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אֵיזֶהוּ מְקוֹמָן

Eizehu Mekoman

Mishnah Zevachim 5:1-4: where each of the holiest offerings was brought.

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Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.

At a glance

When: Every morning, after the daily offering and the incense
Taken from: Mishnah Zevachim, chapter 5, first four paragraphs
Rabbis named: None. Nobody argues in this chapter.
Why it is here: So you learn some Mishnah every single day

The words

Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.

Today's Mishnah: chapter 5 of Zevachim, the part about offerings. One reason it was chosen: no disagreement appears in it.
אֵיזֶהוּ מְקוֹמָן שֶׁל זְבָחִים קָדְשֵׁי קָדָשִׁים שְׁחִיטָתָן בַּצָּפוֹן
What is the place of the offerings? The most holy offerings are slaughtered on the north side.
What it means
Which offerings are "most holy"? Bartenura (Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura, the standard commentator on the Mishnah, around 1500) lists three kinds: burnt offerings, sin offerings and guilt offerings. The Torah says "north" outright only about the burnt offering. It then says the other two are slaughtered in the same place.
Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:1; Vayikra 1:11, 6:18 and 7:2
The first case: the two Yom Kippur offerings.
פָּר וְשָׂעִיר שֶׁל יוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים שְׁחִיטָתָן בַּצָּפוֹן וְקִבּוּל דָּמָן בִּכְלִי שָׁרֵת בַּצָּפוֹן וְדָמָן טָעוּן הַזָּיָה עַל בֵּין הַבַּדִּים וְעַל הַפָּרֹכֶת וְעַל מִזְבַּח הַזָּהָב מַתָּנָה אַחַת מֵהֶן מְעַכָּבֶת.
The bull and the goat of Yom Kippur are slaughtered on the north side, and their blood is received in a service vessel on the north side. Their blood must be sprinkled between the poles of the Ark, on the curtain, and on the gold altar. If one application is missing, it holds back the atonement.
What it means
The bull and the goat of Yom Kippur are slaughtered on the north side, and their blood is received in a service vessel on the north side. Their blood must be sprinkled between the poles of the Ark, on the curtain, and on the gold altar. If even one of these applications is missing, it holds back the atonement.
The Mishnah here names three places and gives no numbers. The Mishnah in Yoma, the tractate about Yom Kippur, counts them: once upward and seven times downward between the poles, the same again toward the curtain from outside, then the horns of the gold altar and seven more times on it. Bartenura: the drops between the poles did not touch the Ark's cover.
Mishnah Yoma 5:3-6; Vayikra 16:14-19; Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:1
שְׁיָרֵי הַדָּם הָיָה שׁוֹפֵךְ עַל יְסוֹד מַעֲרָבִי שֶׁל מִזְבֵּחַ הַחִיצוֹן אִם לֹא נָתַן לֹא עִכֵּב.
The rest of the blood he would pour onto the western base of the outer altar. If he did not pour it, that did not hold back the atonement.
What it means
Why the western base? The Torah says to pour the rest at the base of the altar "at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting." Bartenura: the Tent stood to the west of the outer altar. And skipping this step does not undo the offering. He points to the Torah's words "when he has finished atoning": by then all the atoning is done.
Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:1; Vayikra 4:7 and 16:20
Mishnah 2. Sin offerings for a mistake by the whole community or by the Kohen Gadol (high priest).
פָּרִים הַנִּשְׂרָפִים וּשְׂעִירִים הַנִּשְׂרָפִים שְׁחִיטָתָן בַּצָּפוֹן וְקִבּוּל דָּמָן בִּכְלִי שָׁרֵת בַּצָּפוֹן וְדָמָן טָעוּן הַזָּיָה עַל הַפָּרֹכֶת וְעַל מִזְבַּח הַזָּהָב מַתָּנָה אַחַת מֵהֶן מְעַכָּבֶת.
The bulls that are burned and the goats that are burned are slaughtered on the north side, and their blood is received in a service vessel on the north side. Their blood must be sprinkled on the curtain and on the gold altar. If one application is missing, it holds back the atonement.
What it means
The bulls that are burned and the goats that are burned are slaughtered on the north side, and their blood is received in a service vessel on the north side. Their blood must be sprinkled on the curtain and on the gold altar. If even one of these applications is missing, it holds back the atonement.
Who brings these? Bartenura names them. A bull when the whole community sinned by mistake: Rashi (the classic Torah commentator, France, 1000s) explains that the high court ruled wrongly and the people acted on it. A bull when the anointed kohen, a Kohen Gadol, sinned by mistake. And goats when the community worshipped idols by mistake.
Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:2; Vayikra 4:3 and 4:13, with Rashi; Bamidbar 15:24
שְׁיָרֵי הַדָּם הָיָה שׁוֹפֵךְ עַל יְסוֹד מַעֲרָבִי שֶׁל מִזְבֵּחַ הַחִיצוֹן אִם לֹא נָתַן לֹא עִכֵּב אֵלּוּ וָאֵלּוּ נִשְׂרָפִין בְּבֵית הַדָּשֶׁן.
The rest of the blood he would pour onto the western base of the outer altar. If he did not pour it, that did not hold back the atonement. Both these and those are burned at the place of the ashes.
What it means
Nobody eats these. The Torah's rule: a sin offering whose blood is brought inside the building is burned, not eaten. Bartenura: "these and those" are the Yom Kippur pair and the bulls and goats of this mishnah. The place is where the altar's ashes were taken, outside the camp. You read about it in the ash-removal passage.
