Study Temurah folio 15B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
והתניא: כיוצא בו אמר רבי יוסי: ״והבאים מהשבי בני הגולה הקריבו עולות... פרים בני בקר שנים עשר... אילים תשעים ותשעה, כבשים שבעים ושבעה, שעירי חטאת שנים עשר — הכל עולה לה׳״.
But isn’t it taught in a baraita: Similarly, R' Yosei said: It is stated with regard to those who returned from Babylonia in the days of Ezra: “The children of the captivity that came out of exile sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of Israel, 12 bulls for all Israel, 96 rams, 77 lambs, 12 goats for a sin offering; all this was a burnt offering to YHWH” (Ezra 8:35).
וחטאת מי קרבה עולה? אמר רבא: כי עולה, מה עולה אינה נאכלת — אף חטאת אינה נאכלת, שהיה רבי יוסי אומר: על עבודה זרה הביאום, ואמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל: על עבודה זרה שעשו בימי צדקיהו.
The Talmud first analyzes this verse: But is it possible for a sin offering to be sacrificed as a burnt offering? Rava said: The verse means that it was all performed in the manner of a burnt offering: Just as a burnt offering may not be eaten, so too, that sin offering was not eaten. As R' Yosei would say: They brought these 12 sin offerings for the sin of idol worship; and Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: They were brought for the sin of idol worship they committed in the days of King Zedekiah.
The Talmud explains the difficulty concerning which it cited this verse: It might enter our mind to think that according to the one who holds that a communal sin offering whose owners achieved atonement with another sin offering is left to die, he also holds that a communal sin offering whose owners died is left to die. But here, with regard to the offerings brought by the returning exiles, this is a case of a communal sin offering whose owners died, as the sin was committed in the time of Zedekiah, in the First Temple period, whereas the offerings were brought several generations later by those returning to rebuild the Second Temple. And yet they were sacrificed. This proves that a communal sin offering whose owners achieved atonement with another sin offering is not left to die.