My sons and I have been reading comic books for close to 35 years. My boys would debate who would win imaginary battles like Aquaman of the DC universe versus Namor the sub-mariner of the Marvel universe. Then they became even more creative by asking who would win in a fight, Rabbi Akiva or the Ba’al Shem Tov? (They are rabbi sons!) Today’s daf TB Peskhim asks the same question which commandment would win the battle when two positive commandments are in the same ring or when a positive commandment (מצוה עשה) is facing of a negative commandment (מצוה לא תעשה)
Yesterday we learned that all sacrifices had to be sandwiched between the two daily Temidim with the exception of the korban Pesakh, the Paschal Lamb. Today we learned about three other exceptions. Two are part of the worship service in the Temple, but are not animal sacrifices. These new exceptions are the burning of the incense (קְטֹרֶת), the lighting of the menorah, and on erev Pesakh the offering of one who lacks atonement on Passover eve (מְחוּסַּר כִּפּוּרִים[1]).
“And similarly, nothing may be delayed until after the daily afternoon offering but the afternoon burning of the incense, the lighting of the lamps, the offering of the Paschal lamb, and one who lacks atonement on Passover eve, i.e., one who was ritually impure, such as a leper[2] or a zav, and who immersed in a ritual bath to become pure. Such a person is required to bring an offering before he may partake of consecrated food, and he is referred to as one who lacks atonement until he does so. In the event that he neglects to bring his offering before the daily afternoon offering on Passover eve, the Sages instituted a special ordinance to enable him to bring his offering even after the daily offering. He immerses a second time after bringing the offering, thereby becoming fit to eat sacrificial foods, and he eats his Paschal lamb in the evening.” (Sefaria.org translation)
When you have competing
positive commandments on equal footing, there is no way to gauge which one is
more important than the other. Consequently, whatever positive commandment
comes first is the dominant positive commandment and wins. When one positive
commandment like the korban Pesakh is more important because it has the penalty
of kareit[3], it wins the
battle over the regular Tamid sacrifice which doesn’t have such a penalty. In
the battle between a positive commandment and a negative commandment, the
positive commandment wins if the opportunity to do both are simultaneous.
Otherwise a negative commandment wins.
[1] This
is a person who is ritually unready like the metzora, a person who has some kind of skin disease. He sits for
seven days in a ritually ready state and on the seventh day he immerses in a mikvah. This person is in and in between
state called “one who lacks atonement.” If he was a priest, he may now eat
terumah, but forbidden to eat any sacrificial food until he offers up his
sacrifices. He immerses a second time and now may eat sacrifices like the korban Pesakh.
[2] This
is a misleading translation of the word metzora.
“The identification of biblical tzara-at
with leprosy is unlikely, if by ‘leprosy’ is meant Hansen's disease; the
symptoms presented in this chapter (Leviticus 13) do not conform to the nature
or the course of that disease. The term ‘tzara-at’ probably designated a complex of
various elements.” Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary, above the line commentary, page
651.
[3] a
penalty of premature death by the hands of the Holy One
No comments:
Post a Comment