Vayikra 6:23, 4:12 and 6:4; Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:2
Mishnah 3. Sin offerings whose blood goes on the outer altar.
חַטֹּאת הַצִּבּוּר וְהַיָּחִיד אֵלּוּ הֵן חַטֹּאת הַצִּבּוּר שְׂעִירֵי רָאשֵׁי חֳדָשִׁים וְשֶׁל מוֹעֲדוֹת שְׁחִיטָתָן בַּצָּפוֹן וְקִבּוּל דָּמָן בִּכְלִי שָׁרֵת בַּצָּפוֹן וְדָמָן טָעוּן אַרְבַּע מַתָּנוֹת עַל אַרְבַּע קְרָנוֹת,
The sin offerings of the community and of the individual. These are the sin offerings of the community: the goats of Rosh Chodesh and of the festivals. They are slaughtered on the north side, and their blood is received in a service vessel on the north side. Their blood requires four applications on the four horns of the altar.
What it means
These are the ordinary sin offerings. Their blood stays outside, on the big altar. The communal ones are the goats in the Torah readings for Rosh Chodesh and the festivals. One person brings a sin offering for certain sins done by mistake. The Torah says how the blood is put on the horns: with the kohen's finger.
Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:3; Bamidbar 28:15; Vayikra 4:27-30
כֵּיצַד עָלָה בַכֶּבֶשׁ וּפָנָה לַסּוֹבֵב וּבָא לוֹ לְקֶרֶן דְּרוֹמִית מִזְרָחִית, מִזְרָחִית צְפוֹנִית, צְפוֹנִית מַעֲרָבִית, מַעֲרָבִית דְּרוֹמִית,
How? He went up the ramp, turned onto the ledge, and came to the corner on the southeast, then the northeast, the northwest, and the southwest.
What it means
How? He went up the ramp, turned onto the ledge, and came to the southeast corner, then the northeast, the northwest, and the southwest.
Why that corner first? Bartenura: the ramp was on the south. A kohen walking up it faces the altar, so his right hand is to the east. The rule is that every turn you make should be to the right. So he turns east, reaches the southeast corner first, and keeps circling that way. He stands on the ledge because this blood is put on the horns by finger.
Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:3; Mishnah Midot 3:3
שְׁיָרֵי הַדָּם הָיָה שׁוֹפֵךְ עַל יְסוֹד דְּרוֹמִי וְנֶאֱכָלִין לִפְנִים מִן הַקְּלָעִים לְזִכְרֵי כְהֻנָּה בְּכָל מַאֲכָל לְיוֹם וָלַיְלָה עַד חֲצוֹת.
The rest of the blood he would pour onto the southern base. They are eaten within the curtains, by male kohanim, cooked any way, for that day and the night after, until midnight.
What it means
The rest of the blood he would pour onto the southern base. They are eaten within the curtains, by male kohanim (priests), cooked any way, for that day and the night after, until midnight.
Where did the poured blood go? The Mishnah in Yoma: blood from the western base and the southern base ran together in a channel, flowed out to the Kidron valley, and was sold to gardeners as fertilizer. "Within the curtains" means inside the Temple courtyard. Bartenura: the Mishkan (the desert sanctuary) had curtains there, and the Temple had a wall.
Mishnah Yoma 5:6; Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:3; Vayikra 6:19 and 6:22
A request added on weekdays. It is not part of the Mishnah:
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶיךָ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ אִם נִתְחַיַּבְתִּי חַטָּאת שֶּׁתְּהֵא אֲמִירָה זוּ מְרֻצָּה לְפָנֶיךָ כְּאִלּוּ הִקְרַבְתִּי חַטָּאת.
May it be Your will, Hashem, our God and God of our ancestors: if I have come to owe a sin offering, may this saying be welcome before You as if I had brought a sin offering.
What it means
Why "as if"? The Kiyor passage quoted the Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah): whoever is busy with the teaching of a sin offering is counted as if he brought one. Why "if"? The Mishnah Berurah (a guide to daily Jewish law, around 1900): a sin offering is not brought as a gift, only by someone who did a sin that calls for one.
Menachot 110a; Mishnah Berurah 1:18
Mishnah 4. The burnt offering.
הָעוֹלָה קֹדֶשׁ קָדָשִׁים שְׁחִיטָתָהּ בַּצָּפוֹן וְקִבּוּל דָּמָהּ בִּכְלִי שָׁרֵת בַּצָּפוֹן וְדָמָהּ טָעוּן שְׁתֵּי מַתָּנוֹת שֶׁהֵן אַרְבַּע וּטְעוּנָה הֶפְשֵׁט וְנִתּוּחַ וְכָלִיל לָאִשִּׁים.
The burnt offering is a most holy offering. It is slaughtered on the north side, and its blood is received in a service vessel on the north side. Its blood requires two applications that are four. It must be skinned and cut into pieces, and all of it goes to the fires.
What it means
Two that are four? Bartenura: the blood is thrown at two corners that sit diagonally across from each other, the northeast and the southwest, so that it reaches all four sides of the altar. The Torah's word is "all around." The meat is all burned on the altar. The skin is not: the Torah gives it to the kohen.
Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:4; Vayikra 1:5-6, 1:9 and 7:8
On weekdays:
יְהִי רָצוֹן כְּאִלּוּ הִקְרַבְתִּי עוֹלָה.
May it be Your will that this be as if I had brought a burnt offering.
What it means
No "if" this time. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) gives the reason: a burnt offering can be brought as a free gift. What was it for? Rashi, on Vayikra 1:4: not for sins that carry their own penalties. It makes up for a positive commandment left undone, and for a prohibition that the Torah says to repair by doing a positive commandment.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 1:7; Rashi on Vayikra 1:4

