Study Zevachim folio 103A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
מתני׳ כל שלא זכה המזבח בבשרה – לא זכו כהנים בעורה; שנאמר: ״עלת איש״ – עולה שעלתה לאיש.
Mishnah: In the case of any burnt offering for which the altar did not acquire its flesh, e.g., if it was disqualified prior to the sprinkling of its blood, the priests did not acquire its hide, as it is stated with regard to the burnt offering: “And the priest that sacrifices a man’s burnt offering, the priest should have to himself the hide of the burnt offering that he has sacrificed” (Leviticus 7:8), indicating that the priest acquires only the hide of a burnt offering that satisfied the obligation of a man.
עולה שנשחטה שלא לשמה – אף על פי שלא עלתה לבעלים, עורה לכהנים. אחד עולת האיש ואחד עולת האשה, עורותיהן לכהנים.
Nevertheless, in a case of a burnt offering that was slaughtered not for its sake but for the sake of another offering, although it did not satisfy the obligation of the owner, its hide goes to the priests. In addition, although the verse states: “A man’s burnt offering,” in the case of both the burnt offering of a man and the burnt offering of a woman, their hides go to the priests.
עורות קדשים קלים לבעלים, עורות קדשי קדשים לכהנים. קל וחומר: ומה אם עולה, שלא זכו בבשרה – זכו בעורה; קדשי קדשים, שזכו בבשרה – אינו דין שיזכו בעורה?! אין מזבח יוכיח – שאין לו עור בכל מקום.
The hides of offerings of lesser sanctity belong to the owners; the hides of offerings of the most sacred order belong to the priests. The right of priests to hides of offerings of the most sacred order is derived via an a fortiori inference: If for a burnt offering, for which the priests do not acquire its flesh, as it is burned in its entirety, they acquire its hide, then for other offerings of the most sacred order, for which the priests acquire its flesh, is it not right that they should acquire its hide? And there is no room to contend that the altar will prove that this is not a valid inference, as it acquires the flesh of a burnt offering but not its hide, since it does not have the right to the hide of an offering in any place.