For the source text click/tap here: Zevachim 30
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The Mishnah and Gemara in Zevachim 29–30 explore sacrifices brought with mixed or shifting intent: when a priest begins the act of slaughter or sprinkling with one purpose (e.g., for a sin-offering) but completes it with another (e.g., for a burnt-offering). The Rabbis recognize this as a liminal state — what Abaye calls beyn beyn (“in between”).
This “double consciousness” unsettles the clear categories that Halacha depends upon.
For Rabbi Meir, the first intention dominates; once the act has begun under a certain frame of mind, the subsequent change cannot retroactively purify or corrupt it. Rabbi Yose, however, insists that the decisive intention is the one present at the completion of the act. Both agree, however, that the sacrifice’s validity hinges on coherence of intent, revealing the halakhic need for unity between inner and outer action.
We explore the notion of akrasia versus ambivalence.