How to say it

The Mishnah here is learning, not prayer. The Mishnah Berurah (a guide to daily Jewish law, around 1900) says it counts as your Mishnah for the day only if you understand it. He quotes the Shelah (Rabbi Yeshayah Horowitz, who died in 1630): say it in the tune used for learning Mishnah.

Mishnah Berurah 50:2

The story

The chapter where nobody argues

Open almost any page of the Mishnah (the first written collection of the Oral Torah, about 200 CE) and rabbis are disagreeing. Now look at this chapter. Not one rabbi is named, and no one objects to anything. That is one reason given for choosing it. Rabbi Yosef Karo (author of the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) quotes it from the Ra'ah (Rabbi Aharon HaLevi of Barcelona, 1200s), who says he heard it: the whole chapter has no dispute in it, and it is "a clear Mishnah from Moshe at Sinai."

Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 50, quoting the Ra'ah; Abudarham

Mishnah where the altar used to be

The prophet Malachi says that "in every place" offerings are brought to God's name. In the Midrash (early rabbinic teachings on the Torah), Rabbi Huna asks: are there Temple offerings in Babylonia? His answer: "This is Mishnah." God says: since you are busy with Mishnah, it is as if you are bringing an offering. The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) gives that same verse as the reason a chapter of Mishnah about the offerings comes right after the daily offering. The Kiyor passage explains the wider idea.

Malachi 1:11; Vayikra Rabbah 7:3; Tur, Orach Chaim 50

It starts in the innermost room

Of all the offerings, why open with the bull and goat of Yom Kippur? Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura (the standard commentator on the Mishnah, around 1500) explains: their blood was brought into the innermost room of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, so the Mishnah puts them first. Then follow the blood through the paragraphs. In the first it reaches the Holy of Holies. In the second it stops at the curtain and the golden altar. In the third it is outside, on the altar in the courtyard.

Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:1

The poles of an Ark that was gone

"Between the poles" means between the two carrying poles of the Ark. On Yom Kippur the Kohen Gadol (high priest) stood there and sprinkled the blood toward the Ark's cover, without touching it. But the Second Temple had no Ark. The Mishnah in Yoma says that once the Ark was gone, a stone stood there, three fingers high, called shetiyah ("foundation"). Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, Spain, about 1340) notes that in the Second Temple he stood in the same spot, where the poles would have been.

Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:1; Mishnah Yoma 5:2; Abudarham

Why midnight?

The kohanim (priests) had "a day and a night, until midnight" to finish the meat of a sin offering. The Torah's own deadline is the morning. The first paragraph of the whole Mishnah explains the gap: anything eaten for one day may be eaten until dawn. So why did the Sages say midnight? "To keep a person far from sin." The early deadline leaves a margin before the real one. The Bartenura calls it a fence the Sages made for the Torah.

Mishnah Berakhot 1:1; Bartenura on Mishnah Zevachim 5:3

Why one line says "if"

After the sin offerings you say: if I owe a sin offering, may these words be accepted as if I brought one. After the burnt offering there is no "if." A burnt offering can be given as a gift. A sin offering cannot: you bring one only if you owe it. So the Tur says to add no such request after it. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, around 1900) records a later answer, which not everyone accepted: say it as a condition, starting with "if."

Tur, Orach Chaim 1; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 1:7; Mishnah Berurah 1:18

The offering for a thought

Nobody ate any of the burnt offering. It was skinned and cut up, and then it all went onto the altar fire. What was it for? One answer, in the Midrash: Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai says a burnt offering comes only for the thoughts of the heart. The proof is Iyov (Job). He brought burnt offerings for his children after their feasts, and his reason was: maybe my children sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Nobody else would ever know about a thought. There was an offering for it anyway.

Vayikra Rabbah 7:3; Iyov 1:5

Hard questions

It was an accident. Why would I need to be forgiven for that?

A sin offering sounds like something for a person who did wrong on purpose. It is the opposite. The Torah introduces it with the words "if a person sins by mistake." For the same act done on purpose, the Mishnah names a different consequence, karet (being cut off), and no offering.

It was also not for every mistake. The Mishnah lists thirty-six cases that carry karet, such as breaking Shabbat, eating chametz on Pesach, and eating or working on Yom Kippur. The Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204) states the rule: someone who by mistake breaks a prohibition of that kind, one that involves an action, must bring a sin offering.

Fine, but it was a mistake. Why owe anything? In his Guide for the Perplexed (his book of philosophy) the Rambam sorts it out. A person who was forced has no sin at all. A person who made a mistake is different: "there is sin in it, for if he had taken more care, the mistake would not have come his way." Then he adds: such a person is not punished at all. He needs atonement, so he brings an offering.

The Ramban (a Torah commentator from Spain, 1200s) gives a different reason. He looks at what a sin does to you. Every sin, he writes, leaves something ugly in the soul, a flaw, even when you did not mean it. The offering is there so the soul can come close again to the God who gave it.

So there are two answers. One: you could have been more careful. Two: even if you did not mean it, something in you was damaged and has to be repaired. Think of dropping a friend's phone. You did not mean to. You still deal with it.

One more detail. A sin offering could never be given as a gift, which is why the line after this paragraph begins with "if." And the Torah says it comes when "his sin becomes known to him." For that reason, the Mishnah Berurah records, one authority held the line should not be said at all.

Vayikra 4:27-28,Mishnah Keritot 1:1-2,Rambam, Laws of Unintentional Sins 1:1,Rambam, Guide for the Perplexed 3:41 (Ibn Tibbon's Hebrew),Ramban on Vayikra 4:2,Tur, Orach Chaim 1,Mishnah Berurah 1:18

I thought arguing was the whole point. Why pick the chapter with no arguments?

Most of the Mishnah is rabbis disagreeing, and you may have been taught that the arguing is what makes Torah study great. So why choose a chapter without any?

