Study Taanit folio 3A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אי סבר לה כרבי יהודה בן בתירה — נימא כוותיה! קסבר רבי עקיבא: כי כתיב ניסוך יתירא — בששי הוא דכתיב.
The Talmud objects: If R' Akiva holds in accordance with the opinion of R' Yehuda ben Beteira with regard to this derivation, let him say that it is in accordance with his ruling that one begins mentioning rain from the 2nd day of Sukkot, not the 6th day. The Talmud answers: R' Akiva holds that when that extra reference to libation is written in the verse, it is with regard to the 6th day that it is written. In other words, it is the plural phrase: “Its libations [unsakheha]” (Numbers 29:31), which appears on the 6th day, that directly indicates that one must perform more than one libation, while the other two superfluous letters merely serve to teach that this second libation must be of water, not wine. Therefore, the additional libation is performed on the 6th day.
תניא, רבי נתן אומר: ״בקדש הסך נסך שכר לה׳״, בשני ניסוכין הכתוב מדבר, אחד ניסוך המים ואחד ניסוך היין. אימא תרוייהו דחמרא! אם כן, לכתוב קרא או ״הסך הסך״, או ״נסך נסך״, מאי ״הסך נסך״ — שמעת מינה: חד דמיא וחד דחמרא.
§ It is taught in a baraita that R' Natan says: “In the Sanctuary you should pour out a libation [hassekh nesekh] of strong drink to YHWH” (Numbers 28:7). The Torah states the term for libation twice, which indicates that the verse is speaking of two libations: One is the water libation and the other one is the wine libation. The Talmud asks: Why not say that both libations are of wine? The Talmud answers: If so, let the verse write either hassekh hessekh or nassekh nesekh, with the same prefix each time. What is the meaning of the varied formulation: “Hassekh nesekh”? Learn from this that one libation is of water and the other one is of wine.