daf bit: Zevachim 43

[cellio]

The talmud continues its discussion of the validity of offerings made with the wrong intention, and in the g'mara raises the practical point of what to do about it if you realize there's a problem after you've started. Some say if the offering has been placed on the altar you do not remove it (because we do not reduce the holiness of things, even if there's a problem with the offering). If it was removed anyway, do you have to put it back? A teaching of R. 'Ulla is brought to show that if it had started to burn you must put it back, and if not, not. (43a)

This daf -- actually, most of this tractate, so far -- is a little hard for me to follow, so while I always welcome correction, I want to particularly invite it here.

Somebody asked me this morning why the talmud spends so much time on the details of sacrifices when, by the time they were writing this down, that system had been gone for hundreds of years. I offer three answers: (1) The rabbis of the time, and many Jews to this day, hold that there will be a third temple where these rites will resume, so we'd better not forget how. (2) The rabbis hold that there is merit in torah study even if it serves no earthly purpose. And (3) because the prayer service we do now models the sacrificial system it replaced, so things we learn about the earlier system should inform our practice. For example, today's teaching about continuing the altar service even though the offering has been disqualified makes me wonder about the correct way to handle errors in prayer. If I start to say the wrong blessing and realize mid-stream, do I abort immediately or complete the incorrect blessing before going back and doing the right one? When this happens to me I currently stop where I am and go back to the right point; now I have a question to look up.

Comments

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

re reason (2) I've also heard what may be a variation on this: even though we can't do these mitzvot themselves we can still "get credit" by learning how to do them.

re your to-look-up re reason (3) there's a rule for at least some of these mistakes (e.g. endings of brachot in shmoneh esre that change for rosh hashana through yom kippur) that if you realize in the middle you stop and redo properly.

Sorry about the stream of consciousness-ness. It's been a long week. Feel free to ask if the meaning isn't clear.

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

I don't know which of your theories is the correct one, or the most correct one, or even if such a characterization is valid, but for myself, the third answer has the most appeal, and those are the terms in which I always value such discussions.