Start with the Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204). In Mishneh Torah (his code of law) he writes that things received by tradition are never disputed. If you find a dispute about something, he says, you can be sure it was not a tradition from Moshe. Put that next to what the Ra'ah says about this chapter: no dispute, "a clear Mishnah from Moshe at Sinai."

The Rambam also tells how disputes grew. While the High Court sat in Jerusalem, "there was no dispute in Israel." A question went up from court to court until it was settled, by tradition or by a vote. When the High Court ended, "dispute multiplied in Israel: one says impure and gives his reason, one says pure and gives his reason." In that telling, dispute is a sign that something was lost.

That is not the only voice. Pirkei Avot (the part of the Mishnah that collects the early rabbis' sayings on how to live) says a dispute for the sake of Heaven will last, and its example is Hillel and Shammai. The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) reports a voice from heaven about their two schools: "These and those are the words of the living God."

The Kaf HaChaim (a major work of Jewish law by Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer, who died in Jerusalem in 1939) points out that "no dispute" means none is mentioned inside the chapter. Some of its rulings are disputed elsewhere. The last paragraph of the chapter says the Pesach offering is eaten only until midnight. The Gemara says that line is Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah's view. Rabbi Akiva disagreed.

So once a day you get Torah with no argument attached. After this chapter come Rabbi Yishmael's thirteen rules for working out law from the Torah's words. The Rambam says law worked out with rules like those is where the Sages could disagree, and then they voted.

Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 50, quoting the Ra'ah,Rambam, Laws of Rebels 1:2-4,Pirkei Avot 5:17,Eruvin 13b,Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 50:1,Zevachim 57b; Berakhot 9a

If the people in charge got it wrong and I followed them, is that on me?

The second paragraph mentions "bulls that are burned." One kind is for a strange case: the whole community sins by mistake, because something was "hidden from the eyes of the congregation." Rashi (the classic Torah commentator, France, 1000s) explains. The High Court (the Sanhedrin) ruled that a forbidden thing was allowed, and the people acted on its word.

So who brings the offering? The Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204) writes that the court is liable, for the ruling itself, even if no judge did the act. The bulls, he rules, come from the community: one from each tribe. The people who did the act bring no offering of their own, "because they relied on the court."

That can sound as if following the court always exempts you. The Mishnah in Horayot (its section on mistaken rulings) sets a limit. Say a judge knew the court was wrong, or a student able to rule, and acted on the ruling anyway. He is liable, "because he did not rely on the court."

The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) pushes back. A scholar like that did it on purpose, not by mistake. The answer: he knew it was forbidden, and made a different mistake. In the Rambam's words, he thought it is a mitzvah to listen to the court "even though they are mistaken."

An ordinary person in the same spot is exempt, the Rambam adds: his knowledge of what is forbidden is not certain.

Even that exemption has limits. In the Gemara, Shmuel (one of its early rabbis) is quoted as saying this Mishnah is one rabbi's view, and that the other Sages held an individual who acted on the court's ruling is liable. The Rambam rules that if only a minority followed the court, each one brings his own sin offering. The same goes if another of his conditions is missing, such as a full High Court of seventy-one.

A note from us: this is one narrow case, the High Court's mistaken ruling and who brings an offering. These sources give no general rule about following orders.

Vayikra 4:13-14, with Rashi,Mishnah Horayot 1:1,Horayot 2b-3a,Rambam, Laws of Unintentional Sins 12:1-2, 13:1 and 13:5

Sparks

Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.

Chassidut

Stop chasing the animals

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who died in 1810) tells of a king's son who ends up herding animals. Two run off, and he chases them deep into a forest. A man there tells him: stop. These are not animals. Your own sins are leading you around. His student Rabbi Natan reads this chapter through that story. Sins, he says, are the animal side of a person, and they get the human in you mixed up with it. An offering sorts the two apart. Asking "where is their place?" is finding where the human in you got lost and lifting it out.

שֶׁעַל-יְדֵי שֶׁמְּבָרְרִין מְקוֹמָן שֶׁל זְבָחִים עַל-יְדֵי זֶה מְבָרְרִין וּמְגַלִּין רוּחַ הָאָדָם שֶׁנָּפַל וְנִתְעָרֵב בֵּין רוּחַ הַבְּהֵמִיּוּת

Rabbi Natan of Breslov, Likutei Halakhot, Laws of the Morning Blessings 3:26; Sippurei Maasiyot 11

Zohar

A soul, and it sins?

