For the source text click/tap here: Zevachim 40
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Continuing their discussion about the inner versus the outer courtyard, Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Yehuda argue about the instructions regarding sprinkling blood. If one should sprinkle indoors but sprinkles outdoors, is this acceptable? If it is discovered after the fact? The rabbis disagree about the words that describe the courtyard. Does the Temple courtyard have a roof that might be breached? If so, would such a breach invalidate the sprinkling?
Our daf offers a window into how the rabbis of the Talmud transformed biblical ritual into a complex system of law, particularly regarding the bull offering for the unwitting communal sin (par he'elem davar shel tzibbur) and its relationship to the Yom Kippur service.
We explore how the rabbinic sources in Zevachim differ from both the biblical text and contemporary Second Temple sources like Josephus, revealing the distinctive hermeneutical and legal methods of the Tannaim and Amoraim.