Study Zevachim folio 73B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
וכל קבוע כמחצה על מחצה דמי! אלא ניכבשינהו (דניידי) [דניניידן], ונימא: כל דפריש – מרובא פריש!
and there is a principle that anything fixed is considered as though it was half and half, i.e., equally balanced, and it remains a case of uncertainty. The Talmud clarifies its suggestion: Rather, let us push the intermingled animals so that they all move from their places, which negates the fixed status of the prohibited item. And accordingly, let us say with regard to each animal: Any item that separates from a group is assumed to have separated from the majority.
אמר רבא: השתא דאמור רבנן לא ניקרב, גזירה שמא יבאו עשרה כהנים בבת אחת ויקרבו.
Rava says: Now that the rabbis have said that we do not sacrifice any of them, this is evidently a rabbinic decree, lest 10 priests come simultaneously and sacrifice all the animals in the mixture together, not one at a time. Therefore, the fact that there could be a method to permit the animals is immaterial.
אמר ליה ההוא מרבנן לרבא: אלא מעתה, מגיסא אסירא?!
One of the rabbis said to Rava: If that is so, do you hold that the large basin [megisa] on which the sacrificial portions of the animal are placed is prohibited? In other words, is it possible that these animals, which were slaughtered when they were initially declared permitted after being separated from their places, could later become prohibited again when their sacrificial portions are ready to be burned on the altar?
משום שמא יבאו עשרה כהנים בבת אחת ויקחו. בעשרה כהנים בבת אחת מי אפשר?! אלא אמר רבא: משום קבוע.
Rava responded that he did not mean there is a concern that 10 priests would sacrifice their sacrificial portions simultaneously. Rather, the decree is due to the concern lest when the animals move, 10 priests will come simultaneously and take them from the mixture. As all or most of the animals were separated simultaneously in this case, it is assumed that the prohibited animal is among those that were separated. The Talmud asks: Is it possible for 10 priests to take these scattered animals simultaneously? Rather, Rava says that one may not allow the animals to be sacrificed by moving them due to a decree that if this is allowed, one may, in another circumstance, allow them to be sacrificed even when they are taken from a fixed location.