The Torah opens its laws of the sin offering, the chatat of this passage, with the words "a soul, when it sins." The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) hears a question in them. Before a soul comes down into a body, it says, it stands in front of God, looks at His glory every day, and is crowned by Him. Then it gets here, does wrong, and gets busy with its own darkness. The Torah is amazed: all that honor, and it sins? On this reading the verse is not a calm legal opening. It is said in astonishment.

אוֹרַיְיתָא תַּווהָא עָלָה, וְאַמְרַת, וּמַה כָּל יְקָרָא דָּא, וְכָל אַשְׁלְמוּתָא אַשְׁלִים לְנַפְשָׁתָא מַלְכָּא עִלָּאָה, וְהִיא חָבָאָת קָמֵיהּ, נֶפֶשׁ כִּי תֶחטָא, מַה דִּין הוּא דְּתֶחטָא.

Zohar, Parashat Vayikra

Rav Kook

Alone, and in a crowd

The third mishnah splits sin offerings in two: the community's and the individual's. Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) asks what the real difference is. What moves a person to act, he says, comes from two directions: from inside, out of your own character, and from outside, out of the world around you. In one person alone, the inside is the stronger pull. In a community, the surroundings decide more. That, he writes, is why they are two kinds of sin offering.

אצל היחיד, האישיות הנפשית היא ההשפעה הגוברת במעשיו, ואצל הצבור, הכלל העולמי, כחות הבריאה והמציאות הסובבת, הוא המפעיל ביותר את תכונותיו

Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Eizehu Mekoman

Chassidut

A small light, where you are

One offering here is the goat of Rosh Chodesh, the new month. In the Gemara, God says of it: bring an atonement for Me, because I made the moon smaller. The Ribon HaOlamim prayer tells the story. Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira (the Rebbe of Piaseczno, killed in the Holocaust in 1943) reads it as an atonement for you. The moon, he says, does not cancel the night. It brings a little light into it. God set things up so that a person who cannot lift himself yet still gets light where he is. With that, he writes, you can already come back.

כיון שעשיתי לכם תקנה זו שגם מי שאינו יכול עוד להעלות א"ע גם במקומו יאיר לו, כבר יכולים אתם לטהר לכפר ולשוב.

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, Derekh HaMelekh, Parashat HaChodesh; Chullin 60b

Rav Kook

Burned, but not out of revenge

The bulls and goats of mishnah 1 and mishnah 2 are not eaten. Their bodies are burned at the place of the ashes. Is that a way of wiping something out in anger? Rav Kook says no. He points to the words "these and those": the Yom Kippur offerings are burned in the same place as the others. From that match he learns that this burning is not revenge, and not erasing something from existence. It is a refining. After all the turns, he writes, everything comes back to kindness, and he quotes Tehillim: "He will not accuse forever."

אין הכליון בה כליון של נקמה והעברה מן המציאות, אלא ריחוק של צירוף ולבון

Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Eizehu Mekoman; Tehillim 103:9

Halacha

The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.

Do I read this like a prayer?

No. It is a chapter of Mishnah, the core text of the oral Torah. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) says it was put here so that everyone learns some Mishnah every day. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, from around 1900) adds two things. It counts as learning only if you understand it. The Eilu Devarim prayer has more on this. And he quotes the Shelah (Rabbi Yeshayah Horowitz, who died in 1630): say this chapter in the tune used for learning Mishnah.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 50:1; Mishnah Berurah 50:2

Why does the sin-offering line say "if"?

Because nobody could bring a sin offering as a gift. The Shulchan Aruch says to add "may this count as if I brought" after the Torah's passages on the burnt, grain and peace offerings, since anyone could donate those. A sin offering was owed only after certain serious sins done by accident. So the Maharshal (Rabbi Shlomo Luria, Poland, 1500s) said it with a condition added: "if I owe one." And if you do not? The Mishnah Berurah finishes the thought: then you have read some Torah.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 1:7; Responsa of the Maharshal 64; Mishnah Berurah 1:18

Does every siddur print the "as if I brought" lines?

