Study Zevachim folio 48B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
וכי מכאן אתה למד?! והלא כבר נאמר: ״במקום אשר תשחט העולה תשחט החטאת״! הא למה יצא – לקבוע לו מקום, שאם לא שחטה בצפון פסול.
The Talmud asks: And do you learn this halakha from here? But isn’t it already stated: “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying: This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered should the sin offering be slaughtered before YHWH; it is most holy” (Leviticus 6:18)? If so, to what purpose was this singled out? Why did the Torah state explicitly that the sin offering of the king requires slaughter in the north? The Talmud answers: To fix a place for it, that this is the only place where a sin offering may be slaughtered, teaching that if it was not slaughtered in the north of the Temple courtyard, the offering is disqualified even after the fact.
אתה אומר לכך יצא; או אינו אלא שזה טעון צפון, ואין אחר טעון צפון? תלמוד לומר: ״ושחט את החטאת במקום העולה״ – זה בנה אב לכל חטאות, שיהו טעונות צפון.
The Talmud asks: Do you say that it is singled out for this purpose, to teach that even after the fact a sin offering slaughtered anywhere other than in the north is disqualified? Or perhaps it is only to teach that this goat sin offering requires slaughter in the north but no other goat sin offering requires slaughter in the north. The Talmud answers: The verse states: “And he should place his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slaughter the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering” (Leviticus 4:29). This established a paradigm for all sin offerings, teaching that they require slaughter in the north.
אשכחן שעיר נשיא – בין למצוה בין לעכב; שאר חטאות נמי – אשכחן למצוה; לעכב מנא לן?
The Talmud continues its explanation: We have found that the Torah writes with regard to the goat sin offering of a king that it requires slaughter in the north both to perform the mitzva in the optimal manner and to disqualify the offering even after the fact. We have also found with regard to the other sin offerings that the Torah states that to perform the mitzva in the optimal manner they must be slaughtered in the north of the Temple courtyard. From where do we derive the halakha to disqualify other sin offerings if they were not slaughtered in the north?