Pesachim 60

Oy! What a daf. Hard to follow and it feels very far from our lives today. Basically, our daf knows we have to have proper intention when we offer a sacrifice and this page wonders what happens if we lose, or change, our intention during one of the stages of offering the sacrifice. If the animals hasn’t been slaughtered, is the sacrifice still valid if I change intention? What about if the animal has been sacrifices but the blood has not been sprinkled on the altar? What about after the fact? Can one sell an already slaughtered animal and transfer the sanctity to another person?

I do think it’s an interesting teaching that one might switch their intention while doing an act and that my change the status of an act . . . or not. Take the mitzvah of showing honor to the elderly (for example). You might go and visit an elderly person out of a sense of obligation – either because they are family, a part of your community, or because you know it’s a mitvah. After a little while, you may find that you’re enjoying the conversation, in fact, you’re having a great time. Suddenly, your intention with the visit shifts from doing a chore to hanging out with a friend. Does it shift the holiness?

This “fake it till you make it” example is not what the rabbis are dealing with – they are talking about nitty gritty details of offering animal sacrifices and directing our minds to what our purpose is in offering that sacrifice. But these rabbis did not live during the Time of the Temple and had never seen anyone offer an animal sacrifice. They did, however, live at a time where members of the community sacrificed and took care of one another. And one beautiful thing Judaism teaches is that, while it’s good to have the right intentions, even if you don’t feel like doing the right thing, you still have to – it’s a mitzvah (that means it’s a commandment). So, do the right thing. do it with the intention of it being a mitzvah. And if it turns out to be fun for you, well, that’s just gravy. (Do people eat gravy with lamb? I don’t know, I’m allergic.)