Not everyone accepted the "if." The Magen Avraham (a 1600s commentary on the Shulchan Aruch) objected: a sin offering only worked for someone who knew he had sinned, so a condition cannot help. Say nothing after it, he ruled. The Mishnah Berurah adds a middle view: say it if you worry you once knew and forgot. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code from around 1900) reports "as if I brought" being said in this chapter and defends the "if" too. Siddur Sefard prints both lines. The Siddur Ashkenaz we compared has neither.

Magen Avraham 1:11; Mishnah Berurah 1:18; Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 1:28; Siddur Sefard; Siddur Ashkenaz

The burnt-offering line has no "if." Why not?

Because a burnt offering could always be brought as a gift, owed or not. That is the Shulchan Aruch's reason for saying "as if I brought" after it with no condition. It could also be owed. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the code of law by the first Chabad Rebbe) gives two cases: a person who failed to do a positive commandment, or who thought in his heart about breaking a prohibition. His advice for someone who knows he owes an offering: say the Torah's passage about that offering right away.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 1:7; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 1:15 (first edition), 1:9 (second edition)

Do I say those two lines on Shabbat?

The ruling is no. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav writes that on Shabbat and Yom Tov you do not say "may it be Your will that this be as if," because an individual's offerings were not brought on those days. The passages themselves can be said, like reading the Torah. The Mishnah Berurah says the same. The Sefard prayer books for Shabbat and for Rosh Hashanah print this chapter with no such line after the sin offering or the burnt offering.

Shulchan Aruch HaRav 1:16 (first edition); Mishnah Berurah 1:17; Shabbat Siddur Sefard; Machzor Rosh Hashanah Sefard

I learn Mishnah and Gemara at school. Do I still need this?

Rabbeinu Tam (a leading French rabbi of the 1100s) held that learning the Babylonian Gemara covers all three kinds of daily learning, because it is a blend of Tanach, Mishnah and Gemara. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) says to be careful about these passages anyway: maybe what you learned today was not such a blend. And when the Shulchan Aruch HaRav tells a person who is able to learn to skip the Torah's offering passages on most days, he adds that saying this chapter is enough for him.

Tosafot, Kiddushin 30a; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 50:4; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 1:9 (second edition)

Is it skipped on Tisha B'Av or in a house of mourning?

No. Torah study is off limits at both, and this chapter is Torah study. But for Tisha B'Av (the fast for the destroyed Temple) the Shulchan Aruch permits "the whole order of the day" and names this chapter. For a house of mourning, the Kaf HaChaim records that Seville and Toledo, in Spain, used to leave it out there. The Magen Avraham and the Mishnah Berurah say that is not right: whatever belongs to the daily order is not counted as Torah study for a mourner. The Kaf HaChaim adds that the custom is to say it.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 554:4; Magen Avraham 50:1; Mishnah Berurah 50:1; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 50:2

