פרשת פנחס - מה החשיבות של קורבן התמיד?

(1)ה׳ spoke to Moses, saying: (2) Command the Israelite people and say to them: Be punctilious in presenting to Me at stated times the offerings of food due Me, as offerings by fire of pleasing odor to Me. (3) Say to them: These are the offerings by fire that you are to present to ה׳: As a regular burnt offering every day, two yearling lambs without blemish.

(1) That is that He commanded us to sacrifice two one-year old lambs in the Temple everyday, and these are called the daily offerings (temidin). And this is His saying, "two a day as a regular burnt offering" (Numbers 28:3) And the order and process of their offering has already been explained in Yoma and in Tractate Tamid. (See Parashat Pinchas; Mishneh Torah, Daily Offerings and Additional Offerings 1.)

(1) It is a positive commandment to offer two lambs as burnt-offerings every day. They are called the continuous offering. One [should be brought] in the morning and one in the afternoon as [Numbers 28:3] states: "Two each day, a continuous offering."

(6) במועדו [YE SHALL OFFER TO ME] IN ITS APPOINTED SEASON — Every day is the “appointed season” for the continual offerings.

Previously, the Gemara assumed that Rav Huna was discussing the possibility that the sacrifice of the daily offering overrides Shabbat. The Gemara now clarifies if this was his intention: What is meant by saying that the end of its service does not override the halakha? Rav Ḥisda said: Although the end of its service does override Shabbat, it does not override the halakha that it should not be brought in a state of ritual impurity. This is true although the beginning of the sacrificial service of the daily offering may, if necessary, be brought in a state of ritual impurity. And Rabba said: The end of its service overrides only the halakha that it should not be brought in a state of ritual impurity, but it does not override Shabbat.

According to the plain meaning of the text: the word קרבני refers to the blood; the word את includes the salt which had to be added to each offering as we know from Leviticus 2,13. The reason we dip bread nowadays in salt before eating it at the beginning of our meal is that the Torah called a sacrificial offering לחם, bread. The word לחמי refers to the fat parts of the sacrificial animal, (or all its flesh as the case might be) which was burned up on the altar. The word לאשי refers to all that is given over to the fire on the altar. The word תשמרו refers to the Israelites standing in attendance during this procedure. The word במועדו, which means “at its appointed time” and seems superfluous seeing that the offering under discussion is presented daily, means that no other sacrifice is to be offered earlier in the day than these daily total-offerings. By the same token, no offering was to be presented after the evening daily burnt-offering. Another meaning of the word במועדו is that the legislation overrides the Sabbath legislation and that even on the Sabbath (Sifri 142) these daily burnt-offerings were offered as usual even if the laws of ritual impurity had to be set aside in order for this offering to be presented (compare Pessachim 76).

להקריב לי במועדו, “to present to Me at its appointed time.” This applies even if the appointed time occurs on the Sabbath, or if the person offering it is temporarily ritually unclean. (Compare Sifri) [I did not find the reference to ritual impurity in my edition of the Sifri. Ed.] According to the author, it must mean that if no priest can be found on that day that is ritually pure. This offering must not be skipped even during time of war. [There are stories in the Talmud describing that the priests paid fortunes to the besieging Babylonians or Romans to supply such animals for them. Ed. We find that the angel remonstrated with Joshua for not having seen to it that this offering was offered while the army laid siege to Jericho (Talmud, tractate Megillah folio 3) An alternate interpretation: the emphasis here is on the word במועדו, “at its appointed time,” it must neither be offered too early in the morning nor too late in the afternoon.

(2) I have written what went up in my spirit about the simple understanding of the matter from the roots of the commandment of the sacrifices on the commandment of the Temple in the Order of Vayikchu Li Terumah (Sefer HaChinukh 95). And I will also continue according to those reasons in the explanation of the regular sacrifices, to say that we were commanded in this regular service, which is twice a day — with the rising of the sun and with its inclining towards the evening — in order that we be aroused from this action and that we place all of our hearts and all of our thoughts to cling to God, blessed be He. And we have said several times that a person is acted upon — and his nature is aroused — according to the involvement of his actions. And hence in that a man’s nature is designed that he needs to prepare nourishment for himself twice [a day], morning and evening, he is commanded that he place his industry and his occupation in the occupation of the service of his Creator two times [a day] as well, that the service of the servant to himself not be more than his service to his Master. And why all of this (what is its reason)? In order to regularly arouse his spirit and his desire to remember his Creator, and through this to make his actions proper and be blessed from [God]; as He is One Who desires kindness. [It is] as they, may their memory be blessed, expounded (Sifrei Bamidbar 143:3), “‘A fire, of pleasing smell to the Lord’ — since I said, and My will was done” — meaning to say, that the entire portion of the Higher from any sacrifice is only His desire, blessed be He, that the servant do what his Master has commanded him, in order that he be fit to merit His goodness, blessed be He.

(1) (Bamidbar 28:1-2) "And the L-rd spoke to Moses, saying: Command the children of Israel … My offering, My bread, etc." What is the intent of this? Because Moses said (Ibid. 27:16-17) "Let the L-rd appoint" (over Israel) "someone who will go out before them, etc." An analogy: A king had a wife who, before her death, charged him over her sons saying: I pray you, take care of my sons, etc. The king: Before you charge me over my sons, charge them over me, that they not rebel against me and not cheapen me. Thus the Holy One Blessed be He to Moses: Before you charge Me over My sons, charge them over Me, that they not cheapen Me and that they not exchange My honor for foreign gods. And thus is it written (Devarim 31:19-20) "And now, write for yourselves this song … When I bring them to the land … and they turn to other gods and spurn Me, etc."

את קרבני לחמי לאשי, "My food which is presented to Me as a burnt offering, etc." The convoluted language is due to the daily communal offerings consisting of three parts. 1) The offering of the sheep as the sacrifice. 2) The tenth of an epha of flour which accompanied it as a gift-offering. 3) The drink-offerings consisting of a quarter Hin of newly pressed wine. With respect to the animal, the Torah speaks of קרבני, "My sacrifice;" with respect to the meal-offering (gift) the Torah speaks of לחמי, "My bread." Finally, with respect to the drink-offerings, the Torah speaks of ריח ניחחי, "sweet savour unto Me." The reason is that the drink-offering is poured onto the foundation of the altar descending into the hole called שיתין, and only its smell is noticeable on the altar. In each of these instances G'd uses the suffix "MY" to indicate that all of them are His and remain within His domain as proclaimed by David in Psalms 24,1: "The earth and all that is thereon belongs to G'd." The reason that G'd appended this possessive suffix even to the word אשי, "My fire," is that even the fire belongs to G'd. Israel should remember that whatever they offer to G'd as a sacrifice is really G'd's in the first place.

This was the reason which made G'd write the word תשמרו, "observe, i.e. take care to perform this commandment;" failure to offer these sacrifices means that when we use any part of the universe for our own purposes we are actually stealing G'd's property; we are violating a negative commandment. G'd adds the words להקריב לי, "to present for Me as an offering." This means that even when doing this we are only offering to G'd's presence a small part of His possessions by presenting them to Him. The vast majority of His possessions remain His, however.

The Torah also alludes to a mystical dimension of sacrifice per se. Its purpose is to bring closer to G'd's Essence things which are "branches" of sanctity extant in the universe and as such are part of G'd Himself. This is the meaning of the word קרבני with the suffix י, i.e. "the sacrifice is something which brings sanctity close to Me." The means by which this occurs is that My bread is offered to Me as fire. When it rises in the form of smoke it turns into a sweet odour for Me.