Chagigah

MISHNAH. ALL ARE BOUND To APPEAR [AT THE TEMPLE],1 EXCEPT A DEAF MAN [HERESH],2 AN IMBECILE AND A MINOR,3 A PERSON OF UNKNOWN SEX [TUMTUM],4 A HERMAPHRODITE,5 WOMEN, UNFREED SLAVES,6 THE LAME, THE BLIND, THE SICK, THE AGED, AND ONE WHO IS UNABLE TO GO UP ON FOOT.7 WHO IS [IN THIS RESPECT DEEMED] A MINOR?8 WHOEVER IS UNABLE9 TO RIDE ON HIS FATHER'S SHOULDERS AND GO UP FROM JERUSALEM TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT. [THIS IS] THE VIEW OF BETH SHAMMAI. BUT BETH HILLEL SAY: WHOEVER IS UNABLE TO HOLD HIS FATHER'S HAND AND GO UP FROM JERUSALEM TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT, FOR IT IS SAID:10 THREE REGALIM.11 BETH SHAMMAI SAY: THE PILGRIMAGE-OFFERING12 MUST BE WORTH [AT LEAST] TWO PIECES OF SILVER13 AND THE FESTAL OFFERING14 ONE MA'AH OF SILVER.15 BUT BETH HILLEL SAY: THE PILGRIMAGE-OFFERING MUST BE WORTH [AT LEAST] ONE MA'AH OF SIlver AND THE FESTAL SACRIFICE TWO PIECES OF SILVER. GEMARA. What does [the word] ALL come to include?16 — It comes to include one who is half a slave and half a freedman.17 But according to Rabina, who says: One who is half a slave and half a freedman is exempt from appearing [at the Temple], what does [the word] ALL come to include? — It comes to include one who was lame on the first day [of the festival] and became well18 on the second. This will be right according to the one who says: All of them19 can make good [the sacrifices] for one another;20 but according to the one who says: All of them can make good [the sacrifices] of the first day [only],21 what does ALL, come to include? — It comes to include a man who is blind in one eye; and it is contrary to the opinion of the following Tanna. For it is taught: Johanan b. Dahabai22 said in the name of R. Judah: A man who is blind in one eye is exempt from appearing [at the Temple]23 as it is said:24 Yir'eh [He will see], Yera'eh [He will be seen].25 As He comes to see, so he comes to be seen: just as [He comes] to see with both eyes, so also to be seen with both eyes. Alternatively, I could answer: Actually, it is as I said at first;26 and as for your objection [arising] from the statement of Rabina, it is not a [valid] objection: the one [teaching]27 is according to the earlier Mishnah,28 and the other29 is according to the later Mishnah.30 For we have learnt: One who is half a slave and half a freedman serves his master one day and himself the other day: this is the view of Beth Hillel. Said Beth Shammai to them: XXIII, 14, 17; Deut. XVI, 16. The word vhhtr (rendered in our text, ‘to appear’) is understood by Rashi, Maimonides, Jastrow, Danby etc. in the sense of ohbp ,hhtr, the personal appearance of the pilgrim in the Temple. But R. Tam (in Tosaf. a. l.) regards it as referring to the burnt-offering (v. Lev. I, 3f) brought by the pilgrim on his visit to the Temple i.e. it stands for vhhtr ,kug; cf. end of Mishnah, 4b, 6b et seq. of lack of intelligence. The reason for the exemption of others is explained in the Gemara. the Torah till he reaches his majority (v. n. 8), the Rabbis imposed on the father the duty of training him in the observance of the precepts. basis of Ex. XXIII, 14, the Mishnah often uses ohkdr of the three Pilgrim Festivals. But the usual meaning of kdr is ‘foot’, hence the quotation is understood in our Mishnah as ‘three times on foot’ i.e., the precept to appear at the Temple applies only to those who can walk. burnt-offering, which, it was inferred from Ex. XXIII,15 (end), the pilgrim had to bring on visiting the Temple. XXIII, 41; v. infra 9a. commandment; hence the question. lameness) and during the festival he became fit (i.e., regained the use of his leg), it is his duty to make good his sacrificial dues on the day of the festival that he becomes fit. translation has ‘appearing’. appear); cf. Gen. XXII, 14. By combining both readings, it is deduced that the ‘seeing’ and ‘being seen’ must be alike in regard to fulness of vision i.e., in regard to the use of both eyes: just as God comes to see the pilgrim with both eyes (an anthropomorphism for full vision necessitated by the desired parallel in respect to man), so when the pilgrim comes to appear before God, he must be able to see with both eyes. So Rashi: but R. Tam (in Tosaf. a.l.) prefers to make man the subject, and construes thus; vtrh,vtrh just as the pilgrim is seen by God, Who has two eyes (i.e., full vision), so he must see Him (i.e., appear in the Divine presence) with both eyes. such as are half free. Shammaite School cf. Ber. 36b and Gratz, vol. IV, p. 424, n. 4; Heb. edn. vol. II, p. 172, n. 1) came over to the view of the School of Shammai.vbuatr vban (rendered, ‘the earlier Mishnah’) may refer either (a) to a single previous ruling later revised, or (b) to an entire compilation of the Mishnah, in which case it may be rendered, ‘the first Mishnah’; cf. J.E. vol. VIII, P. 610f, and refs. earlier ruling was not erased from the Mishnah, on the principle that a Mishnah (ruling) which had once been taught was not to be removed from its place; cf. Yeb. 30a et passim.