Sources

Show the 10 sources quoted on this page

Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 50, quoting the Ra'ah
וכתב הרא"ה שתיקנו לשנות פרק איזהו מקומן לפי שאין בכל אותו פרק מחלוקת והיא משנה ברורה למשה מסיני.
The Ra'ah wrote that they set up the reading of the chapter Eizehu Mekoman because there is no dispute anywhere in that chapter, and it is a clear Mishnah from Moshe at Sinai.
Vayikra Rabbah 7:3
וְכִי יֵשׁ מִנְחָה טְהוֹרָה וּקְמִיצָה וְהַקְטָרָה בְּבָבֶל, אֶלָּא אֵיזוֹ, זוֹ מִשְׁנָה. אָמַר הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא הוֹאִיל וְאַתֶּם מִתְעַסְּקִים בַּמִּשְׁנָה כְּאִלּוּ אַתֶּם מַקְרִיבִין קָרְבָּן.
Is there a pure grain offering, a handful taken from it and burned on the altar, in Babylonia? What is it, then? It is Mishnah. The Holy One said: since you are busy with Mishnah, it is as if you are bringing an offering.
Vayikra Rabbah 7:3
אָמַר רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחָאי לְעוֹלָם אֵין הָעוֹלָה בָּאָה אֶלָּא עַל הַרְהוֹר הַלֵּב.
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said: a burnt offering only ever comes for the thoughts of the heart.
Vayikra 4:27-28
וְאִם נֶפֶשׁ אַחַת תֶּחֱטָא בִשְׁגָגָה מֵעַם הָאָרֶץ ... אוֹ הוֹדַע אֵלָיו חַטָּאתוֹ אֲשֶׁר חָטָא וְהֵבִיא קׇרְבָּנוֹ
If one person from among the people of the land sins by mistake ... or his sin that he committed becomes known to him, he shall bring his offering.
Rambam, Guide for the Perplexed 3:41 (Ibn Tibbon's Hebrew)
ואמנם השוגג יש בו חטא כי אילו הפליג להתישב ולהזהר, לא באה שגגה לידו; אלא שלא יענש כלל, ואמנם צריך כפרה ומפני זה מביא קרבן.
The one who errs does have sin in him, for if he had taken great care and been cautious, the mistake would not have come his way. But he is not punished at all. He does need atonement, and for that reason he brings an offering.
Ramban on Vayikra 4:2
וְטַעַם הַקָּרְבָּנוֹת עַל הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַשּׁוֹגֶגֶת, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁכָּל הָעֲוֹנוֹת יוֹלִידוּ גְּנַאי בַּנֶּפֶשׁ, וְהֵם מוּם בָּהּ ... וְלָכֵן הַנֶּפֶשׁ הַשּׁוֹגֶגֶת תַּקְרִיב קָרְבָּן, שֶׁתִּזְכֶּה לְקָרְבָה אֶל הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר נְתָנָהּ.
The reason for offerings for a soul that erred: all sins produce something ugly in the soul and are a flaw in it ... So the soul that erred brings an offering, so that it may come close to the God who gave it.
Rambam, Laws of Rebels 1:3-4
דִּבְרֵי קַבָּלָה אֵין בָּהֶן מַחְלֹקֶת לְעוֹלָם וְכָל דָּבָר שֶׁתִּמְצָא בּוֹ מַחְלֹקֶת בְּיָדוּעַ שֶׁאֵינוֹ קַבָּלָה מִמּשֶׁה רַבֵּנוּ ... מִשֶּׁבָּטַל בֵּית דִּין הַגָּדוֹל רָבְתָה מַחְלֹקֶת בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל זֶה מְטַמֵּא וְנוֹתֵן טַעַם לִדְבָרָיו וְזֶה מְטַהֵר וְנוֹתֵן טַעַם לִדְבָרָיו זֶה אוֹסֵר וְזֶה מַתִּיר.
Things received by tradition are never disputed. Anything you find a dispute about, you can be sure it is not a tradition from Moshe our teacher ... When the High Court ended, dispute multiplied in Israel: one says impure and gives a reason for his words, one says pure and gives a reason for his words, one forbids and one permits.
Mishnah Berakhot 1:1
וְכָל הַנֶּאֱכָלִים לְיוֹם אֶחָד, מִצְוָתָן עַד שֶׁיַּעֲלֶה עַמּוּד הַשָּׁחַר. אִם כֵּן, לָמָּה אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים עַד חֲצוֹת, כְּדֵי לְהַרְחִיק אֶת הָאָדָם מִן הָעֲבֵרָה.
Everything that is eaten for one day may be eaten until dawn. If so, why did the Sages say "until midnight"? To keep a person far from sin.
Mishnah Yoma 5:2
מִשֶּׁנִּטַּל הָאָרוֹן, אֶבֶן הָיְתָה שָׁם מִימוֹת נְבִיאִים רִאשׁוֹנִים, וּשְׁתִיָּה הָיְתָה נִקְרֵאת, גְּבוֹהָה מִן הָאָרֶץ שָׁלשׁ אֶצְבָּעוֹת.
Once the Ark was taken away, there was a stone there from the days of the early prophets. It was called shetiyah (foundation), and it stood three fingers above the ground.
Mishnah Berurah 1:18
והאחרונים כתבו בשם רש"ל דיש לומר אף לאחר חטאת ואשם יהי רצון, רק שיאמר בלשון ספק, דהיינו: "יהי רצון מלפניך אם עברתי עבירה שחייבים עליה חטאת, שיהיה זה נחשב כאלו הקרבתי חטאת"; ואם לאו, יהיה כקורא בתורה.
Later authorities wrote in the name of the Maharshal (Rabbi Shlomo Luria, 1500s) that one should say "May it be Your will" after the sin offering and guilt offering too, but as a condition: "May it be Your will, if I committed a sin for which a sin offering is owed, that this be counted as if I brought a sin offering." And if not, it is like reading from the Torah.

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