Study Shevuot folio 12B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
קיץ כבנות שוח למזבח. והכתיב: ״כי כל שאר וכל דבש וגו׳״! תני רב חנינא: כבנות שוח לאדם.
They would bring from them dessert, like white figs, for the altar. The Talmud asks: Are white figs ever offered on the altar? But isn’t it written: “For any leavening or fruit honey you should not cause to go up in smoke as a fire-offering to YHWH” (Leviticus 2:11)? The term “fruit honey” includes all tree fruits. The Talmud answers: Rav Ḥanina teaches: The supplementary offerings are to the altar like white figs for a person.
דרש רב נחמן בר רב חסדא: אין מקיצין בעולת העוף. אמר רבא: הא בורכא! אמר ליה רב נחמן בר יצחק לרבא: מאי בורכתא? אנא אמריתה ניהליה, ומשמיה דרב שימי מנהרדעא אמריתה ניהליה – דאמר רב שימי מנהרדעא: מותרות לנדבת צבור אזלי, ואין עולת עוף בצבור.
The Talmud discusses what may be used for the supplementary offerings: Rav Naḥman bar Rav Ḥisda taught: One does not supplement the offerings of the altar with a bird burnt-offering. Rava said: This ruling is an absurdity [burkha]. Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said to Rava: What is the absurdity? The ruling has a basis. I said this ruling to Rav Naḥman, and said it to him in the name of Rav Shimi of Neharde’a, as Rav Shimi of Neharde’a says: The surplus lambs that were consecrated for the daily offerings are allocated for communal gift offerings, and there is not a bird burnt-offering that is offered by the community.
ואף שמואל סבר להא דרבי יוחנן, דאמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל: קרבנות צבור – סכין מושכתן למה שהן.
The Talmud notes: And also Shmuel holds in accordance with this statement of R' Yoḥanan, who taught that R' Shimon holds that lambs consecrated for the daily offering that were not used are brought as supplementary offerings, even though they were not originally consecrated for that purpose, as Rav Yehuda says that Shmuel says: With regard to communal offerings, their consecration serves only to define which general category of offering they are included in, e.g., whether they are a sin-offering or burnt-offering, but it is the purpose for which they are ultimately slaughtered with a knife that defines what their precise nature is.