For the source text click/tap here: Zevachim 55
To download, click/tap here: PDF
The Gemora cites a braisa (which teaches us that kodashim kalim may be eaten throughout Yerushalayim): And the breast of the waving and the thigh of separation you shall eat in a place that is tahor. Rabbi Nechemiah said: Did they (Aaron and his sons) then eat the earlier sacrifices (the goats and the minchah offering offered on that day – the eighth day of the inaugural ceremonies of the Mishkan) in tumah? Rather, tahor implies that it is partially tamei; this means that it is tahor from the tumah of a metzora, but tamei with the tumah of a zav, and which place is that? It is the camp of the Israelites. [If they can eat the shelamim in the Israelite camp in the desert, then it can be eaten in Yerushalayim in the Temple era.]
But, the Gemora asks, perhaps it means that it is tahor from the tumah of a zav, yet tamei with the tumah of the dead, and which place is that? It is the camp of the Levites.
Abaye answers: It is written: And you shall eat it (the minchah offering) in a holy place; it must be eaten in a holy place, but another (like it – the todah breads) does not need to be eaten in a holy place. The todah breads (and all other kodashim kalim) are removed from the camp of the Shechinah into the camp of the Levites. Then it is written: in a tahor place; this removes it into the camp of the Israelites.
Rava answers: It must be eaten in a holy place, but another (like it – the todah breads) does not need to be eaten in a holy place; this removes it altogether (from all three camps); then the Torah wrote: You shall eat it in a tahor place; this brought it back into the camp of the Israelites. The Gemora asks: Perhaps it should be brought back into the camp of the Levites!?
We explore the dispute between the two great masters at a deeper level of hermeneutics.