Study Keritot folio 25B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אשם תלוי בא על הנבלה. אמר ליה: והאנן תנן, וחכמים אומרים: אינו מביא אשם תלוי אלא על דבר שזדונו כרת ושגגתו חטאת! ואי רבי אליעזר, בנדבה נמי אתי!
A provisional guilt offering comes for the uncertain consumption of a non-kosher animal carcass. Rava said to him: But didn’t we learn in the Mishnah: And the Rabbis say that one brings a provisional guilt offering only for uncertain performance of a matter for whose intentional performance one is liable to receive karet and for whose unwitting performance one is liable to bring a sin offering? But here the consumption of an animal carcass is a violation of a prohibition that does not entail karet or a sin offering. And if you are referring to the opinion of R' Eliezer, he maintains that a provisional guilt offering comes also as a gift offering, without any uncertain sin.
אמר ליה: מאי טעמא לא מתנית? זימנין סגיאין תניתה קמי מר, ומנו – רבה, ואמר לי: הא מני? רבי אליעזר היא דאמרו לו, דתנן: אלא אומרים לו המתן עד שתכנס לבית הספק.
R' Ḥiyya said to Rava: What is the reason that you did not learn from Rabba? Many times I taught this baraita before the Master. And who is the Master? It is Rabba. And he said to me: In accordance with whose opinion is this baraita? It is in accordance with the opinion of R' Eliezer; nevertheless, it is not in accordance with R' Eliezer’s own opinion that a provisional guilt offering is brought as a gift offering, but rather it is in accordance with the opinion of those who spoke to Bava ben Buta. As we learned in the Mishnah: But they say to him: Wait until you enter into a situation of potential uncertainty. According to this opinion, one brings a provisional guilt offering for any manner of uncertain sin.
אמר רבא: מאי טעמא דאמרו לו? אמר קרא: ״אשר לא תעשינה (בשגגה) ואשם״.
Rava said: What is the reason for the opinion of those who spoke to Bava ben Buta and said that one may bring a provisional guilt offering for any uncertain sin, not only those stated by the Rabbis? With regard to a provisional guilt offering, the verse states: “And if anyone sins, and does any of the mitzvot of YHWH which may not be done, and he did not know, and he is guilty” (Leviticus 5:17). This indicates that one brings a provisional guilt offering for any form of sin.