Pesachim

Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover-offering at one of thy gates.1 R. Simeon said: Even if one tribe is unclean and all the other tribes are clean, the former sacrifice by themselves while the latter sacrifice by themselves. (What is R. Simeon's reason? — He holds: One tribe is designated a community.)2 R. Judah said: Even if one tribe is unclean and all the other tribes are clean, let them [all] sacrifice in uncleanness, because a public sacrifice cannot be divided. (R. Judah holds: One tribe is designated a community, so that it is half against half,3 and [since] a public sacrifice is not divided, they all sacrifice in uncleanness.) It was stated: If the Israelites were half [of them] clean and half [of them] unclean, — said Rab: we defile one of them with a reptile.4 But why so: let the former sacrifice by themselves and the latter by themselves, for surely Rab said: These sacrifice by themselves and those sacrifice by themselves? — I will tell you: what do we discuss here? E.g., where the unclean exceeded the clean by one. If so, the majority are unclean, [then] let them all sacrifice in uncleanness? — He holds as R. Eleazar b. Mathia, who maintained: A single individual cannot overbalance the community to uncleanness. If so, our difficulty returns in full force:5 let the former sacrifice by themselves and the latter by themselves? Rather this is what he means:If there is a Tanna who agrees with the first Tanna6 who rules: [When there is] half against half they must not all sacrifice in uncleanness, and [also] he agrees with R. Judah who said: A public sacrifice cannot be divided, then we defile one of them with a reptile. But ‘Ulla maintained: We send away one of them on a journey afar off.’7 But let us defile him with a reptile? — He holds: We slaughter [the Passover-offering] and sprinkle [its blood] for a man who is unclean through a reptile.8 Then let us defile him through a dead body? — Then you debar him from his hagigah.9 But now too you debar him from his Passover-offering? — It is possible to sacrifice at the second [Passover]. Then in the case of [defilement by] a dead body too it is possible to sacrifice [the hagigah] on the seventh [day of Passover] which would be his eighth [day after defilement]? — ‘Ulla holds: They are all a compensation for the first [day]:10 [hence] he who is eligible on the first is eligible [to sacrifice] on all of them, but wherever one is not eligible on the first, he is not eligible on any of them. R. Nahman said to them [his disciples], Go and tell ‘Ulla: Who will obey you to pull up his tent-pegs and tent and speed away!11 It was stated: If the majority were zabin12 and the minority unclean though the dead, — Rab said: Those unclean through the dead cannot sacrifice either on the first or on the second. They do not observe the first [Passover], because they are a minority, and a minority do not observe [it] on the first. They cannot observe it on the second either: whenever the community observes [it] on the first, individual[s] observe [it] on the second; [but] whenever the community does not observe it on the first, individual[s] do not observe [it] on the second. Said Samuel to them [his disciples], Go out and say to Abba:13 How do you dispose of, Let the children of Israel keep the Passover in its appointed season!14 — He [Rab] answered them: Go and say to him: [yet] how do you dispose of it [the verse] when they are all zabin?15 But [you must say] since it is impossible [to carry it out], it is impossible; so here too it is impossible. It was stated: If the majority were unclean through the dead and a minority were zabin, — R. Huna said: There is no compensation for a Passover-offering which comes in uncleanness;16 while R. Adda b. Ahabah said: There is compensation for a Passover-offering which comes In uncleanness. Shall we say that they differ in this, viz., he who maintains [that] there is no compensation for a Passover-offering which comes in uncleanness holds: Uncleanness is overridden in the case of the community; while he who maintains [that] there is compensation for a Passover-offering which comes in uncleanness holds: Uncleanness is permitted in the case of a community!17 — I will tell you. It is not so, for all hold [that] uncleanness is overridden in the case of a community, and they differ in this: one Master holds: change any of the conditions of the sacrifice. afar off’, v. infra 93b. defiled by the dead is unclean for seven days. [But when he is sent away on a ‘journey afar off’, he might manage to be back in Jerusalem on the following day to offer the hagigah, v. Tosaf.] first day, this being the day when it should really be brought. This question is disputed in Hag. 9b. accepted R. Akiba's definition (v. loc. cit.) of a ‘journey afar off’, v. Tosaf.] those who are unclean through the dead. called Rabbi.