately burned. If the owners thereof have contracted pollution or died, it must he left till its form has passed away, ⁸ and must be burned on the 16th of Nissan. ⁹ R. Johanan ben Berokah says, "That also must be burned immediately, because there are none to eat it."

§ 10. The bones, nerves, and other remaining parts must be burned on the 16th; but if that should be a Sabbath, they must be burned on the 17th, because the burning of these does not supersede the laws of the Sabbath nor those of the festival.

§ 11. Every part usually eaten of a full grown ox, may be eaten of the tender passover kid or lamb; such as the sinews or tendons over the joints. Whoever breaks any bones of the clean passover lamb, incurs the penalty of forty stripes, but the person who should leave a part of the paschal lamb over night, or who breaks a bone of an unclean paschal sacrifice, does not incur that penalty.

§ 12. If part of a member reaches or extends outside, it must be cut till it [the knife] reaches the bone, then the flesh is to be removed

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inwardly, till the joint is reached, when it may be there cut off [and the bone must be cast away]. With regard to other sacrifices [the bones of which might be lawfully broken], the protruding part must be cut off with a chopping knife; if it extend from the ‏אגף‎ [door-wing or lobby ¹⁰], it must be considered as inward; if it protrude further than this, it is to be considered as outward [and must be cut off]. The openings in a wall, and the thickness of a wall, maybe considered as inward.

§ 13. When two companies eat their paschal sacrifice in one house [room], each turning their faces in a different direction while eating it, ¹¹ and the warming pot or kettle [containing water to mix with the wine ¹²] is in the middle between the two companies, the waiter or servant [‏שמש‎] must close his mouth [i.e. not eat] while he waits on the other company to pour out wine for them; then he must turn his face towards the company he eats with, and he must not eat till he has rejoined his own company. ¹³ It is, however, permitted to a bride to avert her face from the company while eating the paschal sacrifice.

Footnotes

114:1 Where alone the paschal sacrifice might be lawfully brought and eaten.

114:2 Offered on the feast of weeks.

114:3 Offered on the Sabbath.

114:4 See Exodus xviii. 36–38.

114:5 And it is not necessary to bring a second paschal offering on the 14th of Iyar.

115:6 And an offering must be again brought on the second passover.

115:7 By this term the Mishna and Talmud express the pollution contracted by passing over ground containing a dead body, without the person passing being then aware of the fact.

115:8 Rashi and Bartenora explain this phrase thus:—"It is to be left over-night so as to become ‏נותר‎, or a paschal sacrifice which has remained over-night uneaten, and which must be burned, according to the command of the Holy Law." (Exodus xii. 10.)

115:9 According to Maimonides, the sacrifice is to be left till it becomes decomposed and putrid.

116:10 The first is the literal translation of the word ‏אגף‎, mentioned in the original, which Rashi explains to be the place over which the door swings, i.e. the area contained on the segment of the circle it describes in swinging outwards, is yet considered as belonging to the room. According to Maimonides, ‏אגף‎ is the space between the inner and outer door of a room; i.e. a kind of lobby or entry.

116:11 Of the same paschal sacrifice.

116:12 Anciently water used to be placed near the table, as the wine was considered too strong to be drunk unmixed.

116:13 No one may eat of the paschal offering in two places, or with two separate companies.