Study Zevachim folio 77B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
אמר רב הונא: בדוקין שבעין, ואליבא דרבי עקיבא – דאמר: אם עלו לא ירדו. אימר דאמר רבי עקיבא – דאי עבד; לכתחלה מי אמר?!
Rav Huna says: When R' Eliezer makes reference to a blemished animal, he is speaking of an unobtrusive blemish, e.g., one that is on the cornea of the eye. And his ruling is in accordance with the opinion of R' Akiva, who says that in the case of an offering with such a blemish, if its sacrificial parts ascended the altar, they should not descend from it, because it is not a disgrace to the altar for the sacrificial parts of such an offering to be burned on it. The Talmud raises a difficulty: Say that R' Akiva says this is the halakha after the fact, meaning that if the priest already brought up the limbs of these blemished animals, they do not descend from the altar. Does R' Akiva say that one may burn a mixture of these limbs ab initio?
אמר רב פפא: הכא במאי עסקינן – כגון שעלו על גבי כבש. אי הכי, אפילו בעינייהו!
Rav Pappa says: What are we dealing with here? We are dealing with a case where all the limbs in the mixture were brought up upon the ramp. Since they have been brought on the ramp and sanctified as offerings, it is considered after the fact. The Talmud raises a difficulty: If so, i.e., if we are dealing with a case in which the limbs were already carried to the ramp, then even if they were as is, and not intermingled, the limbs of the blemished animal should be burned, as claimed by R' Akiva.
אלא טעמיה דרבי אליעזר: מיעט רחמנא ״מום בם״ – הוא דלא ירצו, הא על ידי תערובת – ירצו.
Rather, the reason of R' Eliezer is that with regard to the prohibition against sacrificing a blemished animal upon the altar, God excludes certain cases. After listing the various disqualifying blemishes, the verse states: “Neither from the hand of a foreigner should you offer the bread of your God of any of these, because their corruption is in them, there is a blemish in them; they should not be accepted for you” (Leviticus 22:25). This teaches that it is only if there is a blemish clearly in them that they should not be accepted; but if they were sacrificed by means of a mixture they should be accepted. This exclusion is stated only with regard to blemished animals, not with regard to animals that had sex with people, and consequently the limbs of these animals are not brought up to the altar even if they became intermingled with the limbs of fit offerings.