Beitzah 19

If we can prepare food for the festival on the festival itself, can we offer sacrifices )the ones that result in our getting of eat a portion of the meat)? What about a thanksgiving offering, which includes loaves of leavened bread? Are all festival rules the same, regardless of which festival it is?

One may not bring a thanks-offering on the festival of Matzot due to the leavened bread included with it, as a thanks-offering must be accompanied by a meal-offering of forty loaves, ten of which are leavened bread, which may not be eaten on Passover. Nor may one bring this offering on Shavuot because it is a Festival, on which one may not bring any offering, even one that is eaten, if it is not part of the Festival obligations. However, a person may bring his thanks-offering on the festival of Sukkot.

So here we see that perhaps Sukkot is different than the other two festivals as, unlike Shavuot, it has the intermediary days of the holiday, and unlike Passover in which you are not allowed to consume leavening. But of course, we can’t all agree:

The baraita continues: Rabbi Shimon says: But it says: “On the festival of Matzot, on the festival of Shavuot, and on the festival of Sukkot” (Deuteronomy 16:16), to teach: Any offering that comes on the festival of Matzot may come on the festival of Shavuot and on the festival of Sukkot, and any offering that does not come on the festival of Matzot may not come on the festival of Shavuot or on the festival of Sukkot. Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, says: A person may bring his thanks-offering on the festival of Sukkot and fulfill with it his obligation to bring peace-offerings of rejoicing. One fulfills the mitzva to rejoice on a Festival by eating the meat of offerings, and this obligation can be fulfilled with the meat of a thanks-offering. But he does not fulfill with it the obligation to bring a Festival peace-offering.

The Gemara analyzes the baraita cited above. The Master said in the baraita that one may not bring a thanks-offering on the festival of Matzot due to the leavened bread included with it. The Gemara expresses surprise: It is obvious that one may not bring this offering on Passover, as it contains leavened bread. Rav Adda, son of Rav Yitzḥak, said, and some say it was Rav Shmuel bar Abba who said: Here, this baraita is not discussing Passover itself; rather, we are dealing with a thanks-offering sacrificed on the fourteenth of Nisan, i.e., on Passover eve, and this tanna holds that one may not bring consecrated offerings to a situation where the time that they may be eaten is restricted, thereby increasing the likelihood of disqualification.

So, this is my gem: All the festivals are different, they have their own flavor and particular rules. And I love this ending, because when you bring a sacrifice, you should not only think about you, your guilt, your gladness, etc – but think about who your sacrifice will affect. In this case it’s the priests – because, while it is permitted to eat leavened bread until the sixth hour of the fourteenth of Nisan, here we learn that one may not bring a thanks-offering on Passover eve because you’re not giving the priests long enough to give out the bread, eat it, enjoy it, etc. before the festival will begin.

So think about what you need to do to prepare for the festival, but don’t let what you need to do get in the way of other people doing what they need to do.

The festival of Sukkot starts tomorrow night!